Up to this point we have looked at various ways into business or self employment. Before going into more detail about the best kinds of income/wealth generating activity, I want to cover some basic principles of business success.
Business is simple, you only need three things…..
1. First & foremost, you need a whole bunch of people who have a common want that needs filling. The more of them there are and the more “hungry” they are, the better.
2. You need a product or service that fills that want in the best & simplest way possible at a price they are willing to pay. This means providing the most complete solution that you can, NOT as little as you can get away with for the money!!
3. You need a way to let these people know what you’ve got and how it so perfectly fits their needs. You also need to be able to convince them that they can trust you and that you are not going to disappoint them. Unfortunately they, like you, have been disappointed in the past so they may appear a little sceptical!
You would be surprised how many people break one or more, sometimes all, of the above requirements!
From a business management point of view ther are a few basic fundamentals that you need to be aware of – they are, however, pretty obvious.
1. You have to operate your business legally, i.e. in accordance with the laws of the country you will be
operating in.
2. You have to operate within certain financial constraints – namely, there has to be enough money coming in to pay for supplies and operating bills, pay the taxes and have enough left over for you to live on! Otherwise your business will be in debt (possibly as well as yourself) which will result in you becoming a SLAVE to your own business in order to try to get out of debt! Not conducive to FREEDOM!
3. You have to ensure your customers are happy otherwise they will tell each other, they will tell the media, they will tell the consumer watchdog groups and they will tell the business controlling authorities! They may even SUE!The result will be that you rapidly go OUT of business.
You will also have to deal with things called competitors! These are other people trying to sell the same kind of things to the same people as you are. If they are not there to begin with, they will turn up as soon as you show signs of being successful! Don’t worry about them – unless they’ve read these articles 🙂 – they will probably make all the classic mistakes so will not be a threat. The worst thing you can do is take your eye away from giving your customers the best service you can and focus on your competitors instead. Keep the customer happy, and let the competitors look after themselves. The person who pleases the customer most, wins!
Now I know this sounds pretty demanding, especially the “keep the customer happy” bit. So how do you ensure you can follow the best principles of business whilst still following the best principles of freedom? Easy, combine business with pleasure! In other words, before you look for the “hungry crowd”, seek out your own hunger. If you go into a business which involves doing what you really want to spend your time doing, then you have found your “passion”. That passion will become contagious and will attract others with the same interests or needs – that is the hungry crowd you are looking for. They will become your best customers, possibly even friends and no competitor who lacks the passion will get a look in.
Business should never be a chore, business should never be tying, you should never feel the same way about your business that you may have felt about a job you hated or even just disliked a little! Business should be F-U-N! For both you and you customers!
Have a fantastic week!
