HOW TO OVERCOME THE FEAR OF STARTING A BUSINESS OF YOUR OWN
DREAM BIG
You must first of all dream and imagine WHAT you want to be? Dreaming in this context does not requires you to lay your beddings and bury yourself under the duvet snoring, dreams here refers to visualization and conceptions born out of the desires to achieve an objective. Secondly, WHERE do you want to be? Where you wish to find yourself within a particular time frame is pivotal to setting your agenda. HOW you wish your life would be? WHEN do you want to make your DREAM a reality, do you have any time frame?
Come up with an idea.
You will need an idea for a business before you do anything else. This should be something you are passionate about, since your new business will consume a great deal of your time and money. Come up with business ideas by identifying things people need which no one else currently provides or things that are trending as a matter of change in taste, fashion, policies of government, or things that isn’t provided in your area, or which you can provide better than anyone else.
Consider if it is plausible.
Before going too far, think about how plausible your idea is. Is it something that people would actually pay for? Will it turn enough of a profit to be viable? You will also need to be sure that it is possible to implement.
Be sure it’s unique.
Whatever your idea is, be sure it’s as unique as possible. This will help you eliminate or significantly combat competition, which will make your business more successful. By simply adding a flavor to currently existing product can do the magic.
Determine your cost of operation.
You will need a solid business plan to present to any investors and the best place to start would be with determining your basic cost of operations. This will outline and help you determine how much money is needed to produce the product or offer the service you intend to offer or produce. Knowing your cost of operations will be vital to determining if your business will be profitable, since you will need to make more than this capital plus operating expenses in order to remain in business.
Determine your potential market.
Be realistic. How many people will realistically use your business? How much will they pay to use your services? If either number is too small in comparison to how much it will cost you to stay in business, then you should reconsider or change your plans.
Determine Obstacles.
You will need to plan ahead for all of the problems which can get in the way of running a business, evaluate your competition, if their market share or product offering is too strong and stable, and then you will have a very hard time breaking into the market. No one will want to buy an equally priced or more expensive version of a perfectly good product or service which already exists. You will also need to explore the associated regulations and laws, especially regarding taxes. Make sure there are no prohibitive costs, such as equipment which is too expensive to make the business profitable.
Write up a budget.
Once you have a general idea of how much money you have to work with, write up a budget for marketing which indicates how much money you have available to spend on advertising. If your business wouldn’t warrant your customers to see you physically before they get the product or services, then you can explore the power of e-commerce, online marketing, referral marketing and the likes as they presently offers the cheapest cost of advertising.
Create ideas fitting your budget.
Once you know how much money you have, research the costs of different types of marketing and come up with ideas which fit those methods and are effective for the price range. If you have a lot of money to spend on marketing, for example, you can consider shooting a commercial. If you have almost none, you’ll want to think about ways to use social media effectively, which is very effective for requiring little money.
Plan timing and location of marketing.
Once you know what kind of marketing you intend to do, think about the most effective places to advertise and what time of day, month or year are going to work best to reach your target market. You will want to be sure that you are using marketing which is appropriate to the type of people you expect to be interested in your product or services. So consider usability and physical location as well. If your services are seasonal you will want to consider what the best time of year would be to advertise. Also, television advertisements will need to be timed so that the right demographics will be watching when they air.
Talk with your bank.
Talk with a bank with which you already have a positive relationship. Ask about what kind of business start-up loans they offer and how they can benefit your business. By using a bank you already know, the bank will have easy access to your financial records and will be more confident in investing with you.
Determine where your office will be situated.
You will need a space from which to run your business. This can be a home office if you require little space and will not have employees, or it can require an entire workshop or warehouse. It depends on what you will be doing and how big you intend your business to be. Some people’s car actually serves the purpose of office, mobility and pleasure. Nowadays, there are VIRTUAL offices scattered all over the place, you will only need to pay-as-you use or pay for number of calls/correspondence and business meetings you held therein, An example is a firm that provide virtual office is WORKPLACE PLUS LTD located at NNPC Mulliner Tower Ikoyi Lagos,Nigeria.
Purchase equipment.
Purchase all of the things you need to start work. This can mean mechanical equipment, computers, telephone, or craft supplies. It all depends on what you are doing. Try to purchase from firms that will offer discounts for starters
Make use of marketing and PR.
