Читать книгу Finance & Grow Your New Business - Angie Mohr - Страница 6

Starting a business can be scary, exciting, and fulfilling, all at the same time. Frequently, small businesses are started by people who have been employees in the same industry. For example, hair stylists often open salons and accountants start accounting firms. You may feel that because the industry you’ve previously worked in is familiar to you, you would be successful at starting a business in this industry.

It’s important to keep in mind, however, that building a business, managing a business, and doing what the business does are three very different activities requiring different skill sets. You may be interested in doing only one of these three things. For example, you may get great pleasure out of hair styling, but have little patience for managing the day-to-day operations of a business. In this case, you will want to reconsider your decision to start a business. No matter how much joy it gives you to “be your own boss” while doing the thing that you do best, you will come to despise all the other tasks that go along with owning and managing a small business. On the other hand, you may love building the business: designing the office space, putting together the marketing plan, forecasting, and building the customer base. You may, however, be thoroughly bored with the management aspect or with doing what the business does. Entrepreneurs who feel this way tend to build a business, get it up and running, sell it, and start all over again. The thrill for them is in the creation process.

If you plan to build your business, manage it, and be its chief employee, make sure that you have the energy and the skills to do all three of those things. If not, you will have to hire other people in those positions that you do not wish to do yourself, or rethink your business plan entirely.

Once you have assessed your strengths and weaknesses in terms of building, managing, and operating a business, it’s time to look at your personal goals.