I was asked for advice by a young man who wants to start a business and I shared the following with him.
First decide what you want to do with your life. What you want to spend your time on for the foreseeable future.
If you don’t know what you want for your life, you won’t know what to spend your time on. And the world will decide that for you. Business owner or not.
If your business idea does not fit into what you want for your life, don’t do it.
Ask yourself if your business will allow you to be involved in activities that you enjoy doing, and where you will have the greatest potential impact on your life?
If you cannot explain why your business exists beyond profitability, don’t start your own business. Owning a business is not about the money first.
It’s about solving a problem for someone else.
Have goals and plans to get to those goals.
Goals must be measurable. If you cannot measure what you are doing, you will not be able to improve where you should. And you should always be looking for ways to improve. Always.
There are no “on the side” ventures or side hustles. There are only multiple revenue sources. Some just take more of your time than others.
For example, if a fulltime job takes 8-5 Monday to Friday, the other ventures take the rest of the time – AFTER enough sleep and healthy eating.
You must take care of your physical, emotional, and psychological well-being.
Understand your strengths and weaknesses. You don’t have all the answers.
Build a network to learn from and seek diverse perspectives.
Look for people to challenge your thinking. Always.
Your goal is never to be right. Your goal is to do the right thing.
If you are not prepared to work when your friends are out clubbing, don’t start a business.
If you are watching television or playing games when you can be working on your business, don’t start a business.
If you have debt, get rid of it. Buy what you need, not what you want.
If you are employed full-time, use your current work as your major source of financing your business.
See your current job as your cash cow.
Excel at it to make as much money from it, as you can.
If you are employed full-time, do not resign until you have enough cash to be able to maintain your “survival lifestyle” for at least two years.
To do that know how much you need to survive.
Start doing a cash flow forecast now.
Your cash flow forecast will tell you when to do something and when not to do something.
And do your cash flow forecast for a rolling 2-year period.
Never make a decision without looking at your cash flow forecast.