Starting a small business (pt 1) - Be Your Own Boss

I was a Senior Multimedia and Web Development Exec working in a posh corporate office of a multinational company. The company was THE darling of the industry. That was before the top brass became greedy and decided to get creative with the numbers. This triggered a crippling financial disaster.

The lay-offs were brutal. I had sleepless nights and almost suffered a heart attack even though my job was safe in the early stages. My wife and I began praying for an answer. We did some serious talking and even though we were scared as heck, we knew there was only ONE solution. We HAD to take control of our destiny. We HAD to start something we could call our own. We had to start our own small business. We HAD to be OUR OWN BOSS.

We finally decided that our own small home based business had to be built around (our own) skills that we could rely on 100 percent. She was a great cook and I loved web design. So with absolutely NO experience we started a small home-based food delivery business - cooking and delivering food to busy couples and families. At the same time, I started designing a few websites and found ways to monetize them.

It's been almost six years now that we've been working full-time from home, running our small home based business, and God has truly blessed us. We have NEVER had to worry about making ends meet. Best of all, my wife and I get to work together while we raise our two beautiful kids.

Now, your situation probably isn't the same as ours. I really understand if you find yourself so dependent on your job that you end up being stuck in a vicious cycle or fear and insecurity, hindering you from exploring the possibility of starting your own small business. However, one thing I've learnt over these last few years is that no matter how secure you think your job is, there will come a day when you might be at risk of losing it.

• You get to call the shots and make YOUR own decisions


• You get to keep ALL the profits or do anything you want with it


• You get to work to your own schedule


• More time for your family and personal interests


• No more long commutes


• Extra income for the famiy


• Extra savings and investments for retirement


• Backup income during recession pay-cuts


• Post retirement activity and income stream

Theoretically, starting a small business is as simple as 4 steps :

1. Find a feasible business idea.


2. Planning and preparation.


3. Launching the business.


4. Run and grow the business, enjoying the profits and being your own boss.

People don't want to admit it, but one sure-fire way of making sure you don't fail (at starting your own small business) is to NOT try anything. It's really scary to think about leaving the security of that pay-check at the end of the month and trying to be your own boss. That's why when people talk about being their own boss, they start off all excited, their brains overflowing with ideas. Then, when they really start to consider what's involved and how it will affect their life, they pull back, unsure. This leads to procrastination and finally - you know it - defeat. And before they've even begun to crawl, they've resigned themselves to the comfort zone of that pay check at the end of the month.

That's not to say that when think about starting your own small business, there aren't real problems. As you move beyond your comfort zone, and grow closer to making your dream of being your own boss a reality, there ARE real issues that you will face :

• You may have no money.
  Starting a small business takes money. Whether its a couple hundred bucks or tens of thousands, you need cash. This is probably the number one worry and obstacle in starting your own small business.



• You may have no time.
  How could you? The boss expects you to be on-the-job ON TIME and for most folks that means leaving the house before sunrise and if you're lucky, you get home before your kids are in bed! How in the world do you find time to start a small business?



• You may have no experience.
  You need to know what you're doing if you want to succeed in starting your own small business. Unfortunately, most of us work at a job that is totally boring and unrelated to our passion in life.



• You may have NO idea WHERE to start.
  But even if you have the money and all the time in the world, you might not know WHERE to start. New business owners often make lots of mistakes. That's part and parcel of the learning process, but you can make things a lot easier on yourself if you do your homework and find the right information first.

These are real problems that stand in the way of folks who want to start their own small business. They're not problems that can be solved by simply wishing them away or buying yourself an e-book that guarantees financial freedom. However, before you can deal with these problems, there is the biggest and most important hurdle to overcome - your own mind.

Your mind is often your first and biggest stumbling block when you consider breaking free of your comfort zone to start your own small business. Fear of the unknown, personal insecurity and painful experiences of past failures, all mesh together to become one humongous monster of a vicious cycle. If you let your mind with that FIRST battle, you'll end up pushing your dreams aside because not doing anything means you won't fail!