Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! Evan Signature
Evan Carmichael Top Header about About Home Profiles articles Tools forums inspirational quotes About facebook Twitter YouTube Blog
Share for a Cause











TREAT YOUR SMALL BUSINESS LIKE A HOBBY AND FAIL!

Guest post by: nathan Mitchell

Article Overview: Nathan R Mitchell, Small Business Coach, Author, Speaker, and Founder of Clutch Consulting Tulsa OK, addresses the implications of treating your small business like a hobby, not the profit generating machine that it can be.

Free Download - TREAT YOUR SMALL BUSINESS LIKE A HOBBY AND FAIL! By nathan Mitchell
Name: Email:

TREAT YOUR SMALL BUSINESS LIKE A HOBBY AND FAIL!

Many are looking at the business climate for 2011 with optimism. Although it’s hard to tell what the year will bring with eleven months still remaining, there are some things that you can control as a small business owner that will increase your chances of a sunny outlook for 2011. Unfortunately, 50% of small businesses fail within the first five years of ownership. One way to minimize your chances of becoming another statistic is to make sure you don’t treat your small business like a hobby; if you do this, you will increase your chances of failure significantly.
When some people start a business, they study the market and find a niche that they can serve, and they serve it well. These people really find an opportunity, and start a business around it. Unfortunately, far too many find a product or service they like and declare themselves a new business owner. Although it is extremely important to be passionate and to love what you do, the new small business owner must find a way to make themselves stand out from the crowd. Otherwise, you are just another entrepreneur selling another widget that your customer really doesn’t need in the first place. When new business owners study a market, find a niche, and approach that market from the standpoint of providing value to the customer first, they are more likely to succeed. But this cannot be done effectively when you treat your small business like a hobby, rather than the profit generating machine it can be!
The most effective way to increase your chances of success in the world of small business is to research your business idea before you ever start selling. When doing this, you may find that market demand is really not there for your product and service in the first place. This will save you a lot of time, headaches, and money too, which will keep you from going broke and searching for another job.
It’s also important for business owners to continue learning. Once you have opened your doors, you have to continue researching and finding ways to adapt. The marketplace is always changing, and so should you. You must learn to remain flexible as a small business owner. If you don’t stay abreast of changes in your industry, your competition will, and will eventually overtake you. Your customers tastes will change over time, and new and exciting trends will begin to emerge as well.
In today’s world of advanced technology, changes in the world of business happen much more quickly than they did twenty years ago. If you treat your business like a hobby, you won’t be able to stay on top of them.
Keep Winning!
Nathan R Mitchell

Related Articles
  5 Tips That Will Get You Ready To Start An Online Business Easily
  Baby Boomers - Turn your Creative Practical Hobbies into a Business
  7 Tips for Starting an Online Home Business
  How To Start Your Own Business At Home
  Critical Small Business Mistakes
  Starting A Home Based Business? – Avoid These 6 Costly Blunders
  3 Internet Marketing Tips that will Increase Your Home Based Business Success
  The Home Based Business Can Be Internet Marketing
  3 Tips that will Guarantee Failure in an Online Home Business
  Is your network marketing a business or just an expensive hobby?
  8 Reasons Why Not Everyone Is Cut Out To Make Money with Online Marketing
  Are you Building a Business….or Hobby?
  Online Business is a game of Inches
  Hobby Loss Rule
  Network Marketers: When Do You Throw In The Towel?
  The 7 Secrets to Improved Prospecting
  How To Survive with these Great Network Marketing Tips
  Home Business Expert: 10 Easy Tips For A Home Based Business
  Can You Make Your Hobby Into A Business
  Persistence - The Keys to Success when you have an Online Business

Home > Starting-A-Business > nathan Mitchell > TREAT YOUR SMALL BUSINESS LIKE A HOBBY AND FAIL >
Article Tags: clutch consulting tulsa okclutch, nathan r mitchell, small business advice, small business coaching, small business failure

About the Author: nathan Mitchell
RSS for nathan's articles - Visit nathan's website

