Motivation

How to start a business. Presentation summary

On Friday (23^rd May) I was attending a presentation given by two guys from KPMG (Audit, Tax & Advisory services) on a topic: how to start a business. I have to admit, my expectations was not very high for this presentation, because usually it is concentrated around general topics such as desire, dedication, persistence and other more theoretical things. And it was not that different this time. But despite that they have also pointed out some really interesting things which have caught my attention. So in this post I will try to summarize the presentation and give some valuable information to bloggers who are trying to make money from their blogs.

Business is least what you can do to support yourself

Having in mind that the audience was quite young and all “wannabe businessmen” the phrase like this may have sounded a bit crazy. It didn’t make sense at first to me too, because a week ago or so I wrote a post “Why getting a job is a bad idea”. Presenters were giving totally different approach. So I listened very carefully what were the arguments supporting this saying. It was basically only one argument – obligation.

As an employee you are only obligated to your boss for things you do. But your boss has quite a few obligations: to employees, business partners and government. What if you as an employee would not do what your boss told you to do? In worst case, you would lose your job. But what if a business owner would make one mistake? What if he forgets to pay taxes, salary to one of his employees or pay for goods to the supplier? The business owner might end up in huge dept or even in jail. Sure it’s the worst case, but how many new businesses go through first two years in US? It’s only 5%. And another 95% simply lose money they’ve invested.

I have to admit, that blogging is a little different field. It doesn’t require huge investments. But on the other hand it takes a lot of time and effort to get going. Most new bloggers have a dream to live from their blogs. How many succeed? And how many invest money in advertising and that money never comes back? And this brings us to another important point the business advisors have stated.

Set your goals and stick to them

Probably everyone knows why having a goal in business is important. You have to know where you going to figure out how you will get there. Problem with this is that sometimes (quite often as stated in presentation) people forget what their original goal was.

Presenter gave this example: a businessman has a goal to get a brand new motorcycle. He starts working towards his goal and then a thought pops into his mind: owning a bike requires special clothing and other accessories, so he decides to get an accessory shop. But hey, it might go something wrong with the motorcycle… I will need a service to repair it. What about my friends? We will need a place to gather in with our rides, so he decides to get a bar also. So in the end he starts reaching for too many goals at the same time. The lesson: have a goal and stick to it. Get a bike and then start working towards accessory shop.

In my opinion that applies to many bloggers too. Many of us have too many goals. Take writing for example. If you are writing about everything – you are writing about nothing. There are many blogs in blogosphere that originally started as blogs, let’s say, about cats but after a couple months blogger started to write about dogs, hamsters, pet food and other things not related to cats while his blog name remained www.blogaboutcats.com.

Sure, you might say, that any post is valuable resource for getting more traffic. But in my opinion, if you’re building an authority site, stick to the topic. People come to your blog to read about something, and more posts they will find not related to a topic, more likely they are not coming back.

Eat well, sleep well

One successful businessman said that you have to eat well and sleep well, when he was asked what it takes to be successful in business. Many young people forget that. “I know you eat $hit” – presenter said – “at least buy a pack of vitamins.” And that’s very good point, maybe you will make one million dollars in one year working 20 hours per day and sleeping only 4. But after that year you will spend all your money to doctors. Be wise, plan your day. It’s time to work, it’s time to rest. Being a workaholic is bad not only for your health but it will kill your social life one day too.

Life span of your business

Many businessmen lose their passion when they have reached their goals. They create business from zero, make it profitable and then sell it. Why? They like being creators. Others like maintaining their business all life and are happy seeing it grow. What kind of person you are?

If you are approaching your blog as a business, you have to know why you are doing this and how long you will be doing this. Our blog goal is to make one million dollar. But I have no idea what we would do if we reached this goal. We will have to work on this.

Have a clear vision of your business. Have your exit strategy too.

Summarizing, I would like to say, that if you decided to get yourself into business, it’s pretty obvious you have to take it serious. Remember that succeed rate is only 5% for a new business. Sure you have to set your goals, eat and sleep well. But most importantly you have to believe in what you are doing. So in the end it all comes back to general things as persistence, desire, dedication and others. And after all, remember: a quitter never wins and a winner never quits.

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