Posted on: 27 November, 2002
Author: Shonda Ponder
When you decide that you would like to go into business for ... first step is deciding on a type of business that fits your ideaof ... and "fun". After all, the whole reason you wan When you decide that you would like to go into business for yourself,the first step is deciding on a type of business that fits your ideaof "comfortable" and "fun". After all, the whole reason you want to gointo business for yourself is the fact that what you are doing rightnow is "uncomfortable", and "not fun".So, the first thing you should do is make a personal assessment of whoyou are. For instance, what do you like? What are your favoritehobbies? Do you like working with or around people? Or, are you ahomebody? Do you have any skills that could help you (such as typing,office skills, organizational skills, etc.)? What do you dislike?Yes, what you dislike is as important as what you like. Withoutknowing what your dislikes are, you are liable to turn your projectsinto something that you don't want to do, but end up stuck with.Figuring out what you dislike before-hand will enable you to planaccordingly, and make sure that what you dislike does not interferewith what you are trying to build. Dislikes help you decide policiesand procedures that you normally would not think of when writing outyour business plan.For instance: Do you like or dislike knocking on stranger's doors? Areyou comfortable or uncomfortable talking to strangers face to face?How do you feel about telephones? Do you feel differently about emailsor letter writing through postal mail?If you are comfortable talking to people face to face, then you shouldstart out with products that you believe in, and go for the directselling technique. However, if you are more comfortable with writing,you may want to consider a mail order type business, or an internetbusiness.Whatever type of business you choose, it will be up to you to decidethe best marketing strategies to fit your needs. You will be makinglist after list of what works, what doesn't work, and why you feel itfailed, and how you think you could have improved the methods. Afterall, whatever business you decide to get yourself into will be up toyou to promote. If it fails, it will be because either the marketwasn't there, or the promotion wasn't there. Both reasons will be yourown responsibility to account for.While deciding what is "comfortable" and "fun" will help alleviate theworry and dread of working at what you enjoy, we must remember thatrunning your own business is work -- and sometimes it requiresbreaking a sweat in order to make a profit. So, once you have decidedwhat is "comfortable" and "fun", you will need to decide what skillsyou are best at that will help you manage and promote your business.Test your targeted market by using several methods, at first, topromote your business. Find the one that works best for you, and thenbe consistent. When you are doing something you enjoy doing, doing itevery day doesn't seem so hard. Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com