How to
Start a Small Buisness - Making The Buisness Decision
Making
the Decision to Start a Business
Time, now, to make a
decision. You've analyzed yourself, your life style, your opinion, and
your attitudes. You've read and studied and discussed the pros and cons of
starting a business of your own with attorneys and accountants, business
owners and bankers. You've picked a lot of brains, and given your own a
workout. Now it is time for you to make the one all-encompassing decision
which, if it is in the affirmative and you decide to start a small
business of your own, will require one decision after another to
implement.
You've done your cash planning and explored your cash requirements in
consultation with your lawyer, banker, accountant or any combination of
the three. Can you swing it financially? Make a decision.
You've pondered the advisability of sharing ownership with others as
compared with the independence of going it alone. Which will it be?
Another decision required.
You've walked and driven through urban business areas, stood and
watched the traffic in neighborhood shopping centers, tried to estimate
the value of becoming part of one of the gigantic covered malls sprawled
out in the suburbs. Which offers the most suitable location for you?
Some of you have faced the alternative of buying an existing business.
After carefully weighing the advantages of such a transaction against the
disadvantages, what decision will you make on this question?
Others among you who are reading these pages have given the possibility
of investing in a franchised business serious consideration. Do the
safeguards the quick-start advantages offered by operating within the
shelter of a national franchise make up for the lack of freedom under
which you may be forced to operate? What will your decision be?
These five important preliminary decisions made, you are ready to begin
considering the many decisions which the specific type and size of small
business you have chosen will require. Answer the following questions.
- What are my immediate goals?
- My long range goals?
If purchasing stock for resale, I should begin with the following
decisions:
- What quality merchandise shall I carry? Luxury, Average, Thrifty,
Varied?
- Who will my suppliers be?
- What will my average pricing markup be?
- Who will do the selling? Owner, Employees, Both?
- How will I attract customers? Newspaper ads, Radio, TV, Handbills,
Word of mouth, Window displays, Special promotions?
- What kind of records will I need?
- Who will keep the records? Owner, Bookkeeper Full time, Bookkeeper
Part-time?
- How will personnel be selected? Employment Agency, Help Wanted,
Family, Word of Mouth?
- How will personnel be trained?
- How will personnel be motivated?
Special attention also must be paid to law requirements and
regulations. Some of these will involve decisions on your part. Most of
them give you little choice. They simply need to be followed. These
questions may serve as a helpful check:
- Does my business require licensing? How often? By whom?
- Am I familiar with requirements regarding consumer protection in
pricing, time payments and so forth? Have I taken steps to meet these
requirements?
- If I am setting up a manufacturing plant, am I aware of the
restrictions regarding disposition of waste materials in compliance with
environmental codes? Have I taken steps to assure compliance with them?
- Have I checked to assure that my business practices will be in
consonance with national and local regulations concerning fair
competition practices?
- If my place of business will require employees other than myself,
have I taken steps to comply with Fair Labor Standards, OSHA
requirements, Fair Employment Practices and other labor relations
criteria? What about group health insurance? Other insurance?
- Have I checked with the Internal Revenue Service for employee tax
withholding procedures and forms?
- If you are aware of the responsibility, the hard work and the long
hours it will take before your goal as an entrepreneur can be realized,
and you are not deterred...
- If you have given long and careful consideration to all the
requirements, regulations, financial obligations and hazards implicit in
setting up a small business, and you regard them as challenges you can
meet.
- If you would gladly give up your safe job working for someone else
for the independence, the excitement, the sheer joy of being your own
boss, than small business ownership may indeed be for you.
Good luck in your endeavor!
Food For Thought
When those around you are greedy and shallow
-- be caring and giving.
When those around you are lazy and apathetic -- be full of energy and
enthusiasm.
When those around you are worried and depressed -- be confident.
When those around you are frantic -- be calm.
When those around you are stubbornly stuck in their ways -- try
something new.
When those around you do mediocre work -- do excellent work.
When those around you complain about everything they have -- be
thankful for everything you have.
Going along with the crowd will cause you to be just one of the crowd,
living someone else's dream. What joy is there in that?
Stand up and stand out. Refuse to accept mediocrity. Refuse to accept
things just because "that's the way we've always done it." Do what you
need to do. Do what is right. Instead of following the well-worn path,
blaze a new and exciting trail into unknown territories. The world
rewards those who have the confidence and courage to stand out from
the rest.
Life is too precious to waste it on silly pretenses. Be and express
the unique person you are.
"I really want to do that, but it's just too much trouble."
Have you ever said something like this to yourself or to someone else?
Well, which is it? Do you really want to do it, or don't you. If you
really want it, it doesn't matter that it will take a lot of effort to
achieve. Life is made of effort. You're going to spend your effort
doing something. What are your priorities? Wouldn't it be better to
spend your effort in pursuit of something you want?
Have confidence in yourself. You are up to the challenge of anything
you decide you truly want to be, or have, or do. Sure it's challenging
-- anything worthwhile is. Yet the challenges you accept will give you
the tools you need to overcome them. And in the process, you'll grow,
and build, and create.
Challenge will teach you new skills. It will motivate you to get the
best possible performance from yourself.
Have you ever noticed that, on days when you have a lot of work to do,
you get a lot done? And on days when you don't have much you have to
do, you don't get much done. Just as your effort increases to meet the
job that must be done, so too do you grow enough to meet the
challenges that come our way. To become the person you want to be, you
simply find the challenges that will take you there.
Any worthwhile achievement is largely a matter of meeting one
challenge after another. Seek out challenges -- they are the stuff
that life is made of.
True abundance begins with gratitude and thankfulness. Being thankful
focuses our attention on the things we do have, and helps those things
to grow.
Make it a habit to tell people thank you. To express your
appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in
return. Truly appreciate those around you, and you'll soon find many
others around you. Truly appreciate life, and you'll find that you
have more of it.
The things you appreciate will grow -- your customers, your business,
your skills, your family, your faith, your self.
Do you want to "have it all"? With an attitude of gratitude you'll
realize that you already do have it all. Everything you could ever
desire is already inside of you. You simply need to appreciate it, and
love it and nurture it enough so that it is fully expressed in your
life.
Be thankful for the person you are, for the situation you're in, for
the challenges you're given. That is the first step toward a positive,
fulfilling life. Your sincere gratitude will bring you abundance.
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