Starting A Business With Your Mom (Or Daughter)?
Diane Salvatore, editor-in-chief of Ladies’ Home Journal, offers five start-your-own-business tips, whether you’re thinking about going into business with Mom, a friend or on your own.
- Know the business you’re getting in to: Just because you like to drink good wine, doesn’t mean you know a thing about selling it. Many successful entrepreneurs say you need to work in the business of your choice first. For example, you may want to make working in a wine store your first goal, even if it means a cut in salary.
- Immerse yourself in the small business community: There are many excellent organizations you can find within your state that hold seminars and conferences and offer consulting services. You can search through the Small Business Administration web site (sba.gov), a government organization committed to helping people start and grow small businesses.
- Create a business plan: A compelling – and convincing – business plan discusses not only the mission of the business, the marketplace in which you’ll be competing and the reason why you uniquely can make it a success, but also includes a profit and loss analysis. The SBA offers detailed explanations and sample business plans.
- Show me the money: You may want to hire a financial planner to set up your cash flow situation to make sure you can pay your everyday bills while you are launching a business. For a good primer on this, go to the National Association of Women Business Owners.
- Pick a perfect partner: It’s always good to have a right arm, but don’t choose just because someone is your best friend, mother or daughter. Lots of business partnerships fail over this, plus you’ve wrecked a relationship in the process. You need someone who brings a skill set you don’t have.
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