How To Start A Successful Business

by Willard Michlin

Published on this site: May 5th, 2005 - See more articles from this month...

In the Movie and Play “South Pacific” there is a song called “Talking.” The words to that song go like this. Feel free to sing it. “Talking, talking, talking, talking, talk. Talk about thing you’d like to do. You have to have a dream. If you don’t have a dream. How you going to have a dream come true.” This is the first step. If you are going to devote 50+ hours a week to a business, it is really essential that it fulfill a dream you have. Surveys of successful people have shown that the love of the work has been more important than the money. Interestingly, that usually equates into success in the work of love, which is then followed by financial success. It is also true that many people buy or start a business that they did not have any passion for in the beginning but learn to love the work and they worked in the field. The first rule then is stay close to the heart.

In order to start anything new you must start out with a plan. We all have heard stories of great ideas that died because some one did not go past the idea stage. The plan should include such simple answers to the following questions; what is it you want to produce or sell? What is the list of steps that you need to take to produce your product? (Working backwards from the final product, accomplishes this.) What are all the marketing and administrative steps that you have to take? And lastly, what resources do you need to execute this plan, including education and finances? This plan and all of its parts will give you a road map. So we have the second rule. “If you do not know where you are going. How do you expect to get there.”

We have all heard the expression. “The best laid plans of mice and men…” Now that you have a plan worked out and all its details, it becomes very important to take this plan and execute it one step at a time. One way to help move you rapidly through your list of targets is for you to put a completion date on each target step. This prevents procrastination (putting things off until tomorrow that you should of done today.) and keep you moving steadily towards your final destination. This brings us to the third rule. “Follow the Yellow Brick Road”

On the above list of necessary questions was the question of resources. In a capitalist society like the one we live in the two main resources are Capital (money) and Labor. This concept basically says you need both of these. It also implies that if you have more of one of these you can use less of the other. For example; if I need a piece of office furniture I could 1. Spend my hard earned money and buy one or 2. I could get my tools out, buy some lumber and make one with my labor. There is third resource that is not mentioned but is just as important. It fits into the two resources by being called using your brain or your brawn (strength). How to you best utilize your brain so you can work smart? The answer is get educated on How to run a business. How to control finances. How to market your product? And my favorite: How to keep it and not pay it all out in taxes? Invest your hard earned capital in these very important resources. This brings us to rule number 4. “They can’t take your knowledge away from you.”

Now that you have gotten some business and management training under your belt, you can revise, correct and streamline your business plan. This of course does not assure you that it will get done, no matter how beautiful it is. You need to actually do the steps of this plan. To make sure you keep working on the plan targets, I suggest you do some of your targets every day. This has to be done while at the same time delivering your service or making your product you will find that each week the work gets easier, production increases and the business becomes more organized. Today’s organization of the business is tomorrow’s expansion. Expansion cannot occur without organizing to make production smoother. If you do not spend time in organizing, then you will become like all people who just work harder and harder each day trying to catch up on yesterdays work. This brings us to rule number five. This is the rule to not follow the crowd. And what is the crowd doing? “Most people so busy working that they haven’t got time to get rich.”

Conclusion

Find a path you would like to go down, make a step-by-step plan on how you are going to get this plan done. Put completion dates on each item in the plan. Get a business education and then decide the best use of your available capital and labor. Constantly work to streamline the business to run more smoothly while at the same time, keep your daily production and sales increasing. The constant balancing of producing a product and making the company run smoother so it can increase production in the future is you’re your most important job as the owner of a business that is going to support you with a large abundant income.

Willard Michlin is a Business Broker, California Real Estate Broker, Accountant, Well known Public speaker and Administrative/Business Consultant. He can be contacted at his Ventura, California office by calling 805-529-9854 or by e-mail at [email protected]. See other articles by Willard Michlin at http://www.kismetbusinessbrokers.com