You will want to reach out to potential customers in ways that make them want to use your business. This is especially important when you are first starting, before you have an established, regular customer base. Advertise in a way that catches customers attention at a minimum and hopefully goes beyond to capture their imagination. Be creative and appeal to the right aspects of the customers you want to use your business. Offer free samples of what you do to the right people, in order to get people saying good things about what you have to offer. Word of mouth (i.e. good PR) is the best way to attract new customers. If you get bad reviews or negative feedback, respond positively and fix the problem. People will be much less judgmental about mistakes if you’re willing to fix them. If you are activating a new product, make provision for samples to be tested on the spot as that will raise prospective customers’ awareness.
Use a little old fashioned networking.
Go to conferences, charity galas, meetings with complementary businesses and anywhere where your customers are likely to be highly concentrated. In other words, get out in public and interact with people. Use your friends’ connections to meet people who may be able to help you. This kind of interaction is very important for starting a business.
Have great customer service skills.
Be good at interacting with people. Practice reading between the lines about what people say. Learn how to meet needs they didn’t know they had. Figure out how to make people happy. Be charming. Most importantly, be humble. The customer may not always be right but you need to be able to let them think they are KINGS AND QUEENS. Once you are able to add them to your list of clientele, they will be loyal to you.
Have a website or a Blog.
The world has moved online. Any business that wants to survive the next ten years is going to have a website or blog. People will use it to contact you, find your location, learn your operating hours, ask you questions, make suggestions, and maybe even buy your products or services. In having a website and services which are available over the internet, you will be able to expand your service area out across your region or even the world. I have got one or two created by myself and it’s easy to play with. Check it out www.hollalaycan.com; www.hollalaycan.wordpress; www.hollalaycan.blogger.com.
Request for Payment as at when Due.
Don’t let people take advantage of you. Require payment within a specific window of time (whatever is appropriate for what you do). Invoice people as soon as you possibly can. If someone is late in a payment, talk to them. If you ignore these problems hoping that they go away, you will find yourself working for free and your business might not stay long in the market. I know you did not set up a charity organization. Ask some moribund micro-finance banks in Nigeria reason why they can’t come back to life; it is as a result of bad debt/mismanagement.
Take credit cards but be vigilant.
Very few people consistently pay for products or services with cash any more. Sanusi before his suspension ensures the cashless policy was established inspite the initial gra! gra! by Nigerians. It will be much easier for your business, as well as records keeping and accounting if you accept credit and debit cards. Most banks will easily tricked you into accepting their POS as a means of payment but, be weary of the hidden charges and downtime factors.
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OTHER USEFUL HINTS TO CONSIDER BEFORE ACTIVATING YOUR BUSINESS
Ask people you know that run a home based business. They could help you get started.
Make sure your business looks professional and is attractive to the eye. Have a professional logo, branding that is consistent and a professional website to support it.
Recognize that getting your business off the ground will take time. Most businesses don't become profitable right away, so plan for that in your personal life too. You will be making sacrifices to be your own boss.
When hiring, make sure you have an in depth review and interview of the worker. Make sure you get their real information, passports, id, former work, background checks and many others that they are truly honest and they are dependable.
Make sure your product / service is appealing for the public, area and community not just in your perspective if not how can you makes it more appealing?
Use free resources. Google is your friend and not the Nigerian Police, Google has numerous useful references regarding writing business plans, marketing, as well as information specific to your industry. YOUWIN, BANK OF INDUSTRY, FIRRO OSHODI LAGOS,CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES, CAC,Small Business website, associations for your industry,..all of these offer training, materials, networking and sometimes financing. Another good option is to attend exhibitions and seminars who provide business start-up advice.
Make paying convenient and affordable, promote product with buy one get one free offers or sale prices.
Business requires your resources which you have to give passionately and wholeheartedly.....Avoid procrastination; most wonderful ideas die as a result of this. Once you have your mind set on something, go for it, make research and talk to professionals in that field about it even if it takes time for you to schedule appointment.
Be sure to carve out time for yourself. Make sure you stick with an exercise program build in time to care for your family through vacations. holidaying, sightseeing, spending quality time at home ,else when the business grows the home front may crumble.
Last but not the least, I don’t know if I should truly tell you all these folktales about overcoming the fear of starting a business when you have promised yourself to retire as a civil servant or paid employer. Per adventure you fell into any of the two categories mentioned please pass it on to those who might want to quit the 9 – 5 job as quickly as possible….’Lekan Olanite
References..wikihow
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