Starting a business can be one of the most rewarding things you can do. There is a lot of freedom, flexibility and sense of achievement but on the flipside, there is a lot of hard work, risk and uncertainty when you first start.
Here is what you need to know if you are thinking of starting your own business:
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You need to discover why your business is different
To start with you need to come up with something that is unique. You don’t necessarily need to reinvent the wheel; you can take other people’s ideas. You can copy ideas, change them and make them better!
Another way is to take existing business ideas and bring them to new geographical areas or sell a product to a different target market. The important message here is to really research what ideas work where.
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You have to love your idea AND the process
Whatever you are doing, you have to love what you are doing! It sounds really cliché but you really do need to. If you don’t, you won’t want to work hard EVERY day for the most of the day and that really is what is needed to have a successful business. You have to love the journey, the daily routines and the process, then everything will fall into place. It’s difficult to explain why it happens but you get what you work for and if you’re addicted to working hard, you become very difficult to beat.
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Don’t think you need a lot of money to start up
Don’t think that when you start your business you have to sell to the world straight away. Start off small and scale up, this will be a lot cheaper for you. Do whatever you can to raise any funds you can, get an extra job, sell your old clothes, video games or whatever. If you want the money you will find the way, not an excuse. If you require larger amounts of cash look at Kickstarter or other Crowdfunding websites. Only use other financial sources when it is really necessary though, don’t borrow money unless you have to.
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Don’t think your business will be an instant success
Just because you start up a new business that you and your friends love your business, doesn’t mean it’s going to be a great success. Businesses are processes and very few boom and sustain straight away, always plan and work like it’s not going to work out, but hope that everything is going to be a success. You don’t want it to be the other way around.
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Expect people to doubt you
For anyone with big dreams about a new business, telling others about them can sometimes be daunting, because they may doubt you and say you can’t do it. Therefore, show people what you are doing rather than telling them what you are going to do. You may not have anything physical to show them at the moment, but you can show them how passionate you are, how hard working you are, and how serious you are about the business.