What it takes to run your own business

It takes a lot to run your business. It requires a special personality and many skills. A successful business requires attention to a number of functions to be sustainable and successful. Read on for information on what is required and some ideas on what to do.

a special personality

Running your own business requires careful thought, a lot of personal energy, both an internal awareness of what’s important to you and an external awareness of what’s important to your customers. It is almost impossible for someone who has never operated a business to know everything that is required to do the job well.

In addition to all the personal elements needed to run the business, you also have your specialty: be it a medical or wellness specialty, or a specific skill in providing valuable services to your clients. Skilled professionals are often not taught how to operate their business while learning their skills and profession in school. They are left to fend for themselves after graduating with their degree.

What is needed

In addition to providing your services, you must take care of:

• Operations: Create and manage business processes, rules, and infrastructure
• Staff: Hire, train and manage the people required
• Marketing: attract prospects and keep customers coming back
• Sales: Helping customers make decisions and make better decisions
• Customer service: dealing with customer problems and retaining them
• Billing and finance: collection and collection of money, accounting and tax returns
• Product development: continuous education, creation of new services and products and their launch to the market.

For each of these items, rate yourself on a scale of 1-10, with one being that you have no idea where to start and 10 being that you do this for a living. Anything less than 7 or 8 means you need expert care for this area.

And if you can charge more for your services than you pay to purchase these features, then you don’t have to do it yourself.

Do it yourself?

Many professionals find it difficult to run their business by dividing their time between providing their services and doing whatever it takes to run the business. The problem is that the skills required to provide your services are often very different from the skills required to run the business. For example, a doctor who operates very successfully in determining what is wrong with people and fixing them may not be a good manager or leader when he needs to identify and develop what is right in people.

Hire?

Some will hire a business manager and then allow them to hire and manage the people required. Unless your business generates more than a few hundred thousand dollars in annual revenue, this is probably not a good option.

Subcontract?

Outsourcing is a common method used by entrepreneurs and small office professionals. For example, it is common to use a professional such as a CPA to oversee business processes. However, business owners often fall short of outsourcing all necessary functions, such as sales and marketing. Take a look at these areas to see where you can get a solid return on your investment and grow your business.