Andrew's New Business

I received a call from a friend of mine. His name is Andrew and he wanted some advice on starting his own small business.

Andrew’s Experience

Andrew has been a mechanic for 12 years, working for a national automobile repair chain. He is at the top of his trade, totally certified, and updated on all new areas of the automobile industry.

He has also worked in customer service, along with a short stint in sales. But that is about as far as it goes. He had no experience in business management. Nor had he any knowledge as an entrepreneur.

I invited Andrew out for a coffee so we could make a plan for his potential entry into the small business arena.

It would have been easy for me to simply give him a list of things to do, but I felt strongly that he needed to do the work himself.

Andrew’s Homework

At the end of this meeting, Andrew left with the understanding that knowing why many small businesses fail, would be the perfect place to start. So Andrew had a project to work on for our next session.

We met two weeks later and I was pleased with the results. Andrew had really done his homework.

His project reflected all the hard work and time that he had invested.

His analysis covered every failure reason from personal burnout to poor cash flow. In fact, if I remember correctly, he had a list of at least 20 valid reasons why many entrepreneurs fail.

That meeting seemed to last forever. We delved into his project and identified some areas that Andrew needed to become confident in before he moved on.

As Andrew and I finished the session, he had created an action plan geared specifically to these issues, and where he could get help.

We met several more times over the next month or so, and I can happily report that Andrew now owns his own automobile repair center, and is well on his way to becoming a successful small business owner.

The truth is that you can also do what Andrew has done. It just takes some research and planning.

Advice to Budding Entrepreneurs

My advice to all budding entrepreneurs is, to firstly understand why so many businesses fail, and secondly, engage with people who can teach you what you don’t know… before you jump into the small business arena.

I am sure there are business coaches available in your area, possibly even government sponsored. My advice is to make sure they have experience in running a successful business and have been there themselves.

A great area of support is the Self-Employed Business Academy where there is a community of members who run their own business, and who want to help each other, with no other agendas.

Click on the link below to find out more.

Anyway, the moral of Andrew’s journey is…..

• If you do not know how to create a business plan: find out how.
• If you do not know how to set your prices: find out how.
• If you do not know how to keep financial records: find out how.

Identify what you don’t know and then take the steps to find out – before you invest your time and money. And check out the $1 trial for the Self-Employed Business Academy. You will find a lot of the information right there in the one place.