Things I Wish I Knew Before Started – 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my series and we’ll be exploring other factors that are important to know when you’re starting a business. Over the years, I’ve worked with many people and they’ve run into issues simply because of their mind frame. This is NOT uncommon for those who are first-time entrepreneurs, especially because they simply don’t know what to expect going forward. In the first part, we looked at factors like:

  • Business is harder than you expect
  • Networking is important
  • A clear bottom line

In Part 2, I’ll be looking at some other important factors that are important to know when starting a business and will protect you going forward. Let’s jump right in…

Being Passionate Matters

Many people often get involved in a business they are NOT passionate about and this hinders their success going forward. I can’t stress how important it is to really love what you do or you won’t push forward when things are getting tough. For example, I’ve worked with many people and have had several businesses in the past that all produced a common trend. First, the ones that survived are the ones I was truly passionate about and this goes for my clients, too. Next, much of the success had to do with the fact that when you are passionate about your business, you’ll push forward when you hit barriers along the way. I always recommend to ONLY get involved in those businesses which you’re passionate about because that’s the difference between success and failure. It comes down to the fact:

With passion, you push forward when you face adversity. It’s that simple!

Competition is Tough

From my experience, almost any niche you’ll be involved with will have competition and this is something you should be mentally prepared for. Many people new to business will think one-sided and that competition isn’t something that will affect them. However, competition is definitely something that’ll affect your bottom line because you’ll have to fight for your customers. Personally, I think competition can be used to your advantage simply because you can learn a lot from them. I’ve researched my online competition to understand the following:

  • What content will resonate well with my audience
  • Where MOST of my audience will be located
  • What keywords they are targeting and how I can incorporate them in my business
  • Depending on the tool, I can find out gender and education

I’ll admit, when I first started in the business, I didn’t think too much about competition and how it would affect my business. However, over time, I realized, with competition, I’ll be fighting for customers so I had to tweak my marketing to find ways to compete. I also realized how I can use my competition to my advantage to better understand my audience, etc.

Lifestyle Change

Running a business is very tough and you’ll have to do things on your own when starting out. This means making a change to your daily routine so you can manage day-to-day tasks. For example, when I started blogging, I had to change my work habits around to fit my schedule and so I could get everything I need done. This meant waking up earlier, writing more often, cutting down recreational time, and completely tweaking my working hours. The way you approach this will be different for everyone and you might have to continue to tweak your schedule until you find one that works well.

From my experience, I know the following were things I had to tweak going forward….

  • Waking up timing
  • Working hours
  • Exercise schedule
  • Break time
  • Office location

As mentioned, the elements you decide to change will depend on your current working habits and what you feel is getting in the way of your success.

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