Starting your own business, being your own boss, building a cool startup company, choosing your own team, etc. All of this is very exciting and for many, a dream come true scenario. What stops you really? If you have a brilliant idea, motivation, and some money aside for investment, the risk of failure should be pretty small. After all, what drives you to success is your passion.
However, in all this excitement, new founders might experience difficulties with managing expectations and seeing things in other colors than pink.
The work-life balance
At first, the idea of being your own boss is lovely because, in principle, you can choose your own work hours. If planned smartly, you can have a higher work-life balance, spend more time with your family, pick up the kids from school, etc. The reality, however, it might look a little bit different.
New founders forget that starting a business brings lots of extra responsibility and new tasks. In the beginning, you will take care of HR, marketing, sales, research and development and all these will require plenty of your time.
Business is your child
Building a business might feel like raising a child. It was your idea. You were the one to start researching it, testing and slowly implementing. So, of course, you want it to succeed. Hence, you will most definitely find yourself spending more time than planned to bring it to perfection. It will probably also be all you will be able to talk about. And that’s all okay. However, remember to give enough attention to your actual children or pets!
24 hours a day isn’t sufficient
In the planning stage of your business, you will set some deadlines or expect seeing results by a certain date. To reach them, you will work long days and sometimes you might feel that 24 hours a day isn’t enough. Your plans may be unachievable in the given time period. Moreover, there will be delays. Either in getting extra help or your developer will get sick. Things happen. Do not forget to plan in some emergency time.
Figuring out your finances
Because of these delays, your first profits may arrive a little later than expected. If you are one of those founders who does not take a salary from their young startups, make sure that you have sufficient savings or enough assets to survive in a situation when something unexpected happens. Figure out your personal financial situation in advance to avoid surprises.
Taking into account the family
If you have a family, or are in a relationship, starting a business needs to be discussed together. Your wife, kids or whoever else is there around you, will be influenced by your decision. Your income will be significantly reduced or non-existent for the first few months at least whereas your time will be fully consumed by the new venture. Make sure they understand and that you can count on their support.
Planning the next steps
After the first few stages of building your business, what does a founder need to focus on next? One of the most important things, which you should start working on as soon as possible, is SEO. Your goal should be to, eventually, appear on the first page of Google. To a modern entrepreneur, the benefits of it should be well-known.
To get there, it’s hard and long work. So, once your website is published, start with the optimization.
Underestimating your team
Do not underestimate the importance of your team. They are everything. You should have confidence that you can delegate tasks without having to micromanage. Otherwise, it will be a difficult start.
If your budget doesn’t allow you to hire some employees, try to go with interns. You can teach them industry knowledge and give them space where their efforts will lead to measurable results whereas they will provide you with a fresh, modern look into various fields, including the mentioned SEO.
