Starting A Business
Starting a business is risky at best; but your chances of making it go will be better if you understand the problems you’ll meet and work out as many of them as you can before you start.
Here are some questions and work-sheets to help you think through what you need to know and do. Check each question if the answer is YES. Where the answer is NO, you have some work to do.
How About You?
Are you the kind of person who can get a business started and make a go of it?
Think about why you want to own your own business. Do you want to badly enough to keep you working long hours without knowing how much money you’ll end up with?
Have you worked in a business like the one you want to start?
Have you worked for someone else as a foreman or manager?
Have you had any business training in school?
Have you saved any money?
How About the Money?
Do you know how much money you will need to get your business started?
Have you counted up how much money of your own you can put into the business?
Do you know how much credit you can get from your suppliers–the people you will buy from?
Do you know where you can borrow the rest of the money you need to start your business?
Have you worked out what net income per year you expect to get from the business? Count your salary and your profit on the money you put into the business.
Can you live on less than this so that you can use some of it to help your business grow?
Have you talked to your bank about your plans?
How about a partner? If you need a partner with money or know-how that you don’t have, do you know someone who will fit – someone you can get along with?
Do you know the good and bad points about going it alone, having a partner, and incorporating your business?
Have you talked to a lawyer about it?
How About Your Customers?
Do most businesses in your community seem to be doing well?
Have you tried to find out whether stores like the one you
want to open are doing well in your community and in the rest of the country?
Do you know what kind of people will want to buy what you plan to sell?
Do people like to live in the area where you want to open your store?
Do they need a store like yours? If not, have you thought about opening a different kind of store or going to another neighbourhood?