3
9 | Emerge
STEPS TO
FIND OUT
IF YOU ARE
READY TO
START
YOUR OWN
BUSINESS
Written by, Marc Parham,
Senior Business Coach, CAPBUILDER
NETWORK GROUP
I have been a consultant for over 20 years; I have helped people all over
the world start and run their own businesses. I have helped people start
successful for-profit and non-profit businesses. Many people started
working on their business plans and/or taking training with little progress
forward and became frustrated with the process in its entirety.
What I came to realize were two important points:
G G
Are you self motivated? Do you have the right mindset?
SMALL BUSINESS REVISTED!
Remember when your parents, uncles and aunts, relatives and other friends had more than one job? One of my uncles
worked on cars and my grandmother was a hairdresser; however, they also had odd weekend jobs. They did what was
necessary to provide for themselves.
We have always been small businesspersons.
We have always used our skills to take care of our families.
Within the last few years something has changed!
• People have been told that they only need an education, a job, a house, and a car and they will be living the American
dream. A dream that has been recently shattered by the current economic situation.
• People have done what they were told, and now they are losing everything that they worked so hard to get.
• They worked hard for someone else!
Take the self-assessment below to find out if you are ready now. This is not pass or fail. Any questions that you answer
NO to are only the things that you need to work on to get ready.
SELF ASSESSMENT
1. Do you think you are ready to start a business?
No | Yes
2. Have you ever worked in a business similar to what you are planning to start?
No | Yes
More people today have decided they want to own their own business. Some have decided because of a passion that they have
always had others because of the current un-employment situation. (Percentages, un-employment rates, generational? We don’t
want to work for anyone but ourselves?) Regardless the reason, many people have decided that it is time to turn their ideas into
action and start their own a business or organization.
This article will discuss the three steps needed to know if you are ready to start your own business.
SETTINGTHE STAGE
STEP ONE
DO YOU HAVE THE
RIGHT MINDSET?
3. Would people that know you say you are well suited to be self-employed?
No | Yes
4. Do you have support for your business from family and friends?
No | Yes
5. Have you ever taken a course or seminar designed to teach you how to start and manage a small business?
No | Yes
6. Do you consider yourself a leader and self-starter?
ONE
A great number of people lacked the confidence to get things started.
They didn’t think they had what it takes to work on their own. Many
people also believed they lacked the education and background to
launch and sustain a successful business.
TWO
Most people jumped right into starting their business without taking
the time to work on developing their business ideas. Most did not do
the research and development to see if their ideas would work before
investing money in training and setting up the business. The goal of
this article is to give you a few basic steps to take to evaluate your
business idea and get it out of your head and onto paper.
No | Yes
7. Would other people consider you a leader?
No | Yes
8. Do you have enough confidence in yourself and your abilities to sustain yourself in business, if or when things get tough?
No | Yes
9. Are you prepared, if needed, to temporarily lower your standard of living until your business is firmly established?
No | Yes