My husband and I have always been entrepreneurs at heart. It
was in our blood since we were both in grade school. When we started having
kids while attending college, we both decided that we needed the stability of a
full time pay check instead of the erratic and extensive but flexible hours of
running a business.
Most all businesses need capital, and time to kick start.
This could mean up to three years of investment without any real return. That
makes selecting a business that you are passionate about even harder when that
business may not return the dividends you hoped to get just to pay your bills
and survive.
In our case we went for businesses that had a good
infrastructure and at least moderate success, knowing we would have to work to
fund the business. We chose Real Estate and worked that business for almost ten
years.
HAVING A BUSINESS IS
ABOUT THE HUSTLE OF THE SALE
Most people want to start a business to be their own boss.
It sounds great until we as the sole source of income for our household realize
that we aren’t making any money at it – initially. Pouring 50 to 60 hours of
effort into something that doesn’t pay off can be a drain.
Here’s what we did to focus on sales, but not worry so much
about returns when we first started.
Work part-time to fund marketing and sales for business
Use part-time job to network and gain customers through relationship building
Use part-time job to fund household while building business
Realize that business income is based on sales and that at the base of the business, you have to sell the business offerings
Partnering with someone that can help run the business and take some of the pressure off
Partnering with someone to get vacation time
Many people are in love with the type of business they own,
but hate the aspect of selling it. If that is you, maybe other options are
better.
WORKING FOR A COMPANY
– THE BENEFITS OVER OWNING ONE
With having a bill from college debt, we realized that
owning the business didn’t gain us what we needed most at the time-a regular
paycheck, health benefits, vacation paid time off, sick leave in some cases and
standard work hours.
In most cases, working a job, you can depend on the pay
being the same every week and getting the deposit with no more effort than what
you were expecting going in.
DECIDING ON THE BEST-CASE
SCENARIO
The best case for us was working for a company that allowed
us to have our business as a part-time endeavor. Having a constant stream of income,
we could count on most of the time, gave us comfort and joy in building our
business part-time. We partnered with others and the part time business grew to
the point my husband could work it full-time. It helped for one of us to stay
employed to gain health benefits and others from a well-established company.
FINDING WHAT WORKS
FOR YOU
Doing your research and evaluating what your reason is for
starting your business is your first stop. Then map out a business plan. Decide
when you need to make money on your business and if you are willing to put in
the time and effort selling your product, marketing it, and being on social
media to promote it. If you aren’t interesting in the selling of your product,
are you willing to pay someone to do that for you? Then you will realize what
the cost and benefit is of starting your own company or working for someone
else.
By LM Preston, www.empoweredsteps.com, author of Building
Your Empowered Steps, Homeschooling
and Working While Raising Amazing Learners, blog: http://empoweredsteps.blogspot.com/
