Competition
Maybe
you already have an idea for your new business, or if not, perhaps you’d
be happy to take the job you’re doing now for wages and convert it into
something you do for yourself. You already know how the job is done,
and you may have a few ideas about how to do it better. Maybe you’re
thinking that your area won’t support another egg-candling shop, but I
think you’ll find that in many ways, competition can build up both
businesses. Notice how often auto dealers try to locate themselves
close to their competitors. Sometimes your rivals advertisements
will wind up bringing people to your showroom/storefront/website and
sometimes the opposite will happen, but you’ll both do more business than
you would alone.
One more word about competition: while
this may not be true in big business, I think you’ll find that in any job
you do well and diligently, your competition will not be a problem.
The world is littered with successful, but poorly-run businesses.
Just be sure your own work is done to the best of your ability and as
consistently as possible, and you can forget about the competition.
It could be that you strike out on your
own with a plan completely new to you, neither a hobby, nor a former job,
just a great idea. This is the stuff of which the American dream is
made. If this is the way you choose to go, you'll want to be sure
that you do all your research and try to be realistic about your
brain-child.
Start Small
You may be ready to go
into business full-tilt starting tomorrow, maybe your great uncle died and
left you his doughnut factory, but more likely, you’ll do well to start
out small and work up. This way, you don’t need to quit your job or
make any major investments until you’re ready.
Starting small also allows you to get a
feel for your market; to try a number of different approaches, then when
you find one that works particularly well, do that again and again, while
always experimenting with other methods as often as you can dream them up.
One last word of caution, beware of the
human factor. If you choose a vocation that involves dealing with the
public, and virtually all of them do to one extent or another, you are
going to encounter some unpleasant moments. If you do business with 100
people, 99 of them will make you realize how glad you are to be in control
of your own life. One of them, however, will make you wish you’d never
been born. This isn’t your fault, it’s his, that one guy in a hundred,
but he is your problem and when you encounter him, just remember, you
don’t work for this guy (at least not anymore) and, "Tomorrow", as the
enterprising Scarlett O'Hara said, "is another day".
I hope you choose to start working for
yourself and if so, I wish you the best of luck. Like anything else,
you'll have good times and bad, but you'll never be out of a job.
I've seen plenty of times over the last 30 years when, if I'd been one of
my own employees, I'd have considered letting myself go. Of course,
that's not an option.
