Are You Ready To Start A Business?

Are you ready to start a business? How do you know if you’re ready? Should you take the leap and just do it?

Well, the truth is, you probably are not ready to start a business. Why? Because you may have an idea in your mind of how challenging it will be. However, it will actually be much more challenging and take much longer than you imagined. It is unlikely that you’re perfectly prepared to start a business.

There are, however, some signs that will tell you that you might be ready. On the other hand, there are other signs that will indicate that you are definitely not ready. For example, the worst time to start a business is when you are desperate. The worst time to start a business is when you need money.

When you need money, you should develop a high-income skill first. Do that before you start a business.

But for now, let’s assume you are ready to start a business. Mentally, emotionally as well as financially – you feel ready. If you are feeling confident and ready to take that leap of faith, should you first ensure that you’re not over-confident?

There are some signs that you should pay attention to. Like I said, certain signs will indicate that you’re on the right path. If you meet certain criteria, then maybe you are ready to go out there and build your empire. Let’s discuss some signs that indicate that you are ready to start a business:

You Have a Clear Profit Path

This means you have a clear idea of how you will make that first sale. How you will make your first profit. Not just, “Oh, hey I got a good product, this is my service”. Don’t go out there and hope that someone likes it.

Hope isn’t a strategy and definitely not a marketing tool. You need actual data. Real evidence that your product is needed.

In your mind, you need to be very, very clear about how you get your product out in the marketplace. You have to know where those customers are. Where are they hanging out? How are you gonna convert those leads into customers? That’s a clear idea of how you will make that first sale.

Let’s say you are selling a $1,000 product and your cost is $100. Then you spend $200-300 to get your customers. That is profitable. If, however, acquiring a customer costs you $1,000 – that wouldn’t be profitable. You aren’t breaking even.

So, your clear profit path is realistic and strategic. It’s measurable and there is a system behind it. What gets measured gets done. Something that doesn’t have a clear process is trash.

Can you answer the question, “How will I make that first profitable sale?” When you do, you got your profit path. And that’s the first answer to the question, “Are you ready to start a business?”

You Have a Very Clear Business Model

What is a business model? I mean by that, that you know how to monetize. How you are gonna make money.

So, you have that clear path to the first sale, but what is the overall business model? What is going to make you different from everybody else in the marketplace?

Maybe after your first product, you are already thinking ahead. Like how to build a customer base, what you are going to offer them next. What do you have to offer to them after their first purchase?

How will you keep your customers buying from you? And how do you find new ones? That all falls into your business model.

There is a huge difference between selling something – a money maker – and building a business. Most people have a money maker but not a business. They have a product. But that’s all they have.

So are you ready to start a business? Until you have a clear business model you aren’t.

You Have a Competitive Advantage

Does your business model have a competitive edge or an unfair advantage that you bring to the table? Something that allows you to differentiate yourself within the saturated marketplace?

What do you do? What makes you different? How can you cut through the noise? Why should people buy from you and not from everybody else? If they are already buying from somebody else, why should they switch?

It’s not enough to say you are “better”. What is your actual edge that you bring to the table?

Maybe you have a certain technology or a certain relationship. Maybe you are a superior marketer. Maybe you have a better process that you have spent years on to refine it. Whatever it might be, an edge is something that is very difficult for other people to compete with.

In my case, for example, I have a very strong personal brand. That is my edge. Even if I go into some other industry or vertical, I can bring that to the table. Now, this is not the only edge I have – but it is an edge.

In other scenarios, it could be a certain technology that I bring to the marketplace. Either way, you need to have an edge if you want to win. Don’t go into business with a “me too” attitude. You’ll get slaughtered – it will cost you a lot of time and money.

When you have a business there are essentially three stages. The stage of “me too”, “me better” and “me only”.

Me Too – Me Better – Me Only

Me too means you are doing what everybody else is doing. You are another realtor, another e-commerce store owner, another motivational speaker. You’ve got no edge.

Me better means you can do what others are doing – but better. You are an award-winning realtor. Your e-commerce has the fastest shipping, and so on. The problem with me better is that others can copy it. And when they do you lose your edge.

So what you really want to achieve is the stage of “me only”. This is when you are truly the only one who can do something. When you got that edge and nobody can copy it.

You Have Some Capital

You need some money to get started. So the business survives and stays sustainable over time. If you have no money to start a business, then you are making decisions based on scarcity. Base on desperation.

It’s very difficult to make strategic decisions when you don’t have any cash. So, only start a business when you put aside a certain amount of money. You have to know it will take some time for your business to ramp up.

