What was the best small business to start in 2016?
Have you been asking yourself; what are the best small businesses to start? I had that very question and have spent a great deal of time breaking that question apart. After all, why spend time on building a business that in the end won’t last or doesn’t make any money? As you read on you will learn the fundamental building blocks that will equip you to make money effectively.
Many assumptions underline the pursuit that you are on; it is prudent for you to be aware of them in order to fully exploit the value you can bring to others. Here are the problems/assumptions that will underline your pursuit;
- You don’t have much money
- You will be competing against established competitors
- No one knows who you are or what you can do
- Success in any venture with focused time and persistence
So, let’s start to unpack how you can work through these realities and find yourself running a successful business.
You don’t have money !?!
While this may be true don’t fret, it isn’t a deal breaker. This simply means you need to be very intentional with the money you do have as you move forward. Businesses exist for one reason, to solve other people’s problems. This is done through the provision of either products or services. Providing products require a good deal of capital, providing services requires a good deal of time. You don’t have the money so you will be investing your time. If you don’t think you have any time than I ask you; how is it that you were able to find this site and read this article? You have time, we all do. Even an hour a two a day used persistently will ultimately culminate into something of value.
Services don’t require much of an overhead. Take Janitorial services for example, after purchasing your cleaning equipment (much of which you probably already have) there are few other reoccurring costs. In fact this is a good place to start thinking about the things that you already do that others would pay you to do for them. Do you have tools and the ability to fix things? Perhaps you are a good writer and can produce content for websites or provide editorial services. Editorial services are one that I have paid for multiple times for this site! In short there will be expenses but it’s not like you are leasing a piece of machinery or office space. You will be providing a service and people are going to love you for it.
Dealing with your competition
A lower financial barrier of entry means you will have a lot of turnover competition. Competitors will come and go as they try their hand in your niche. This competition will be people that want to get started but don’t know what they are doing. They will pull jobs out from under you by low balling the price but this practice will put them out of business as fast as they started up. What does this mean for you? It means you will have to deal with constraint haggling about lowering your price. Don’t worry its how business works but as long as you have a strong competitive advantage you will be fine. You can read more about completive advantage elsewhere on the site but in a nut shell you are going to service the crap out of your customers by tailoring your service to needs they didn’t even know they had. They need you to take care of something for them. Sure any number of others could do it but they picked you. They will keep you as long as you give them that extra something they didn’t know they were going to get. Do this enough with your customer base and they will be handing your card out to everyone they know. Each service and niche will have its own balance with this so use common sense and ask you self if you were paying to have something done what would you expect.
No one knows who you are or what you can do
A tree doesn’t grow over night and neither will your business. It will take a little time for you to build a name but it will happen much quicker than you think. If you have a good competitive advantage as stated in the previous section than this will happen naturally. Keep cards on you and do a killer job, people will pound a path to your door. We needed someone to clean our house while we were getting ready to move and my sister was very pleased with a gal that had helped her out previously. I got her name and number, gave her a call, and she did an amazing job. She cleaned things I didn’t know needed to be cleaned. It didn’t take much on her part but she was able to leave an impression that will have me handing her name to the next person that asks me for residential cleaning services.
Marketing is in itself a compete field of study but don’t get too caught up in the hype. All it takes is a few phone calls and the ball will start rolling. Ok, you may need to post a flyer or two but you absolutely do not need to spend thousands of dollars setting up websites and direct mailing campaigns. Your efforts will have a fly wheel effect as long as you are serving people well. In time you will realize the fly wheel of your business will be spinning faster and faster.
Success in any venture with focused time and persistence
Each job you complete will be another push on your wheel. In time you will become more knowledgeable with which jobs and which clients make you the most money. Continue to refine your craft to find better ways to serve. This site is an example of a focused persistent effort that has ended in success. It’s successful because you have chosen this over all the other sites and sources to learn a bit about the direction you need to go. We see the volume of visitors that we do because of the continual investments into the site. Very few others have spent the amount of time and money that we have to build this resource and as a result we stand out from the crowd. You are no different. The more you invest yourself into your business the more it will differentiate itself from the others around you.
Don’t get caught up with the idea of fast money. You will need to be willing to put in the time and effort no matter what direction you decide to take. Going after the “easy money” businesses will only serve to keep you in the rat race. Success will come with time. As long as you continue to pursue excellence you will find yourself running the best small business to run regardless of industry or niche.
Wherever you are on your income journey be sure to check out The Four Stages Of Wealth Creation; From Clueless To Capitalist. We put this together as a guide for those looking to grow their financial acumen and take their next step towards financial independence.
