If you’re thinking about starting a new business, then you must also be prepared for long hours and hard work. For a business takes time and patience, before you can reap in the rewards that it will bring in the long term. Never expect an overnight success, for if you expect that then your business will fail within the first year.
I have consulted with many clients, wanting to start a business. But they all have one thing in common. They had no goals, as well as a workable business plan. They all just assume that they could just have the idea and operate from there.
In the business world today, four out of ten businesses fail due to the lack of planning and attainable goal setting. Below, is a set of questions that I ask my clients when they tell me that they want to start a business. I then tell my clients to write a brief outline of a plan, providing the following facts:
A) Type of Business
B) Type of product or service being provided
C) Management strategies
D) And Marketing strategies
I then have my clients write an outline as to what their goals are as follows:
A) Where the business will be at one year from now
B) Where the business will be at three years from now
C) Where the business will be at five years from now
I then ask my clients if these goals are attainable. If they can easily answer yes without any hesitation, then they are then on their way to starting a business that will reward them in the long term. But any slight hesitation on their part, or if I feel that they need to rethink their goals, I will have them think about what they wrote as well as answered my questions at the beginning of our meeting.
So if you are thinking about starting a business, ask yourself the questions below and then make an outline of a business plan as well as goals. Then take a good long look at what you wrote. I’ll always be around to help, just write to me.
Business Goal Sheet and Action Plan
• What do you want this business to look like in five years? In ten years? When you retire?
• If you did not have to worry about financing or regulatory approvals, what would you like to achieve with this business?
• What role do you realistically expect your children or spouse to play in the business?
• What do you want your business to be worth in five years? Ten years? When you retire?
• How many hours a week do you work? How many would you like to work?
• What would have to happen to allow you to work fewer hours?
• What would happen to your business if you took a three-month sabbatical?
• What would have to change in your business to allow it to survive if your were gone or disabled for three months?
