Got What it Takes? Four Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting a Business

You’ve probably noticed what a big deal entrepreneurship is right now. Ignored for hundreds of years, entrepreneurs and business owners pretty much worked and grew their businesses in obscurity, but now being an entrepreneur has taken on rock star status (thanks, Gary Vee!) and everybody wants to be one. Just go check #entrepreneur on Instagram — you’ll see.

Whatever you call it, entrepreneur… business owner… start-up, it’s all the same thing. It’s the incredible rush of creating a business, planning, working, strategizing, working, learning, advancing, working, retreating, and growing.

Below is the infographic ‘Is Building a Kick-Ass Business Right for You?’ created with a nod to Madeline Puckette of Wine Folly. Her How to Choose Wine poster is brilliant and will make you laugh out loud, and if you ever want to look at how a creative entrepreneur builds a company, she’s your gal. Madeline is a graphic designer by education and trade who also loved wine. Laid off and unable to find work in design, she followed her passion into a wine bar where she honed her mad wine skills. Then the cool part… she took her knowledge of wine (she’s a sommelier by now) and her graphic design talent and created Wine Folly, a place where novice wine drinkers learn about wine, encouraged with clever, clear graphics and a playful sense of humor.

Whew! That was a digression, but dang, I love start-up success stories!

Starting a business has risk to it, and as sexy as the internet makes it sound, being an entrepreneur isn’t for everybody. Hell, it’s not for most people. Is it for you? Let’s find out! I’ve got four basic questions that should be able to help you decide if you want to take the leap.

On to the questions as seen on the infographic:

Question #1: Do You Have the Knowledge & Skills to Provide the Product or Service

Madeline Puckette of the afore-mentioned Wine Folly had her graphic design skills and wine knowledge, and they paired beautifully to solve a problem in a new way. So that right there is a trifecta (skills + knowledge + solves a problem). How about you? Do you have knowledge that fills a gap, solves a problem, or is a service? Are you competent? Are you the best or unique in some way? Do you produce a product that people will buy? Is it innovative? Does it solve a problem? Is it different or better than similar products?

If you answer ‘no’ to all of the above questions, then you do not have the knowledge or skills needed to open a business, and you’ll need to partner up or hire someone who has them. And that’s great for as long as it works, but a caution here… if things go south, you are stuck with a big hole in your company, unless you’ve upped your skills and knowledge level.

Another great option is to acquire the knowledge and skills yourself. Sure, it’s going to take time, but where are you gonna be if you don’t do it? You’re going to be looking at more years of the same-o, same-o on a road that ends at Hotel Regret, that’s where. So go. Apprentice, intern, hire on to a company in the field you want to be in and absorb everything you can. When you’re ready, create your own unique business improving on what you’ve learned.

Question#2: Done Your Research Yet?

Research is critical to your success and Google is your BFF. No lie. There you can find information on your business idea, demographic data, costs to start up, budget outlines, licensing requirements, and whether or not the field is saturated, or if people are hungry for your product or service. When you’re thinking about starting a business, there are hundreds of questions to be answered. Start typing…the answers are at your fingertips. In this day & age there’s no excuse for being held up in your start-up dreams because you don’t know something… the answers are honest-to-god right there.

And don’t forget to ask other owners about their experiences. You will learn so much from them, and every mistake that you don’t make because of their advice is money and time saved. Huge!

Question #3: Are You Willing to Spend 24/7 Living & Breathing Your Business?

Here’s the kicker question right here. Starting, growing & running a business takes time and energy. Like, a lot of time & energy. Real entrepreneurs do it because they love it. They love the process, the refining and problem solving, the planning of it, and they love their customers. I’ve worked with a lot of start-ups, and there’s one thing, one tell, that gives me enough info to know if a startup isn’t going to work. A lot of different things can factor in, but I’ve never seen a start-up succeed without the owner being all in. If I get “Oh, yeah, I’d love to meet you for a planning session but I have tickets to Maroon 5”, followed by, “Tuesday doesn’t work either because I’m doing a spa day.” And hey, I get they’re busy, but they’re busy with the wrong damn things. If they want it, they’ve got to work it. And on a side note, their money should be going into the business, not on spas and tickets. Deferred gratification is at play here in a big way.

Question #4: Do You Understand How to Run a Business and Can You Read Financial Reports?

Have you ever managed a store, a fast food place, or worked in a business or office where bills are paid and money collected? Ever managed employees? Created a budget? Do you know how business bookkeeping works and do you know how to read financial reports? All of this office-type stuff is mission critical, because if you don’t go in knowing and handling it from the get-go, you’ll end up curled up in your office in the fetal position mumbling “No more paperwork…no…no numbers…no.” If you aren’t willing to do this part, save yourself future agony and stay away from ownership.

So…say you answered no, you don’t know how to operate a business, are you out of the game? Naw, because if you really want it you’re never out. Here’s two ways to solve the problem:

· If you have lots of time and can live on not-much, then please, go intern at a business, or volunteer, or start at the bottom and spend time soaking that stuff in like a sponge.

· And if you don’t have time, you’ll have to crash-course it by hiring someone to teach you one-on-one (it doesn’t take long for basics) or find a mentor. People love sharing knowledge! You can get away with this if you start small. Not-so-much if your business scheme is on the grand side.

Many business owners want to hand off the ‘businessy’ stuff to someone else, and that’s perfectly cool, but you should not do that before you know it yourself. How else will you know if they are doing their job correctly, that forms are filed and taxes paid? How can you trust the financial reports?

I look at it like this, at least 85% of running a business is pretty awesome, I mean, making things, helping people, solving problems, creating…that’s cool stuff! So that leaves around 15% which is, well, not awesome. Kinda like mopping floors or cleaning toilets. Don’t like it, gotta do it. But seriously? 85/15 is a great split! I bet you’ve had more than one job in your life that was the opposite split, so I’ll take my 85–15 and skip all the way home, thank you very much.

So Really…Should I Open a Business?

If you were to come to me as a client, a friend or my server at lunch, and you told me you had a fantastic business idea, we’d have a great time chatting, sharing stories and ideas. And at the end when we say good-bye? I’d tell you to go for it because it will be the most challenging, epic thing you’ll ever do.

What business do you want to open? How can I help? Let me know…I love hearing from you.