Friday, June 15, 2012

You are the Biggest Stumbling Block in starting a Business


Photo by Chris Fore


The biggest stumbling block in starting a business is you.  Everyone thinks that starting a business requires a lot of money the truth is money can be the worst thing that can happen to any startup.  The reason it is bad is because it makes you substitute throwing money at every problem instead of thinking how to succeed with what you have in hand rather then what you wish you had.  Many businesses never see the light-of-day with this kind of wrong thinking in place.

Just about everything you have ever heard about starting a business is wrong.  The reason it is wrong for the most part is because it is repeated by people that I've never started a business themselves therefore they place their own prejudices ahead of any good sense.  These are the people that always come along with all kinds of free advice that is worth what you paid for it, nothing.  Many a good business idea goes crashing on other peoples thinking instead of your own thinking.

The first thing you should do is to take an inventory of just exactly what you do have, and how you're going to use it to make your business succeed.  The most successful businesses are those that start this way there has been many a business that has been started a garage that has grown to be a huge enterprise like Apple Computers.

One of the things you should remember about venture capitalists is they are usually working with someone else's money rather than their own.  If you would like to get a real pain where you sit just bring in one of these whiz-bangs when you are starting a business.  They are most interested in their own profit not yours.

They always have all kinds of free advice to hand out that most often is worthless to the problem at hand.  Just remember free advice is worth what you pay for it, nothing, if it doesn't make any sense to you it doesn’t make any sense anywhere.

The ideal situation that any business can find itself in is to grow from within using its own capital rather than running off to the bank every time the front door is open.  In general banks are dangerous to the health of your business start up and they are also dangerous to your own health.

One of the first things that you have to be sure of is a you can generate a cash flow standing alone with nobody else beside you.  This is extremely important because once you have enough experience in running your business you will want to go out looking for money either a bank or through venture capitalists.  Neither of which will give you a single penny unless you don't need it!

The biggest advantage to having already established a cash flow is you will not have to give away as much of your company in equity as you would otherwise.  In this fashion you'll be able to hang onto most of the company yourself.

A college degree is a nice thing to have but it doesn't tell you very much about how wrong the business that is something you will have to find out for yourself and just remember there are only two things that can happen when you start a business.  Either you will land on your feet or you will land on your behind!

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