What you should Know about your own business

10 things to know about starting your own business, first of all let me say this, if you are tired of getting up and gulping a cup of coffee down, maybe grab a pop tart or toast, or a piece of fruit and dash out the door so you can beat the traffic on your way to that job you love so much. Than perhaps you should listen up to what I have to say.

I am 68 years old, I have been retired for 8 years, I have had a stroke, I am diabetic, I have had a burning desire ever since when I was young to be my own boss, I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I wished to be in business for myself. Did I always have an idea of what I wanted to do, not on your life, I worked in a factory, food store, computer programmer, system design, built computers, drove a school bus, drove a local transportation company bus, plus I started my own company part time because I liked to work with people and teach them how to make some extra money using that dusty old computer for something other than email.

So here we go, did you know that every year over 550 thousand new businesses are started, maybe even more, one thing I tell people, prior to starting a business sit down and write a list of 5 to 10 things you love to do even if you never made a dime doing them.

Now I do not want to discourage you, but you have understand something very important, in the first 5 years almost all businesses will fold. I have been in business 12 plus years, I am still going, why because I refuse to let my business die, I treat my customers fairly and will often go out of my way to do things for them. Must people tell me I am a little nuts, I have a Type A personality love to take control and make decisions. So here are the ten things you should know before starting your own business.

1) You control you own Destiny, you are the boss. If you say go you go , you are responsible for your day to day activities. If you want to work 5 hours today so be it, I and some of my friends work 12 to 16 hours a day. Because that is the way I am, however some day’s you will find me out walking in the woods taking pictures of deer, people fishing, grass growing, or maybe I am with some of my friends having coffee and talking about what a wonderful job President Obama is doing on ruining this country.

2) You are in charge of finding your own work/ life time frame, in other words you are responsible for paying the bills, carrying for your ills, and watching out for the occasional spills that you and your business may take.

3) You must choose the people you work with, often family members will tell you, you are nuts for what you are doing, friends will often tell you the same, surround yourself with like minded people, positive people who build you up not tear you down. My friends and I always pat each other on the back, that is what friends are for.

4) You take the chances, or risks, therefore you get to reap the rewards, I go out of my way to help my customers with their questions on computers, laptops, selling, or how to do this or that on the Internet. I fix their computers and will often give them a loaner to use while I fix theirs. Sometimes they can only pay me a small amount but will pay me the rest later, I have no problem with that. I also can deduct the mileage I travel to my customers on my tax, plus the food if we go out to lunch.

5) Each day challenge yourself, to learn something new about your business, whether about, taxes , accounting or buying things on the internet or a better way of doing a website.

6) Follow your passion, time flies when you are doing what you enjoy, rather than working for someone who often does not even know your name. I always tell my customers start small and you will grow as your company grows. If you show people you care about what you do and how you do it they become more than a customer they become your friend.

7) You can get things, tasks done faster because you are not the kind to just sit and wait till someone else does it first, you will take the ball and run with it. Sometimes you might come up a little short, other time you will be the leader of the pack.

8) The customer is always right, by getting to know, understand and work with you customers you will find that that is not always true.

9) You have a chance to give back to the community, you can do volunteer work, start a service that people need, help solve problems in housing, create jobs, educate people.

10) You can take pride in creating something you own, you built this business up from the ground, it is yours no one can take it away from you.

So that sums it all up, are you ready to start your own business today, tired of waiting for the axe to fall. Do you have to quit working to start you own business? The answer is not at all, begin small a few hours a week here and there, if you have a vision of what you wish to do, hold on to that vision and feed it and watch it grow even if you do not make a dime but you love every minute you do it. If I can be of help let me know, I like to see people’s dreams come true.