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Ever Thought About Starting And Growing A Business?

Guest post by: Susan Bagyura

Article Overview: Too often people start businesses without any preparation; jumping in before creating their vision and business plan, hoping that everything with work out in the end. That’s like believing in the tooth fairy.

Ever Thought About Starting And Growing A Business?

It seems that most of us have at one time or another thought about leaving a job and starting a business. Does it sometimes sound like it would be much easier? Or when the big order comes in and you think, “I’m delivering the service/product for my employer. If I had my own business, I could have all the revenue.” Have you ever watched others in your company that don’t have your skills or knowledge, but have a higher position than you do? Or is it the independence that attracts you?

The answers to these questions may prompt you to start thinking again about starting a business; but understand this, there’s a whole lot more to consider before quitting your job, taking your savings and registering a business. In fact, many people think registering an entity is actually starting a business but that’s just the legal formality and nothing more. The shocking statistics show that as much as 85% of new businesses fail within the 1^st year. How does this happen?

You can equate starting a business with other activities such as getting a driver’s license. No one would even consider just going down to the local motor vehicles office, filling out a form, paying money, and then taking the practical and theoretical tests without preparation. Usually you would go out and find an expert or a licensed instructor to teach you everything you need to know in order to operate a vehicle, including the basic mechanics of a car along with a solid understanding of the laws of the road. Along the way, you would get behind the wheel with the instructor sitting next to you and start clocking hours of practice before being allowed to drive alone. You would have the opportunity to ask questions and getting a deeper understanding of the rules and principles of driving.

But too often people start businesses without any preparation; jumping in before creating their vision and business plan, hoping that everything with work out in the end. That’s like believing in the tooth fairy. Just as with the driving lessons, it’s critical to invest the time and effort to educate oneself on the essentials of starting a business as preparation is the foundation of success.

For the past 6 months, I’ve been working with a group of female entrepreneurs that are committed to starting and growing successful businesses based on values, knowledge and insight; both their own and that of other successful female entrepreneurs and business advisers. They analyzed their individual strengths and skills while examining the areas where they’ll either learn new skills or draw on outside help by delegating, recruiting or outsourcing.

A new idea, spotting a gap in the market, or improving an existing product/service can all be the basis for starting a business. These budding female entrepreneurs examined opportunities for starting and growing businesses by looking at complementary services or products they could add in the future.

After learning the traditional way of doing market research, several of the women preferred using the fast failure method (see my blog for more information on this) to uncover critical market knowledge as quickly as possible. When starting and growing a small business, one must develop a pragmatic, action-oriented mentality.

We explored the best approaches for starting the businesses, potential channels for distribution along with the advantages and disadvantages of buying an existing business, running a family business, buying or setting up a franchise or as a solopreneur.

Along with studying how to write a business plan, raising money or funding for the business, and choosing the right premises; we examined the most common mistakes new business owners make and how to avoid them. Starting a small business can be risky and success is not always guaranteed, but by preparing these female entrepreneurs for many of the challenges, they are stacking the odds in their favor.

These female entrepreneurs are poised for success as they have discovered the purpose for their leadership, chosen their preferred leadership styles and competencies, learned the soft skills of leadership while embracing the essential elements of goal setting and goal achieving. Leadership is a process; it’s a life-long journey with continual learning experiences. The best way to learn leadership is to combine basic knowledge with experiences.

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of this program was the formation of mastermind groups where female entrepreneurs successfully worked together and supported each other throughout the various phases of the process. The creative ideas that came out of those mastermind sessions were astounding.

From my aspect, the thrill was in watching these female entrepreneurs grow in confidence. In the free preview of the program, many of these ladies said that they had been thinking about starting a business for a couple of years. Although they really wanted to do it, they were afraid; mainly because they just didn’t know how to get started. By having the chance to learn from a registered business consultant, over a period of time, with other committed and eager peers, these women have laid a solid foundation for their businesses, their personal development and their success. Move over fellas and make room for these successful female entrepreneurs!

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Article Tags: essentials of starting a business, fast failure method, female entrepreneurs, mastermind groups, starting and growing a business, successful female entrepreneurs



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