If you’re like most new or wannabe business owners, you want to hit a home run right from the start. And who can blame you? You’re probably investing the majority of your life savings in your business, so you need it to succeed, right?
Here are eight guidelines you’ll want to follow to help you make sure the business you’re starting or buying has a fighting chance to survive–for both the short and long term:
1. Find something you’ll enjoy day-to-day.2. Don’t start if you can’t ensure a solid profit margin.
3. If it’s your first business, think about buying an existing business or a franchise.
4. Buy into a growing industry and market.
5. Marketing and selling to new customers is expensive. Demand repeat business.
6. Keep recurring costs to a minimum.
7. Get good advice.
8. Be prepared to work really hard for the first year or two.
Photo by O Caritas.
Rich Niccolls on October 26th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
I just finished the book by Michael Masterson, Seven Years to Seven Figures. I believe it is a great read for anyone at any stage in building a business, whether starting or highly experienced.
But, in relation to this blog post, the book is about how regular people, many of them only making $30-$40K per year made right decisions and lots of persistence to find the freedome they were looking for.
I’ve written more about it on my blog if you’d like to read about it:
http://national-leads.com/leadsblog/21/michael-masterson/
Rich