"Can I succeed in business?"
Worded one way or another, this is a very common question we get on the Spirit Lake Forum small business section. Obviously, it is impossible for me to say whether an individual person will succeed or not, especially not someone I have never met. There are thousands of books, articles and websites on what makes one succeed or fail in business. If any of them had the "one, true answer", the author would be a billionaire, everyone else would be following his/her plan and there would be no more failed attempts.
There are a few suggestions I can make, have made, in our Courageous Leadership workshop. These include taking a good hard look at whether anyone would pay you for whatever product or service you intend to provide.
I sometimes read the Idea Cafe website for small business. It is a very interesting site, visited by some very knowledgeable people and some who really don't have a clue. I would recommend people interested in starting a business go there for a couple of reasons. One is that they have some genuinely good articles and good advice. The other reason, though, is that you will read ideas for businesses that make you wonder,
"What were they thinking?!"
It's a very nice site and no one ever says,
"Are you out of your mind? No one is going to buy knitted sweaters for turtles?"
or
"Life coach? What qualifications do you have to tell other people what to do with their lives? You worked as a clerk for twenty years, lost your job and now you are going to give other people advice?"
Nope, no one says that. They say nice things about what an original idea knit caps for turtles is or assure the person that she sounds so nice and enthusiastic that, of course they are sure she will be successful in her business of offering life coaching seminars. Next thing you know, nice person # 2 is posting on the same site about her difficulty finding customers and asking for marketing advice. What I learned back in business school in the 1970's (yes, I am that old) was that the first rule of marketing is to have a good product.
It is possible to succeed in business despite ignoring a lot of the basics, like having a business plan, monitoring your cash flow and so on, although it is not the way to place your bets. I suppose the individual who posted on our website was looking for something more original than that. So, here is my two cents worth:
Worded one way or another, this is a very common question we get on the Spirit Lake Forum small business section. Obviously, it is impossible for me to say whether an individual person will succeed or not, especially not someone I have never met. There are thousands of books, articles and websites on what makes one succeed or fail in business. If any of them had the "one, true answer", the author would be a billionaire, everyone else would be following his/her plan and there would be no more failed attempts.
There are a few suggestions I can make, have made, in our Courageous Leadership workshop. These include taking a good hard look at whether anyone would pay you for whatever product or service you intend to provide.I sometimes read the Idea Cafe website for small business. It is a very interesting site, visited by some very knowledgeable people and some who really don't have a clue. I would recommend people interested in starting a business go there for a couple of reasons. One is that they have some genuinely good articles and good advice. The other reason, though, is that you will read ideas for businesses that make you wonder,
"What were they thinking?!"
It's a very nice site and no one ever says,
"Are you out of your mind? No one is going to buy knitted sweaters for turtles?"
or
"Life coach? What qualifications do you have to tell other people what to do with their lives? You worked as a clerk for twenty years, lost your job and now you are going to give other people advice?"
Nope, no one says that. They say nice things about what an original idea knit caps for turtles is or assure the person that she sounds so nice and enthusiastic that, of course they are sure she will be successful in her business of offering life coaching seminars. Next thing you know, nice person # 2 is posting on the same site about her difficulty finding customers and asking for marketing advice. What I learned back in business school in the 1970's (yes, I am that old) was that the first rule of marketing is to have a good product.
It is possible to succeed in business despite ignoring a lot of the basics, like having a business plan, monitoring your cash flow and so on, although it is not the way to place your bets. I suppose the individual who posted on our website was looking for something more original than that. So, here is my two cents worth:
- Make sure you have something people are willing to part with their money to get.
- Learn from the failures of others. That is one reason I recommended the Idea Cafe website.
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