My last section had mentioned a lot of questions to get you started and now you can establish your goal. Your goal can be for personal reasons or all business. My goal for my first business was to help support an organization I believe in. Suzy's Treasure Chest's goal is to double the sales of the previous owners to support my family and me but allow me the flexibility I need as an active mom. That is how I started my business plan was with that goal. Now you can decide what you want to accomplish and start a goal of your own.
"Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor". Brain Tracy
I want to note that I did not buy an established business, I only purchased inventory of a store going out of business and created my own. I was however able to ask them questions to better my research of the needs in the area.
Next step on the very long ladder of success, is to create your business plan. The website for the Small Business Administration has templates. I know some classes teach you how to write a business plan. You can check with your local adult education programs or colleges. Another great resource in a book called Start Your Own Business by the staff of Entrepreneur Media. It contains many pages of questions to ask yourself about your business to keep you on track. I made a journal for my questions so I can reuse the book for my next business adventure.
It took days of research and planning but I completed my Business plan and it was 42 pages long. You want to make a plan to succeed so plan up to 5 years out and dream big. I had some issues with that, I was thinking about the risks and did not layout my expansions as well as I should have. Think about how you will grow by new clients, larger location, chains stores. One of my expansions for the current year is to take my store to the Internet for possible new consumers. I have already started to lay the foundation for this goal.
As a business owner you have to be many things like public relations, accountant, manager, and much more.(it is just like being a mom, you are the cook, taxi, doctor, and etc) You have to out source anything you do not feel comfortable to do yourself. Although it is recommended to have an accountant do end of the year stuff and you may need legal assistance for certain issues. A lot of your questions should be answered in the book I recommended. Once you have established your business goal you may find these last books helpful as well. They are both by Bernard Kamoroff. One is Small Time Operator and the other is Small Business Operator. Once you put together all these pieces you are ready to start the business and applying for all Licenses and Permits to start operations. Set your self a timeline and a goal to complete these tasks.
"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure". Colin Powell
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