Starting a Business- Motivations

Starting a Business

A blog for businesses with 20 or fewer employees or for people planning on starting one. There are two threads. One for Starting a Business and a second for Growing a Business.  Author: Henry McCabe.

If you are reading this, you are probably thinking about hanging up a sign- Coming Soon- My New Business.   Starting one is a multi-step process. The first step is to make a realistic assessment of your
readiness to do so.  The last three blogs suggested assessing: your knowledge base of business issues (2/8/14), your ability to finance the start and early years of the business (2/13/14) and your willingness to tolerate the risk inherent in starting a business (2/21/14).

Assessing your readiness - Motivation

The fourth question you should answer for yourself  concerns your motivation for starting a business. What motivates you?  What to do expect to get out of being a business owner? Motivation should leads to goals. Do you have specific goals for the business? Are your goals realistic? Here are some dreams I have heard from clients and the reality they will find after they get going.

Motivation: I won't have to work the long hours I put in for my present employer and I can take all the vacation I want.

Reality:  A Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index survey found that today's small business owner works an average of 52 hours per week, with fifty-seven percent working at least six days a week, and more than twenty percent working all seven.  Owners surveyed take an average of two weeks of vacation  per year, with fourteen percent not taking any vacation at all. Of those taking a vacation, thirty-nine percent do work-related activities (phone calls, emails, etc.) during that time. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/.

Motivation: I will no longer have to put up with 'guff' from my boss and his boss.

Reality: Every customer that walks in the door,in person or virtual, will be a boss that may give you guff. Then there are your vendors and landlord. You will find that they are often the boss, not you. Plus the local zoning board, tax assessor and tax collector;  state tax collector, labor department and office of corporations; and the IRS and sundry Federal departments. Worse yet. You will be the boss having to give employees guff and getting some in return. A small business owner has no end of bosses. Source: personal experience.

Motivation: Within months I'll be making boodles of cash.

Reality: It is not as easy as that. Data about proprietorships provide a pretty good picture of small businesses. The average revenue of  17 million U. S. proprietorships in 2010 was $64,700 and average net cash flow (which equates to the owner's take) was $20,300. Surprised by those numbers? Many are. You are going to have to be way above average to be making boodles of cash in just a few months or ever. Source: IRS statistics. Also take a look at the business survival graph in my last post (Feb 21, 2014).

Be Realistic: Independence, being your own boss, pride of ownership, the ability to help others through with a product or service, creating your own job, making money from what is now a hobby, seeing a creative business idea taking off and many other reasons are legitimate motivations for starting a business. Put making a good living and building some personal wealth at the top of the list. Be realistic about whatever drives you to do it. Investigate realities and plan, plan, plan before you launch.

More about goals and planning in the next post.

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