Most people don’t make it. 50% of businesses fail in the first two years, 90-95% fail in the first five years. The odds aren’t good. And every time I say it, I hear from other entrepreneurs “I am the exception”. They always think they are the 5%. They never think they are that 95%. No one starts a business thinking they are gonna fail.

The problem is, sometimes they are overly optimistic with entrepreneurs. They haven’t failed enough. They are very naive and overly-confident. When instead, they should think more like an investor. Think about what the downsides are. What could I lose? Can I live with the downside? That’s being smart.

So, you need some capital. How much exactly depends on you. It depends on the business type. It’s important that you have capital and access to capital or money from banks and financial institutions. Maybe even investors that fund your venture.

How Do You Get Capital?

Now maybe all the other signs of “are you ready to start a business” do apply to you – except you have no capital. Chances are you are wondering what the fastest way to gain capital is. How can you raise that start capital?

When you aren’t able to start a business yet because you lack funds, then there is one other thing you can do. And that is to develop your high-income skill. What’s that? A high-income skill is a skill that allows you to make $10,000 a month – once you master it. It’s not a job because you don’t trade money for time. You make the cash with your own skills.

Common high-income skills are closing, copywriting, programming, consulting and many more. I teach all my students to develop such a skill first. Only when they reach that $10K a month, do I recommend that they start a business.

A business takes years to make you money – I will get into that in a moment. But a high-income skill can be learned within a few weeks and make you money comparably fast.

You Are OK With Not Making Any Money For A Long Time

Are you ready to start a business? Chances are, you are when you are okay with this. What? I’ll say it again. You are ready to start a business when you are okay with not making any money for a long period of time.

If you’re starting a business with the intention to make a quick buck, you won’t be successful. Now, that doesn’t mean you don’t want to be profitable. I’m not saying profit doesn’t come into play – it absolutely does. But if your sole focus is to make quick money then you’ll likely not going to be successful.

Why? Because when you are so focused on chasing dollars, chances are you aren’t solving problems. You should be in business because you want to save problems in some way, shape or form. You are fulfilling a need in the marketplace. And you bring your entrepreneurial skill.

Having a business isn’t like being an employee. You don’t get a paycheck each month. As an entrepreneur, we eat last. That’s why it’s called profit. You don’t get a paycheck. You pay your vendor, you lease, your team…you pay everybody else first. Your pay comes last. For your pay, you wait the longest.

A Profitable Business Takes Time

For the first few years – not months! – years you are just working and working. All your time goes into the business. Hopefully, it will grow and thrive. So you will have a big payday. But in the beginning, you are just putting in your sweat equity.

That’s what most people don’t understand. They start a business, thinking that in 6 months to one year they will be on the beach relaxing. It’s not like that.

Even people who run successful businesses, chances are it took them decades to get there. In some cases even 15-20 years.

So are you ready to start a business? Ask yourself: are you willing to delay the gratification? Are you willing to wait? If you aren’t then you aren’t ready. In that case, you shouldn’t start a business. This is the reality.

Everybody tells you the success stories. On the magazine covers, you see this entrepreneur made that amount of dollars and so on. But you never see the entrepreneurs who died financially. The business owners who go bankrupt – you don’t see them on a magazine cover. You see the one person who makes it. Not the hundreds of thousands who didn’t make it. That’s why so many are overly confident.

What Kind Of Business Should You Start?

Maybe you are also wondering what kind of business you should start. Which business types are really profitable? I have to say, this depends on you. It depends on your background. It also depends on what your passion is. What are your strengths? What are you good at? Do you have certain insights or connections?

Being ready to start a business also means being able to think for yourself. Do you know your strengths and weaknesses? Do you know what could get you out of business?

Or do you just want to start an e-commerce business because you saw somebody on social media who “made it” with such a business? Chances are, what worked for them does only get you so far. Because you have another background, other experiences, other insights.

Don’t start a certain kind of business just because somebody you admire has such a business. Hopes and dreams alone don’t make a successful business. You need to have that realism and look at your business ideas objectively. Is there actually a market for your product? Could this work for you with your current skills, strengths, and weaknesses?

So, are you ready to start a business? Those are some of the signs that might tell you. But as I said, you are never fully ready to start. There will always be factors you can’t control. There will always be challenges and setbacks.

The question is how well you deal with them. Are you able to look at it at face value, or do you wish your problems would solve themselves? Because once you are a business owner you are responsible for everything.

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