Starting your own small business can be tricky and oftentimes even a little frightening. Getting out of the comfort of the usual corporate scene and commanding your own destiny is enough to give anyone pause. But the ambitious few who push through the fear and doubt soon realize that there is so much more to gain when you dare to take the first step.
It is true that many small businesses fail, but just as many succeed. The “why” varies as widely as the laundry list of potential pratfalls that made a particular business a success or doom it to disaster, but that doesn’t stop budding entrepreneurs from getting out there and taking a shot at making it in such a volatile economy. In fact, for many, it spurns them on. But why do something with such a stark likelihood of prosperity?
Why Entrepreneurs Take The Plunge
Maybe it’s destiny. Maybe it’s the desire to be the boss. Maybe it’s greed. But if you had to ask, many of them would likely boil it down to one word, and that is “love.” Love of family inspires them to work from home. Love of their passion that drives them to turn their art or skill into a profitable enterprise. Love of the idea of not answering to a nameless, faceless entity who signs their paycheck.
It is love, passion, desire, and grit that get the entrepreneur out of bed, make them want to get to work early, and keep their eye on the prize at all times. It is the love of the path they have taken that makes them work longer hours than they have ever before in their previous employment to ensure the trains keep running on time. And that love sustains them and gives them the push to reach new heights in their field.
That is who franchise opportunities are born, how they need to go on sites like Indeed.com to hire more staff is decided, and how someone working out of a garage can have a fortune 500 company in less than a decade. If you see a need, then fill it, there will always be work to do. The best entrepreneurs that succeed with the greatest frequency know there is always a need to fill.
5 Reasons A Small Business Is Worth Your Effort
Beyond the typical motivations, there are a few other ways you can profit from having your own business. And these apply if you intend to always stay small or if you wish to expand and create your empire. Just remember to pace yourself. Small business growth and cultivation is a marathon, not a sprint.
1. Credit Availability
Just like the equity in your home is available as long as it is gaining worth, your business is a resource for credit when needed. And these days, it is easy to get a credit line as long as your business model is viable for the long term. This is less true for niche markets, but these specialty shops are still a plausible risk as long as they have shown a quality history of positive returns.
But beware. Credit can be a slippery slope. Credit is against the profitability of your business, so when your business dives financially due to unforeseen market circumstances, creditors will still come for their pound of proverbial flesh. Don’t get overextended.
2. Tech That Works
Nowadays, we have the technology for everything. From your Point-of-Sale system to your marketing needs to your taxes, everything can be done and run by a single person on little more than a laptop. It is easier than ever to track transactions, issue billing, and even monitor employee efficiency, and you can do it all from home if necessary.
Tech has its downsides, though. If you haven’t taken the precautions to back up your data or properly secure your online systems, you are vulnerable to outside breaches. It is sadly easy to be targeted by cyber predators. Cover your technological bases and keep them updated.
3. Compete To Improve
More and more new online business opens every day. Sites like Shopify have made something as intricate as drop shipping so easy that the market is now saturated with stores selling everything from toys to pet products, all from the comfort of home, and never having to touch a single piece of inventory. But is this saturation a bad thing?
Many entrepreneurs would say “yes,” but the ambitious ones would disagree with that notion. Competition invigorates the soul, gets creative juices flowing, and makes a real fighter want to go a few more rounds. Having a few competitors raises the bar from mediocrity and complacency to excellence. It inspires you to strive to be the best.
4. Contact With The Customer
The worst cliché in any capitalist economy is the notion of “the customer is always right.” Why is this wrong? Because it is designed to move the meat, but it doesn’t address the real problem. The issue at hand has nothing to do with the customer, but with the way a transactional situation is handled in the intricacies of the deal. The nitty-gritty of the experience.
By interacting with your customers from the other side of the equation, you can see the perspective as the businessperson, and get involved in those details the average customer doesn’t know or even care about. It provides greater enlightenment into the mind of those who are often taken for granted due to that dated axiom. It flips the mental script.
5. Pat On The Back
When is the last time you felt truly amazing about doing something? When have you felt absolutely satisfied with a project or task? One last wonderful notion when running your own business is the ability to see the whole event from start to finish and know it all succeeded because of you. You did this. Maybe you had help, but they were driven by your love and passion.
Inspiring others, changing someone’s life, enhancing your own, are all great ways to see and feel that you have done work that is worthy of your efforts. You can stand back with a smile knowing that this is yours, a ship at your command, and you are at the helm. It is up to you to keep it on course, but those you have brought into your adventure will help you because they believe as you do that your small business is here to stay.