There are three things that you absolutely, positively MUST have to operate any business.
It doesn’t matter what your business may be, if you don’t have these three things you will fail.
Yes, FAIL.
The last thing anyone wants to do is fail. But without these three things that’s exactly what will happen.
These three things are non negotiable as a business owner.
You simply can not operate a successful business without them.
There’s no replacement or substitutions. So read on and make sure you have these three must haves before you bite the bullet and jump head first into your new business venture.
3 Must Haves for Operating Any Business
1. You must have COMMITMENT.
There’s a lot to running a business as I have detailed in another article here. Although I talk about all that goes into running a storefront, I don’t feel like I really touched on the level of commitment you must have once your doors are open.
Previously I spoke about how much time and effort you will expend on the actual day to day operations.
But what I didn’t get across was once you open a storefront there’s no going back. Unless you completely close up shop and go back home. (Which I did, as I talked about in this article.)
What I failed to realize was even though my dream was to own a storefront in order to legitimize my business, I really lacked the commitment it took to keep going once I was burnt out.
I’m going to confess something to you right now….
I was ready to close up shop and go home the very first week we were open.
You know why?
Because we were so incredibly busy.
Weren’t expecting that were you? The truth of the matter was, I just wasn’t cut out for being that busy and having such huge responsibility and obligations.
I was absolutely terrified. And overwhelmed at our immediate success.
I never thought that being successful would cause me to want to quit. Let me also tell you how incredibly ungrateful I felt. I had such guilt over wanting to close up shop right away. If I’d realized beforehand that I wasn’t prepared for the tremendous commitment I wouldn’t have done it to begin with.
So what was I committed to?
Let me just touch the tip of the iceberg of things…
First of all, we’d spent all of our savings and then some just opening our store. So there was the financial commitment.
Then I had hired a handful of employees who were counting on me to write them a paycheck every week.
After that there was the lease I’d signed for a year, on top of all the contracts I entered for utilities, insurance, credit card processors, etc.
Oh, and last but certainly not least– our customers!
They had been following along as we began our journey of building out our shop and were beyond excited for us to open. Once we did open they were committed to gracing us with their business!
What I’m trying to say is, if you are quickly overwhelmed or you tend to give up easily, opening a store front may not be for you.
If you definitely need a break after a long weekend of cake orders, then maybe being a full time business owner isn’t for you.
Owning a business is kind of like being a parent. You really can’t fully understand it until you experience it for yourself. It’s also really difficult to explain it to people who haven’t experienced it. Don’t forget it takes a tremendous amount of commitment as does rearing a child.
2. You must have CONFIDENCE.
This one may not need as much explaining but I’m going to jump in there and talk about it anyway.
You will need confidence to follow through with obtaining financing, seeking out customers, negotiating contracts. being a manager, and in your overall work and abilities.
If you are not confident everyone out there will run you over. Your employees, your customers, your landlord, salesmen. Everyone.
Be confident in your product. Believe in it and be ready to defend it to the end.
There will be times when you have unhappy customers. It is just part of the business world. You can’t let the negativity of criticism destroy you or your confidence. Once that happens you will lose hope and you will be ready to throw in the towel.
I didn’t realize how lacking in confidence I was until I opened my bakery.
It was really difficult for me to take the bad with the good. I had a very hard time keeping my confidence when the occasional unhappy customer surfaced. It eventually got to me. Once you pile lack of confidence onto stress, anxiety, and being overworked and underpaid, you have a recipe for burnout and defeat.
So be sure that you are extremely confident in yourself and your work before you even begin to explore your business options.
3. You must be Ambitious.
I know you feel really ambitious right now.
But are you the type of person who must be in first place and always finish on top?
Do your dreams mean more to you than anything else in your life?
Are you willing to sacrifice everything; family, friends, time, and money just to succeed?
Do you envision yourself owning more than one store?
If you answered no to any of these, owning a business may not be for you. I thought I was ambitious, but I was really just optimistic.
I had tons of optimism but I didn’t have the amount of ambition it takes to really be successful at owning a storefront. I wanted to have a busy enough business so we could be comfortable, but I never had the drive to want to sacrifice everything in my life in order to stay open.
If you don’t eat, sleep, and breathe your business now, you won’t want to once you have a store with lots more commitment. Without ambition you have a recipe for disaster. You must have the ambition to constantly grow yourself and your business.
Evaluate Yourself.
Do you have the ambition to constantly grow and succeed?
Do you have the confidence to go out there and pull in customers anyway you can during slow times?
Do you have the commitment to pull through when all you want to do is lock up, go home, and hide under the blankets?
You can not operate any business without these three things. Without commitment, confidence, and ambition you are setting yourself up to failure.
If you are still in doubt about whether you should open a storefront, be sure to read this article about all the great reasons to keep working from home! You may be surprised to realize you are happy where you are! Check out this post to see how to make your home bakery awesome!
Whichever route you go, be sure you are certain you have all three staples for success before you get started!
What do you think are the most important things a person must have to operate a business? Let me know what’s important to you in the comments!
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