My column this week in the Tennessean offers start-up advice for accidental entrepreneurs:
Has the recession made you an accidental entrepreneur? Not sure how to pick the right business to start?
Business opportunities are most often the result of major changes in the economy, society, our culture or technology. These changes create customers who have new unmet needs. For example, when women entered the work force in large numbers in the 1970s, they needed child care.
This soon led to creation of a whole new industry called day care.
The first step in determining if a business idea is right for you is to make sure it builds on your existing knowledge, skills and experiences. The best business opportunities come from solving everyday problems that you have observed from your previous work experiences, your hobbies or things you regularly experience.
Make sure that there really is a strong market that is truly interested in your product or service. Examine the size of the market to confirm that you need to attract only a small percentage of the total potential customers to make your business work. And make sure that the potential customers are willing to pay you enough to make the business turn a profit.
The business will need to generate enough income for your lifestyle. Also, it will need to become profitable before you run out of whatever funds you have saved to live on during the startup of the business.
It is very difficult, if not impossible, to find bankers or investors willing to back a first time entrepreneur's startup in today's economy. So if your savings are meager, you may need to find a venture that generates cash flow quickly or postpone the startup until enough savings are in place.
Take it personally
An entrepreneurial business is not just a simple financial investment. It becomes much more personal and emotional than that. Surveys of entrepreneurs tell us that building income and wealth is only one of the many reasons for launching a business.
Entrepreneurs want to create a business that is a reflection of who they are. They want to build a business that has a culture based on their values -- that is, on how they want their employees and customers to be treated.
Finally, don't overlook the importance of building a business that allows room for the other things that are important in your life. The time and energy you want for your family, your friends, church and hobbies should be factored into the planning.
The right business needs to fit with your experiences, income needs and values, and it must allow for a balanced life.
I will be leading a seminar for Belmont University titled "Business worthy? How to uncover and evaluate entrepreneurial ideas."
It's designed to help guide aspiring entrepreneurs through the process of finding ideas and assessing their feasibility. It will be held in Williamson County on Nov. 3, Nov. 10 and Nov. 17.
More information can be found at http://www.belmont.edu/business/executive_education/workshops/index.html.
I would love to be at your seminar :) . Talking about accidental entrepreneurs, I am not sure how many of us are? Or do we really go through the market segmentation, Sun Tzu strategies etc and launch our businesses as a result of deliberate and calculated analysis?
For me it is a hit and run case, not actually as a result of the sub prime but rather by accident. Just happened to be at the right place at the right time. No genius here, nor great strategist, just a lucky fella.......
Jeff
The one thing I always discuss with folks starting a new business deals with sales and collecting payment for those sales. I meet folks who have started a business but run into problems due to the fact that they do not go after the sales and getting paid for those sales.
If a business has paying customers, then many times, they can either fix what may need to be fixed in their back end or get help to meet their growing needs, but without sales then nothing else matters.
Also I ask folks about their personality is dealing with sales. Since there are very different sales cycles and sales methods, it is so important that a person match their sales style with their business as well.
And I am sorry that I can not attend your class.
Thank you
Sam Maropis
ChartingDreams.com