Starting a New Business – The Expected and Unexpected

Congratulations! So, you have decided on starting a new business!

The rewards from being the master of your own ship are commensurate with the risks. Running a business is an everyday challenge and one designed push your limits every day.

Those individuals who have been there and have tried their skill at running a business are the best sources of learning for a budding entrepreneur. Some attitudes which a new business owner will be called upon to adopt sooner or later are:

Be flexible enough to face all eventualities

The constant law applying to running a new business is Murphy’s Law . If something can go wrong, it will” A businessman should hope for the best, be prepared for the worst. He should be flexible enough to adapt when things do not go as per plan. A businessman should look to converting every setback into a business opportunity.

Losing Money

Losing money in the beginning is a well known probability when starting a new business. Making money is extremely hard in the early stages of any business and loss of money is very common. Make sure that you have enough resources to take care of your personal and family expenses or a different source of income. Explore the possibility of credit if you need it while also looking for investors.

Delegate and Recruit

A businessman should be prepared to delegate and to recruit and employ those competent people who complement his strengths and share his perspective on business. If the business owner is a good strategist but not so good at people management, it makes sense to employ someone who is a skilled people manager.

Similarly, while running a business, if the owner finds that managing customers leaves him with less time to take care of paperwork, it is sensible to hire an office manager to take care of customer service and related paperwork.

‘Letting go’ of the ego

Any businessman will testify to the fact that there is no room for holding on to the ego, when it comes to running a business. A start up entrepreneur may be required to play diverse roles in the business.

It is absolutely necessary for the CEO to know that he or she may have to wear many different hats such as that of a salesman or that of an office assistant. For those budding entrepreneurs coming from a set role in corporate set up where niggling details are all taken care of, not needing his direct involvement, this transition is often difficult to make.

Expect the unexpected

When starting a new business – always expect the unexpected. Certain things may not go the way you have planned. Be prepared and quick to understand why and how to make headway. New marketing challenges and the need to reduce price are a few examples of this problem.

You must be prepared with Plan B if Plan A does not work. Every businessman should have a back-up plan ready for such unpredictable factors affecting his business. You must be ready to make changes to your present goals and a new plan for every year.

Sacrifices

Being a business owner is highly demanding on your physical as well as emotional well being. Your time for your family and friends will soon begin to dwindle and make them feel the stress that you would have learnt to cope with

.This means you will be tired and stressed out due to lack of rest. You may have to miss important events while being away building your business.

Cultivation of networking and people skills

If new business owner is not good at people skills, he better learn them quick!! Investment in people always pays rich dividends. A new business owner may find that a lot of his energy goes in leveraging contacts and networking in an effort to get the business off the ground.