Are you tired of your job? Want to start making the decisions at work and inevitably make more money? Being self-employed is a fast-growing trend, but not everyone knows where to start.
Here are the necessary steps to kick off your self-employed journey:
1. Decide what you WANT to do
Just jumping into working for yourself without a plan is not unheard of, but having a plan is going to streamline your success and make the journey smoother, with fewer unnecessary speed bumps.
The best way to figure out what to do is to look at what you already enjoy doing. Figuring out what your good at and what you enjoy doing may not always be the same thing. The majority of the time, your idea will start as a hobby such as cooking, writing, arts & crafts, computer programing, gardening… the list goes on and on.
These ideas make the building blocks of any startup. The process provides the capability of learning more about what you already love doing. Work becomes fun, and when work is fun it no longer becomes work.
2. Freelancing or Entrepreneurship?
The next thing to consider when deciding what you want to do is to figure out if you want to become an entrepreneur or freelancer. Although they both lead to self-employment, they are different in many ways.
An entrepreneur is a person who chooses a classic approach toward business ownership and self-employment. This path tends to have limitless possibilities and should be structured in a manner to rapidly grow. Business owners who choose this path, tend to hire a team, open physical locations, offices, and grow from national to international companies.
Another approach towards self-employment is becoming a freelancer. This path involves using your talents such as graphic design, computer programing, art, writing, crafts, and so on. Freelancers tend to find clients and work outside of the typical office environment, or physical location. Most freelancers work remotely, or in small teams of other freelancers. Freelancers work outside of the typical scopes of companies or agencies and tend to do one-off projects. The benefits are there but the potential for growth is limited.
3. You’ll never know until you try
Ask any business owner about their path to where they are now. I guarantee you they will say they failed many times before they succeeded. Now that you have an idea of what you want to do and what type of path you need to take, it’s time to take action.
When I say time to take action, it does not mean quit your job. It means to put your idea to the test. See if it works. Get things moving. Throwing everything you have at something you don’t know will succeed may not be the best idea.
Luckily, there are many affordable solutions to get the ball rolling with your business.
4. Play it smart
Becoming self-employed and successful on day one is nearly impossible. So don’t go and quit your job just yet. You are going to need to pay for rent and buy food as well as other business-related expenses somehow during the initial starting phase of your business.
Taking a full plunge by giving the business your all in all attention is important but not necessary to succeed and a risk you can easily avoid. A suggestion would be to go from full-time to part-time to focus on your business.
Remember to keep your expectation realistic. Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Nike, and Amazon didn’t become who they are now in one year. Stay humble, proud, and dedicated to your business. If you don’t succeed at first, try and try again. That is the secrete to successful businesses.
5. Small is not bad
A lean business is a business starting small, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Keeping your initial starting costs low, opens doors for many possibilities, and streamlines your business towards success.
If you sell products online, sell a limited supply of that product. There is no need to stockpile 10,000 t-shirts without having a single order, even though the ROI may be better on paper, you may only sell some putting you at a loss from day one.
Only hire employees when you can afford it. This is a golden rule and here’s why. You may have an amazing idea, and process established and decide to hire a team to get things moving fast. This means you are in the RED, and as a business owner lacking the true knowledge of how to address issues in different aspects of your business.
Don’t buy anything that will require you to take out a loan and most importantly don’t just sign up for things that will eat away at your profit.
Keeping your business expenses low in the early stages of your business allows you to remain in business longer. Any business owner can tell you, it’s not always about being the best, it’s about outlasting your competition.
6. Networking & Connections
What most people tend to look past in business is the soul that runs it. The business owner runs the business with one real intent, to make things better for their customer. If you build meaningful relationships with your customers you are bound to get referrals.
What’s the best way to sell anything? Yes, referrals. How do you get referrals? Yes, by building relationships and networking. Believe it or now, one out of every three people you know either needs your services or products or knows someone who does. By providing customers with personable service, asking for advice and help when needed, offer advice when you have it, and treat your business environment as a team instead of competition, brings out the best results and rewards.
7. Reputation
The truth is when you’re just starting out as a new business owner, you don’t have the backing of a well-established brand, or millions of dollars at your disposal, or the skills that exceed everyone else. All you really have is your reputation.
In the beginning, your main focus should be on reputation. The more reliable your business is, the more customers keep coming back and new ones get referred.
Start your business with TIBINT
So you’re ready to start a business, that’s fantastic! You can spend hours, days, weeks, or months trying to figure out your marketing strategy, and starting point for your business.
You can also work with multiple vendors, DIY services and end up spending more time managing that focusing on sales, reputation, and your business. We solved this problem for you by providing a 360 marketing solution.
Each business is as unique as the services and products it provides making certain starting points different. Don’t be fooled if someone says a business website is more important than local listings.
