|
|
I have made some money in my life; enough to be done school and doing my own thing now. However, in order to do that, I had to learn a lot. Along the way I have also lost a lot of money because I didn’t know what I was doing. So, I’d like to help you avoid making the same mistakes that I have, and hopefully you will soon be able to say that you have also started your own successful business.
Basically, my ideas for businesses have come out of the life experiences and jobs that I’ve had. In 1996 and 1997 I spent my summers as a painter for Trent University, and I got to paint about 500 rooms and dozens of hallways each summer. After that amount of painting, you get pretty quick and accurate with a roller and brush. So in 1998, I decided to start my own painting business. I wanted more flexible hours and I wanted to make more than $6.85 per hour. In the 6 months that I ran the company, I brought in $35,000 and learned a lot more than just how to paint.
In April of last year, I was finishing up my psychology and computers degree and feeling unfulfilled, because in the process of meeting all the requirements and prerequisites of my program I didn’t really get to explore the things that I was really interested in. So, because I’d come to like technology so much, I got the idea for some sort of technology/education company that would provide more inspiring learning experiences and job opportunities through co-operation with other people & businesses from around the world.
In August, I met some people here in Toronto who had the very same idea and we worked together to create the organization I work at now, called TakingITGlobal. Obviously a lot had to happen to get from the stage of an idea, to an actual working organization.
Here's what I learned:
-Research the idea. Make sure there is a need/demand for your business. Don’t duplicate someone else’s services because that's more competition for you. Find out what areas your competitors are weak in and try to fill those gaps with more value. Search the net for your city name and some keywords that describe the business. Once you find them, read their websites and contact them.
-Go through the yellow pages to find similar companies, then phone them or go to their location as a potential customer. Ask the hard questions and see what they say. Try to figure out what they are not doing that could be valuable to the customer and then make sure you do that. You can even ask their customers to find out what they would like to see as an additional service. You MUST do something to differentiate yourself from them!
-Learn all you can about your target market! Demographics: you can tell income from houses, # trees, curvy roads, cars. Psychographics: what they like, or what they are like. If you’re selling incense, you will want to advertise where new-agey people hang out, like new-age bookstores and coffee shops. If you are selling web-hosting services, you may want to advertise on large portals such as Sympatico, or Yahoo!
-If you think you might like some help, look into a franchise. Franchises are great for is research and planning. They know how to plan, or they wouldn’t be successful at franchising. Also, a big bonus is that much of the research (except for location) is already done, and many of the policies are already in place.
General Business:
-Register your company, and write off as much as you can! It's cheap to register it as your name. Maybe even buy a .com and include the URL on any promotional materials that you get printed up. Writing this off requires that you… track your money!
Track your money, even if it costs you money. Use Ms money, quicken, or TD telephone banking. Otherwise you face nightmares and government on you for taxes.
-If you’re accountable to people for your money -- make sure you know what they want, and give it to them!
-Set Goals: if you don’t have goals, you can’t work hard to attain them. Productivity will be lower.
-You’ve got to spend money to make money (advertising, sales people, planning, equipment, forms etc)
-Don’t spend money where you don’t have to! Get a Contractor Account! If you are going into the service industry.
-Specify quick ways for doing repetitive tasks. Once you know the best way, teach it to everyone else, and make them use it. Have a standard script! Practice it over and over, and know your stuff so that if they ask you a question you weren’t expecting you can at least make up the answer. Worst case à tell them you would be glad to find out and call them back!
-Network as much as possible! Easy way to learn more about the business, and business in general. Also, more contacts never hurt! Often, you can find directories of local events on the net or through similar local businesses.
-Try to establish partnerships! You might not do X, but your partner might. And they might not do something you do, so you can give work to each other. This basically doubles your marketing power without increasing costs!
|
Tags
You must be logged in to add tags.
|
Writer Profile
Derek Martin
This user has not written anything in his panorama profile yet.
|
Comments
An amazing brief for starting your business Jose Menacho Galiano | Jan 29th, 2003
Amazing brief of how to succes in a business... I include one recommendation If you live abroad "The First World" run your business by your local rules... You knows the market, the thoughts of your powerfull customers, and the advantages and disadvantages for run It in an undeveloped country.
You must be a TakingITGlobal member to post a comment. Sign up for free or login.
|
|
