Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone. Matter of fact, it’s not for most people. However I think that most people would benefit from understanding the basics of it as well as the pros and cons of going into business for oneself. Entrepreneurship is one of those high risk, high reward endeavors. Where you can become rich or at least have the freedom to do what you want with your life.
Or you can fail horribly and end up worse off than if you had taken a steady “normal” job. More and more I’d say that if you have a job that pays that bills, supports your family, and isn’t soul killing that it’s something to be grateful for. Money means less and less every day and jobs that once allowed you to live safely and comfortable just don’t anymore.
Because of this many will have to turn to entrepreneurship to have any hope of having safety and/or freedom. While there are many different kinds of entrepreneurs out there, the definition being “A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.” one of the most reliable vehicles for entrepreneurial success and getting what you want from life is a running a small business.
There are many options out there such as opening a restaurant (one of the hardest of the bunch), becoming a copywriter, opening a gym, starting a carpet cleaning service, a lawn company, and so on and so forth down the list.
What Job To Choose?
The first decision you have to make is what kind of small business do you want to run. There are literally thousands of factors you could look at for this but let’s address some of the most important ones. First off is, what do you have skills in or enjoy doing? What do you have a passion, dream, or drive for? Answering this question will greatly narrow down your choices.
But in addition to this what are the barriers to entry? For some businesses you can get a few certificates and hang your shingle out the next day. But for others you’ll need capital and initial investment. A lawn company will need a trailer and mowers, a gym will need a facility. Whereas with a cleaning business a much smaller up front investment is needed. However just because the upfront investment is smaller does not mean it’s better.
The small the upfront investment the more competition you’ll have and the harder you’ll have to work to distinguish yourself and the easier it is to get lost in the masses. That’s a big problem with all of those “make money online” type businesses. Everyone’s doing them with makes it harder, but not impossible, for anyone to succeed in the business.
Another thing to look at is what will your area or the area you plan to operate out of support? Dan Kennedy once gave an example of a carpet cleaner guy who was advertising around his store and getting no responses. So Dan had him drive around his store to the neighborhoods his direct mail was going to.
What they found was that most of the neighborhoods were people living in trailers who could give two craps about getting their carpets cleaned. So make sure that wherever you put something up that it has the demographics working for it, instead of against it. And there are very few businesses that don’t benefit from being in a more affluent area.
The Biggest Thing You Have To Get Right
Is the numbers. Meaning that you are making more money than you spend. Easy to understand, a bit harder to stick with through all the ups and downs of running a small business. You have to know how much it costs to acquire a customer and then how much lifetime value that the average customer has. Granted these are metrics that it’ll take a little bit to get going but get as much information on them as soon as you can.
The thing that’s going to set you apart from the teeming masses, at the start, is advertising. Effective advertising to be more precise. We don’t have the time to go into all of that but I’d make sure you pick up some Dan Kennedy materials to help understand that aspect of your business. He has a system, which I believe has a book version now, that’s called Magnetic Marketing that is well worth the investment and no I make nothing from it.
But you want an enticing offer that’s going to get people’s attention, has low risk associated with it, and is designed to get people coming in again and again. You want to put a lot of work into this and make sure that you’re using direct response advertising. What is direct response advertising?
Direct response advertising is advertising that asks you to do something right then and there and can be tracked. It has an offer of some sort. Could be “first class is free”, or “A dinner for 2 for 49.99.” could be “free koozie with every purchase” or a millions other things. But something is being offered and response can be tracked.
Again getting a little ahead of ourselves. Look up Claude Hopkins if you want the breakdown of direct response and a great intro course.
Don’t Quit The Day Job
If you can help it, at least starting out. Starting a small business costs money, especially at the start, even when just about everything is going right. Try to start on the side and slowly but surely move out to the small business full time. Making sure that it is a viable vehicle for wealth creation. Take things slow, learn all that you can, and track every quid that comes in or goes out.
If you’d like advice beyond this or a more detailed guide you can sign up for my coaching program. Regardless I hope the information here helps you and as always, thanks for reading.
-Charles Sledge
