It is natural and human to be afraid

Now, here are some notes to put in mind when starting your business.

Building and investing in your Passion, having a vision and a change of attitude.

· Personal notes

Do what you feel passionate about.

Business is not for the retirees. The sooner you start your business the better. Start now and give yourself time to grow your business while you are still on employment.

Business is not for the jobless. The thinking is that you need to find a well paying job straight out of college. Those who cannot find a job then need to start a business. Eventually you will learn that those who choose to go into business end up employing those straight ‘A’ students who look for jobs.

Business is not for the rich alone. Start small and be consistent. Start with the little you have set aside and grow your business from the humble beginning to riches.

Just because you have no college education or all the skills required at the beginning does not mean you will fail in business. You can teach yourself what you need to know as you move along. Make use of books around you and the internet.

Your social life does not need to come to a halt. Yes, start-ups take a lot of hard work, time and effort. You will have less spare time and probably lose sleep. It is until your business breaks even and is well established that you will being to realize the freedom that comes with being an entrepreneur.

You cannot afford to burn out, so ensure that you take some weekend breaks and vacations. Your mental health, physical health and relationships are important. Make time for them.

Stay fit, do fun stuff and do not let the stress lead you to substance use or abuse.

You do not have to listen or follow what everyone around you says. People will tell you of how you cannot succeed, how hard it is to succeed, that you are not the kind to take risks or you are not a natural sales person. Keep a positive attitude. Believe in yourself and have people around you that inspire you. Just ensure that you pick something you are passion about.

Delegate some of the work. You do not have all the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out all the functions required in the business. Ensure you hire qualified, skilled and experienced staff.

· Cost

It is important to start by clearly stating down your business vision, mission, objectives and goals. Clearly state down how you will achieve each of them and ensure that you scale up your business.

Some niches are new and unexplored in some countries. The same market niche could be over explored in other countries. Try to be creative. You could also try to improve on already present products and services in the market.

Generally, a business that improves on already existing products wins. It takes a lot of resources; money and time to introduce a new product into a market and have people accept it.

One way you can reduce your start-up cost is to learn some of the required skills instead of hiring staff to perform all the tasks.

I would not advice you to get into a partnership at the start-up stage. Rather, you can make use of family and friends that have relevant skills to give you free or low cost services.

Business will not give you financial freedom at the beginning. As you grow your business you will master your trade, earn more revenue and pay yourself better. Avoid rushing into paying yourself more or living a lavish lifestyle. This is too risky and you might go into debt.

The greatest advantage of an online business is that you get to sell or recommend another person’s product even if you are in different countries. This is referred to as affiliate marketing.

It is important to note that not everything can be sold online. Imagine having to sell animal feeds online. This will not work.

Note that lowering the prices of your products to be cheaper than that of your competitors will not necessary attract customers. You need creative marketing, study your customer needs, monitor the market and changing customer needs and frequently communicate with your customers. Your potential customers need to know where to find you, what products you have and that you have what they need.

If you have to hire staff; ensure that you are clear on what their duties and responsibilities are. You need to understand why their skills are important to your business, how those skills will positively impact your business and service delivery and the costs involved. An employee will be motivated to work for you when his or her duties and responsibilities in the business are clear.

If you have friends as business partners ensure that you have all the legally requirements done. Friendships more often lead to poor decision making.

Manage your cash properly. You need cash to run the day-to-day activities of your business, pay employees and other bills. My experience is that you need to have a calendar of activities and events for the coming year and prepare a budget. These will of course be based on your business goals for the year.

Do not be quick to write off your expenses. This could severely affect your business in the long run.

· Time

Avoid Get Rich Quick Schemes. Stay focused on your vision, mission, objectives and goals. A vision board is a simple tool that can help you stay focused on your business.

It takes time to grow wealth, even generations so start now.

You need to keep improving on your products, services and skills to remain competitive in the market.

If you have the passion you need to keep learning. It is good that you have the experience but, long term experience and knowledge in an area does not guarantee business success. Learn about your customers, their ever changing needs and interests. Apply this knowledge to your business.

Re-invest your profits to remain profitable and achieve long term business success.

Have a business model to guide your business.

Study and analyse your business environment.

Lets me point out a few ways you can make money from your passion.

Charge by the hour for consultancy services

Charge by the hour for coaching services

Start a college to teach and tutor people

Make and sell videos

Market your services and outsource your skills

Pick a topic and host workshops and training seminars

Create a podcast

Create and have people enroll in an online course

Write and publish a guide book

The questions that follow will guide you in choosing the kind of business you can get into.

How would you want to make money using your passion?

Would you want to sell actual products like books, eBooks, clothes, makeup and others? Would you want to share your knowledge about your passion and experiences by blogging, writing books or making videos?

If you have a lot of spare money, would you become an investor in ideas in a field you are passionate about?

Would you like to use your time offering advice as a consultant in your field?

Would you build events centered on your area of passion, such as wine festival, a music festival, a motor racing championship or basketball competition?

Would you be a collector or have a store just to preserve and maintain fashion and what people love to have such as restoring and collecting motor bikes and cars?

Would you want to change the world by building technologies and software that can make life easy for everyone?

Cheers,

Peter Kirimi Mburugu.

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