Wise Wednesdays - Be Clear on Your Motives

Pillar # 2: Be Clear on Your Motives

People start a business for many reasons and their motives will vary. Yet if you’re not aware of the full implications for each motive you’re misguided attitudes will have you sinking faster than you can say Titanic.

Here are the most common reasons why people start their own business:

1. Be your own boss is the number one reason why people start businesses. However, this does not mean doing what you feel like. Decision making ability needs to serve what the business needs doing and many times they are difficult decisions –the type your boss has had to make!

2. Independence - You soon realize in order to succeed you need to be highly interdependent (not independent) with your customers, contacts, suppliers etc. Read the Wise Wednesday article posted on Jan. 28, 2009 to fully understand this concept.

3. Do work you love – The vast majority of your work in the beginning will be doing things you particularly don’t like to do like selling, managing money, administrative chores. Probably much more than you ever thought you’d have to do.

4. Make more money - You will probably make less money in your first two to three years in business then if you worked for someone else. If you absolutely need a steady paycheque then owning a business is not for you.

5. Flexible schedule – Some people really want to be self-employed because it gives them the freedom to choose their schedule. However, a lot will be dictated by the industry you’re in and most entrepreneurs put in more hours than working for somebody else.

Wise Questions:

Is this business venture something you feel passionate about that you are willing to invest in some financially tight years and many long hours?

Do you understand that the purpose of a business is finding and keeping customers at profit? (read the Wise Wednesday blog posted Nov. 19, 2008)

Are you flexible to change you pre-conceived notion on how and when it’s suppose to happen?

Stay tuned next week for Pillar # 3: Reality Testing