Nathan Mitchell, Founder of Clutch Consulting, is a Small-Business Consultant, Author, and Professional Speaker. Nathan is dedicated to helping small-business owners and those who are entrepreneurial, reach new levels of success in their business and personal life by offering services that are both empowering and insightful: These include, but are not limited to, Small-Business Consulting, Training, Keynote Speaking, and Leadership and Personal Development Coaching. Nathan’s passion for business and entrepreneurship, and for the winners who pursue it, started in young adulthood, and has stayed with him to this day. He has earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Entrepreneurial Management, as well as an MBA from Missouri State University in Springfield. In addition to his strong foundation in academics, Nathan also has “real-world” experience in many aspects of Business Management and Leadership due to his decade of experience in Operations Management with a Fortune 50 company. He is currently focused on writing his first book on Entrepreneurship, “Give Me The Ball! How Top Entrepreneurs Got In The Game and Won.”© Nathan lives in a suburb of Tulsa, Oklahoma with his wife Sarah, and their two children, Eiley and Nathan.

Click here to visit nathan's website Dashed Line

More from nathan Mitchell
TREAT YOUR SMALL BUSINESS LIKE A HOBBY AND FAIL


Related Forum Posts
Re: SEEKING PRIVATE OR ANGEL INVESTOR Re: SEEKING PRIVATE OR ANGEL INVESTOR - Definitely have a thorough and accurate business plan. In the US, you can get help at SCORE - their website is full of great information and you can check for local chapters. If you would like a book that has all kinds of great information about financing options - this one is very good --- HOW TO GET THE FINANCING FOR YOUR NEW SMALL BUSINESS: INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS FROM THE EXPERTS WHO DO IT EVERY DAY—WITH CD-ROM This new book will provide you with a road map to securing the financing. The book goes into traditional financing methods and assists the reader in setting up proper financial statements and a proper business plan. It details the differences between debt and equity financing and how and why to use each. Valuation techniques are explained for determining what your business is truly worth. However, the book’s real strength is in explaining alternative and creative methods of financing, such as SBA financing, investor angels, IPOs, limited public offerings and venture capital. Essential resources for finding the detailed information you need are included throughout. Item # 9780910627559 $39.95 Shri
Re: I want to make money online Re: I want to make money online - First, I'd say definitely online. Your $3,000 will go a lot further online than offline. Second, I'd read Kevin's list and the linked article and make a BUSINESS decision what you want to do, what you can offer and who you can sell it to. Do some serious keyword search and find a hungry niche, and this is your start (free). Second step (free): Sign up for clickbank, paydotcom or some other affiliate exchange and find suitable products to promote. Third step (free): Get a free site somewhere, but make sure it's on something that looks like its own domain - yourname.wordpress.com or yourname.blogspot.com or some such. Write some nice things that promote your affiliate products and put your affiliate links on the page. Fourth step (free): Go on article directories like evancarmiahcel.com (if appropriate) or ezinearticles.com and write stuff that is interesting for your niche, using your niche keywords. Put a link to your new site in the resource box/bio. Keep doing this until you make money. My kids (18 and 12 at the time) sold stuff on clickbank. Anyone can do this. Good luck!
Are you Self Employed or a Business Woman? Are you Self Employed or a Business Woman? - Us women are especially vulnerable to thinking we can do EVERYTHING ourselves! I'm not immune to this way of thinking either. (It seems to go with the territory of having XX chromosomes and growing up in our North American culture.) Anyhow, this kind of thinking can actually trip us women up when it comes to business. I've heard it said that a true business is something you create that can eventually run by itself. A business is meant to give us freedom and not tie us down. A business works FOR YOU. If you are the one working FOR YOUR BUSINESS, then I invite you to open up to the possibility of using your entrepreneur skills to recreate a business that works for you. When I was first challenged on this concept, it was a huge AHA moment. I am grateful because I realized I was still a little stuck on working harder instead of working smarter. I've opened up to a whole new world of possibility and now I'm thinking MUCH BIGGER than before. I expect my income will be much bigger as well. In all honesty, I've realized that my coaching business has been a glorified job. I will still do coaching because I love to do it, but now I am in the process of developing multiple streams of income that use my time more efficiently and products that sell even while I'm on holidays. I'm also developing a retail store which will eventually mostly run itself. Then I will move on to my next project. It's liberating to be on the path of creating businesses that work FOR me. This is how I can run multiple companies without wearing out! In fact, I plan on having MORE time for me. So, what are you doing? Are you self employed or running a business?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.



Featured Article

Bottom Footer



Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Name:
Email:
Popular Articles

Rumor Has It

Hypotheticals, Scenarios and Foresight

Leading with Discernment
Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.