Secrets to Success

My 9 Personal Secrets For
Starting Up a Business

Starting up a business can be scary – but the challenge is also exciting. Below I share my personal secrets for starting up a business.

1. Research

The first thing to do when starting up a business is to do your research. You need to discover what people want that you have the skills and the passion to deliver – and not just produce what you want, and like to do. There are many places where you can conduct your research and most of them you can find on the Internet. Business network sites; business associations; government departments; online forums; even private individuals can share knowledge with you. Searching via search engines is definitely the way to go.

2. Support
When starting up a business, make sure that you have the support of your family – many a good business idea has gone wrong because the family will not accept the effort and time required of you to run a new business. Even if your spouse is not going to take an active role when you are starting up a business, you will need them to brainstorm ideas with and you want sensible, thoughtful responses from them.

The children and parents also need to be supportive. If you only have one phone line to start with, everyone will need to answer the phone as though it is going to be a business call and the phone cannot be taken up for ages with private calls. And don’t forget to have a professional answering machine message.

3. Capital
When starting up a business it helps to have some seed funding. You may have an inheritance or savings or may work one or two days a week; or your spouse may put in a percentage of their wages. I know of a very successful business that commenced on $500 from a credit card – he let the bank finance his business by paying back the credit card before interest accrued. The point is there are ways and you need to find which one suits you, as you do need some seed funding.

4. Passion
It does not seem to be all that difficult for a business

operator to be passionate when they are starting up a business. But do not confuse passion with excitement. When you are doing anything new it tends to get the adrenalin going and you become excited. True passion means that you do not lose hope or get depressed when things are going wrong. Really successful businesses seem to be able to call on their ‘high’ (their passion) at all times, under all conditions.

5. Marketing
Marketing is essential for success when starting up a business. Part of running a business is to have a marketing plan (and budget) – it does not matter how good your business is – if no one knows about it – it will not be successful. Marketing, promotion and networking go hand in hand, so get your plan right and mix these tactics up to make a kaleidoscope of activities that will make your business grow and prosper. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on this.