dark side

A Tale from the Dark Side: The Reality of Starting a Small Business

Photo by Juan Pablo Arenas from Pexels

The reality of starting a small business can be a shocker if you’re not prepared. Following is a fictionalized tale from the dark side of starting a small business. 

Sammy was a nice guy. He was an ambitious go-getter who believed that anything was possible.

Sammy wanted to start a small business. His dream was of a cozy coffee shop and bakery.

He was passionate about the idea, so he started planning. He developed a menu, calculated potential expenses, searched for premises, and contacted suppliers.

His plan was perfect. Or so he thought.

However, Sammy was not at all clear about how a small business worked. After he had planned all of the fun aspects such as the shop’s name, its logo, and how he would advertise it, he found himself facing a monster. The monster’s name? Reality.

Reality hit hard. It offered many challenges. Among them:

 

Open Your Eyes to the Dark Side of Financing Your Business

When you’re starting a business, you don’t just set up shop somewhere and wait for it to start raining dollars. No, as we’ve mentioned, there is a dark side. For example, starting your own business is a financially challenging process. Therefore, unless you have plenty of capital, you will need to apply for a bank loan.

However, banks charge interest on their loans. That’s because, at the end of the day, a bank is a business, not a charity.

Moreover, bankers want to see a business plan as well as other documents. It’s your business plan, however, that is crucial to a bank’s final decision.

Want to sidestep this process? Maybe you could turn to the stock market instead. Some smart investments could generate some capital for you. For example, check out websites such as https://www.asktraders.com/. Here you can find advice on brokers and trading in general. They might be able to help with financing your business.

 

RELATED ARTICLE: 3 EXCELLENT TIPS FOR STARTING A BUSINESS

 

You’ll Need Emotional Strength

Once you’ve launched your business, you’ll discover more about the dark side of starting a business. That is, you’ll have to make peace with the fact that you will be losing money initially. You might not even break even for quite a while. Therefore, you’ll need to make sure your wallet can take the hit.

Moreover, starting and maintaining a business requires plenty of hard work and lots of mental effort. Indeed, it might surprise you to know that it also takes a good deal of emotional strength. It’s not easy to endure failure after failure. And you might need to do a good bit of that before you succeed.

However, bear in mind that if your business fulfills a need in the marketplace and you’re any good at all with marketing, the losses shouldn’t last forever. If you can hold out until your hard work begins to pay off, you will eventually start earning a profit.

 

Being a Boss Is Not Easy

B.B King sang about “Paying the Cost to Be the Boss.” As the title of the song implies, being a boss is not easy.

When you own your own business, you will be the boss. That is, you will have to deal with every detail of running your business. You will need provide excellent customer service, whether your customer is furious or merely curious.

Additionally, you will have to deal with suppliers and make sure they are always on time.

Sadly, you’ll have to forego long vacations, at least during the start-up phase of your business.

If you’re smart, you can find and hire good workers who will make your life a little easier. Steer clear of job candidates who lack the skills you need, however. They can take a real toll on you and your business.

 

You’ll Need Help from Other Professionals

Being your own boss also means that you must answer directly to the government. This likely means that you will need to hire an accountant to do your books. You’ll probably need legal help from time to time. You’ll need to keep accurate records, and you may also need to endure official inspections.

 

Be Prepared to Cut Your Losses

It is always a good idea to set a loss limit before you launch your business. In other words, decide upon an amount of money you’re prepared to lose. If your business’s losses exceed that amount, pull out immediately.

 

A Final Word

Finally, if you have read this far, congratulations! You have shown by your persistence that you might be mentally and emotionally tough enough to start your own business.

Our hero Sammy eventually pulled through, as a matter of fact, despite the odds. After much hard work and emotional stress, he finally found success with his coffee shop and bakery. Maybe you will, too.

But before you begin, ask yourself: Am I strong enough to handle the dark side of starting my own business while staying the course with my dream?