Despite extensive lockdowns, the entire global economy hasn’t completely tanked this year due to the power of the internet in keeping business going. Anybody can have a business nowadays with just a computer and an internet connection. For example, if you are looking to start a skincare business, this can be done from home with the help of manufacturers! Still, if you’re thinking of starting your own online business, you have to ask yourself whether you should.
Do You Have a Plan?
If you want to start off a business, you should know that you need to work more than full-time on it for the first couple of years. There’s a misconception that people can start an online business as a hobby, due to the chance it will explode, but this is so unlikely it should be considered a myth. You need to have a robust plan that incorporates everything you need to do, along with timescales. This involves doing your research; it can be too easy to get excited about online business, say an eCommerce store, set it up and only then realize that you need to do 10 hours of SEO work every week, time that you hadn’t accounted for. If you haven’t done your research, maybe spoken to a Shopify developer to find out the extent of the work involved, you could be in a hard place.
Do You Have the Money?
It can take a lot of time for a new business to deliver a return on investment, which is why you need to have not only an investment source but money to live off. If your business is your sole source of income, you will need to have a solid level of savings to tap into for your living expenses. You can pay yourself a salary if you want, but you need to make sure that every investor is fully aware of that and how it will negatively impact their ROI.
Do You Have an Escape Plan?
The vast majority of businesses fail; roughly 80% of businesses don’t make it for more than a year; it’s just the nature of the game. You need to anticipate that and be honest with yourself about your chance of success – as good as your idea is you could just get unlucky. If you do get unlucky and fail, you need to have an escape plan. Could you get a new job? Would you start another business? What would you do about your savings? These are important questions you need to ask yourself.
Are You Hardy Enough?
Emotional Hardiness is something that comes in handy throughout your life, but you need good emotional hardiness in business. You need to be headstrong in adversity because it’s likely you’ll face many problems that will seem like existential threats throughout the entire life of your business. The business owners that can cope with the stress and who can deal with the existential threats are the ones that come out on top, both in terms of their own mental and physical health and in terms of corporate success and company culture.
