Running a business will knock you down – make sure you get back up again!
When starting your own business everyone expects things to start slow and pick up slowly but surely until they are running a business capable of sustaining themselves or even a staff of people. When considering starting up a small business unless what you are offering is something completely unique or far superior in price/quality/service than that of the competition the business will be a lifestyle business rather than a “make me a millionaire” business which is all good and well but there are several things that you may not expect to deal with when starting a business and running it for the first 3 years.
Without a doubt their are endless benefits that running your own business can bring you and your loved ones besides financial benefits however there exists downsides to a business and this can seem far worse than they truly are until you are out of the ditch.
Once you have figured out the basics of your business plan, worked out your start up costs, running costs, cash flow and sources of finance, developed your marketing plan and started to “get going” with your new business certainly within the first year and most likely for the first three years you may run into the following problems and these are things that people and books often forget to tell you.
- Your business will swallow more money than you expected at the start
- You will spend far more time and energy than anticipated getting it rolling
- Your first year will most likely make a loss
- You will become far more stressed out than you imagine
- You may loose friends because of your dedication or out of their jealousy
- Your second and third year will probably make a loss
- You will become depressed from time to time
- You will need a good support network of friends and family to rely on
- Having other time commitments such as job or family will make things VERY difficult but if you are sure about your product then you will succeed
Don’t feel bad, depressed or want to give up on doing what you love if you do come against these problems. Remember there are always ways around them and that the first three years are often the most difficult. Don’t loose faith in yourself, your product or your service.
How did you feel or how are you currently feeling with a new business? Leave a comment or tweet me on twitter.com/seanprice
