On the first part I went over a few reasons not to start a business. I’m in no way trying to dissuade anyone from starting a business. I’ve owned a few already over the years and it can be a very good thing. My goal with these articles is helping those who wish to start a business do it successfully, that means informing them of the risks involved and better prepare them for the challenges ahead.
So, lets talk about some of the upsides of owning a business and some of the reasons you might want to start your own business.
I can do it better
Any industry you go into you’ll find a multitude of competitors, and companies of all sizes. Sometimes in situations like mass retail being bigger is better, think Amazon. They are so big and have created such a large clientele that it’s virtually impossible to compete with them. But this isn’t always the case. There are many times when being big works against a company. In my IT business, although my clients were approached by bigger companies with a much larger marketing, sales, and tech teams, I was able to offer something they couldn’t. When they called my company, they had a more personal feeling. My small staff meant that whenever my clients reached out for support they knew who was on the other side of the line, and my techs knew the clients as well. Think about how annoying it is when you call for support and every time you get someone different and they go through the same script asking the same questions trying to learn about your case all because they know nothing about you. Then if the problem isn’t resolved and you need to call back you get someone completely different. Top this off knowing that if you say Joe helped you resolve the problem once before, the person you’re speaking with has no idea who you are talking about and can’t transfer you to Joe because the company is so big and has so many employees they don’t know each other.
Mine is one example, and it can be replicated across many industries. An electrician working for a big company is likely scheduled to do multiple jobs in a day and will rush to complete the work and move on. If your electrical panel isn’t labeled correctly he’ll just go through switching the breakers on and off until he finds the correct one. Never mind this may deprogram some of your equipment, clocks, or devices around the home. Next time around they do it all over again. You could choose to take the time to label the breaker panel, and it would make your job easier for the next time around. The home owner will appreciate the attention to detail and knowing they now know what each does in case they need to reset one.
There are more ways you can be better than not only large companies, but your competitors and stand out in your industry. You just need to find a way to be different, or better.
I can reach a different or under served market
This one can be great for your business, and can lead to fast growth, but be careful. Reaching an underserved market seems like a no brainer and easy, but keep in mind there might be a reason it’s under served. If you are a great photographer with skills to teach others, you can offer photography lessons. Lets say you are also really good at piloting drones however, now you may have your niche. You might consider teaching drone photography instead and find this to be a less competitive field. You can niche even further and decide to teach drone photography of homes and include all the information someone might need to start a business doing drone photography for realtors. You get the point, specializing in something this specific will find you in a market that is less competitive than just photography lessons.
Now about that warning regarding reasons a market may be underserved. Let me illustrate this with an example. If you are great at digital marketing and decide to open a business offering that service, you might notice tow truck companies don’t have a big presence on social media and other digital formats like websites. While this may sound like you found a niche that been unexploited, and a great opportunity to seize, consider that most people don’t care about tow trucks unless they need one. And when they do they won’t use social media to find one. Likely they will call AAA or the whatever service company their insurance or dealership sold them already.
It’s your passion
This one is a bit tricky. If you have a passion for something and can come up with a business plan that is realistic, you can implement, and will make you enough money to live a comfortable lifestyle, then why not follow it? First question I would pose is, do you really want to? If there is something you like doing, and you’ve been doing it as a hobby, this is fun. There is no pressure since you can do it whenever you want and the way you like doing it. You don’t have a timeline, there is no pressure to deliver to enough clients to make a living from, and you can do it your way instead of having a client tell you how they want it. Converting your hobby into a business may ruin the hobby for you.
Depending on your situation and specific interest however, pursuing your passion may translate well into a world class business. It is after all much more satisfying working on something you like, this means you are less likely to put things off, and will likely pay more attention to detail. If there is a market willing to pay a premium for your level of attention, then you have yourself a great business opportunity.