Entrepreneur:Ready, Set, Go Into Business

Entrepreneur: Ready, Set, Go Into Business

By KC Miller, Founder/ Director of Southwest Institute of Healing Arts

Going into business isn’t to be taken lightly. However, if you wait for all the lights to be green you may never leave the driveway of your mind.  There is an old saying,“‘Tis better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.” The same is true about business. While it may be true many small business fail, many make it!  GO for it!

GO get a business card. Decide what you are willing to offer as a service, claim it as yours, and put it on a card. You can get inexpensive business cards by going to websites like www.VistaPrint.com or  www.123print.com. Often your first set, up to 250 cards, will be free. Order them. Your card will likely change many times over the first couple of years; it is part of the process. Create . . . and adjust.

GO to the Secretary of State’s website. Check to see if the business name you are considering is available. It is a simple process of logging onto www.azsos.gov/scripts/TNT_Search_engine.dl and typing in the desired business name. IF the name is taken, it wasn’t meant to be yours.  Once you get the ball rolling you won’t want to stop the momentum by having to go back and change your name because someone else has already legally claimed the name. Choose again and get on going.

GO to the bank and start a separate business checking account. Start by depositing $100 into this account as a token of your 100% commitment to make your new business work.  Pay for all your business expenses out of your business account.  Deposit all of your new business income into this account.  Do not co-mingle personal and business expenditures.  If it is a business expense, pay it from the business account; if it is a personal expense, pay it from your personal account.  While it is true you may have to just turn around and write a check back to yourself to deposit into your personal account, that’s the point.  You want your business to generate enough to pay YOU.  The more careful you are with your accounting, the easier it will be when it comes to reporting income taxes.  All the expenses from your business account will become write-offs.

GO to places where likeminded people mingle. If you want to be in business you have to get out and meet people face to face, eye to eye. Go to networking meetings, events and gatherings, even to church.  The key is to GO and to mingle.  Talk to people.  Ask them about themselves.  Find out what makes them tick.  Make it a personal challenge to determine how your product or service can best support their needs.  Don’t sell them ~ serve them!

GO to classes and read lots of books.  Starting a business is not a natural talent for most people. It is a learned skill.  Take a class from the Small Business Administration or even go on-line.  Check out the Entrepreneurship classes at local private and public colleges and institutes. 

GO forward together. The greatest momentum can be achieved when you are working with others who are starting their businesses or private practices in a support group or Mastermind setting. The ideal situation is to meet weekly.  Each week focus on a topic or area of business development.  When possible, have a guest speaker who is a specialist in the given area of business. Address the group giving specific how-to guidelines.  Each week make commitments to the group as to what you plan to accomplish that week.  The key to the success for a support group and your business is being publicly accountable and reporting your accomplishments!  State publicly what you intend to accomplish and then do it!  The classic success book written decades ago entitled Think and Grow Rich outlines Mastermind groups and documents their success.  Together Everyone Achieves More is the definition of TEAM..

GO to a website that helps you create your own domain. GoDaddy.com is one of the most popular, economical and easy to use sites. In a matter of a few hours you can have an entery-level website, known as a landing page, built. If you are even a little bit familiar with using a computer you can build your own website. If this feels too overwhelming, for less than $500 you can hire someone to build you a small introductory site. A website is like handing someone a beautiful brochure laying out exactly how you can best serve them and their needs. As your business grows so will your website.

GO to social networking sites and get connected. This is the first time in history you can build your business and not leave your house. Set up a MySpace.com, FaceBook.com or Link-in.com site and begin searching for people you would like to get to know and eventually do business with. A new site you might consider is ConsciousLivingSpace.com designed especially for holistic- minded people who want to grow their healing arts businesses. Set aside an hour a week to get connected worldwide.

GO to your knees often, whether literally or figuratively.  Give thanks for your many blessings. Gratitude is one of the surest ways to increase your success.