Small business entrepreneurship is on the rise as more people are looking to find better work-life balance as well as a more fulfilling career. If you’re considering that move for yourself, you may be wondering if there is a market for what you have to offer, and if you have all the tools you need to make it. So here are three main areas you need to look into in order to decide what type of business is right for you:
Assess Your Skills and Experience
Whether you’ve decided to go solo in your chosen professional field and you’re launching your own freelance operation, or you’re starting completely fresh and developing a project you’re passionate about, start by making a list of your skills and see which ones are transferable toward your new career goals. Are you a great communicator, do you have a good head for numbers, or do you excel at operating and fixing things? If you’re stuck trying to figure out what you’re good at, ask your friends, family members, and colleagues. Make sure they give you objective answers, and not just what you want to hear! From then, see if there are any skill gaps you need to fill in order to start your own business. Sign up for industry-specific classes at your local community college, or contact your local chamber of commerce and enroll in a leadership workshop where you’ll learn more about starting your own business.
Evaluate Your Time and Resources
Launching a business takes time and money. To help you decide if entrepreneurship is for you, make sure to create a solid business plan that will help you figure out your startup costs. Include all the equipment and raw materials you will need to get started: is it something you can cover by dipping into your own savings, or will you have to reach out to family members and investors to help you with financing? Consider the people you may need to hire as well to get your business off the ground: can you manage everything on your own, or will you need to hire freelance help to handle the tasks you’re unfamiliar with? When you’re on a tight budget, free online tools can provide you with the help you need. If you want to add visually appealing, compelling information to your business website and social media pages, you can use this infographic template to design your own charts, diagrams, and posters that will effectively get your message across and help you promote your brand.
Research Your Market
If you’ve been freelancing on the side for a while, you may already have a few established clients paying for your services, or customers buying your products. And now, you’re thinking of taking it up a notch and turning your side gig into a full-time business. But before you go all-in on your new venture, you need to make sure that you’ll have enough of a market to sustain you. So gather data put together by your competitors to get an overall view of your marketplace. Think about conducting a competitive analysis that will not only show your competitors’ strengths but their weaknesses as well. You don’t have to hire a team of market analysts to do the job: simply look at what small businesses similar to yours are doing online in terms of customer engagement, and how they are performing. Online sites let you check out how long they’ve been in business, how many employees they have, and other information that can help you better position yourself in the market.
There’s always some risk involved in starting a new business. Discover what your strengths are, and see what gaps will need to be filled so that you can launch your own company. Thorough research will go a long way toward your future success as an entrepreneur.
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