START YOUR OWN BUSINESSlionaires, are entrepreneurs who have passed the seven-year point in
building and running their own businesses. They have stayed the course
and paid the price of success - but it took more than seven years.
Of course, it is possible to beat the odds. Everyone who got caught up in
the dotcom boom was convinced that business success was achievable
almost overnight. It may be possible to build a successful business in
less than seven years. But beating the odds in entrepreneurship is very
similar to the occurrence of miracles. It is not that miracles don’t hap-
pen; it is just that you cannot depend upon them.
CAReFUllY PlAn YoUR BUsIness In ADvAnCeWhen you decide to start your own business, you may launch impul-
sively because of a significant emotional experience or event in your
life, like the loss of a job or the appearance of an opportunity. You may
do it slowly and deliberately by spending several weeks or months in
study and preparation.
Whichever you choose, investigate before you invest. It is much easier
to get into a new business than it is to get out of it. It is therefore impor-
tant that you spend sufficient time investigating, in advance, before you
commit time and resources to a particular business venture. This careful
assessment can be critical to your long-term success.
Remember the 80/20 Rule. This rule says that 20% of what you do will
account for 80% of your results. One application of the 80/20 Rule says
that the first 20% of time that you spend in planning and evaluating your
business at the beginning will determine 80% of the results that you
eventually get.
When you decide to start your own business, you should draw up a
complete business plan. There are several books on the bookstands that
you can get for a few dollars that will give you all the ingredients of a
business plan. There are computer programs that will walk you through
the process of building a business plan. They make the process simple
and straightforward.
The assembling and putting together of a complete business plan is a
key test of the entrepreneur. If you have the discipline to do it, you will
find that it alerts you to many factors that you may not have considered.
It will take a lot of work on your part to generate the various numbers