Evaluate Yourself

Not everyone is cut out for operating a business. How do you know whether you are? The U.S. Small Business Administration offers these questions for helping you evaluate your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to entrepreneurship:

• Are you a self-starter?
• Are you willing to invest 50 to 70 hours to run a business?
• How good are you at making decisions?
• How well do you plan and organize?
• Do you have the stamina to run a business?
• Do you have a product or service that is in demand?
• Will your business offer an advantage similar businesses do not?
• Who are your competitors?
• Are you willing to risk your life savings on your business?
• How will the business affect your family?
• Do you have a source of financing, either from your own money or from family members, friends and associates?
• How well do you get along with different personalities?

SBA counselors say you should be able to give positive answers to most of these questions. If not, then reconsider whether you really ought to go into business for yourself. You can find more information online at www.sba.gov under the "Starting Your Business" section or in the SBA's free Small Business Resource Guide publication for your region, available through your area SBA office.  

The Georgia State SBDC also offers an Entrepreneur Risk Assessment Quiz online at the SBDCnet Small Business Development Center National Information Clearinghouse, http://sbdcnet.utsa.edu, under the "Getting Started" section.

Preliminary Research

Before you invest major time, money or effort into any business idea, the experts suggest you take some preliminary research steps and think about these areas:

Business criteria - What kind of income could you earn from this business? Would you be a working owner or absentee? Does this business sound fun and interesting to you? If you did start it, could the business be easily duplicated if it were successful, giving you room for expansion? Can the business be branded? Can it be systemized? Are there ways you could eventually produce other streams of revenue by branching out from the core part of your business?

History - Is someone else already doing what you want to do? If not, there's probably a reason. Is there no market for it? Is the timing wrong?

Finances - Do you have resources for funding the start-up phase of your business? If so, how long will those resources last? If you don't have the money in your bank account, do you have access to a second mortgage? Family backing? A line of credit? If you haven't even thought about this, you could be in trouble already.

After the initial research, it's time to take more concrete steps: choose an industry and a niche; write a business plan that includes a marketing plan; put together an action plan and a flowchart; and make sure you're financially prepared for your new venture. These will be discussed in Chapters 2, 3 and 4.

For more information about starting a business, read Taking an Idea to Market: How to Turn Your Vision Into a Successful Business Venture by Molly Tschida Brennan, published by NAWBO in 2004. 

Checklist

1. Start saving your ideas in a notebook where you can keep track of your work, to make sure you don't forget any flashes of brilliance or skip an important part of the process.
2. Examine your reason for starting your business. Are you genuinely excited about entrepreneurship? Or are you running from something or someone at your job?
3. Quiz yourself with the questions recommended by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Did you answer a majority of them positively, indicating you may indeed be cut out for owning a business?
4. Visit the SBA's website at www.sba.gov and read the information about starting a business. Take the quizzes under the "Are You Ready?" section of the "Startup Basics" area.