5 Ways To Tell If You Have What It Takes To Run Your Own Business
Written by
Kerra Bolton
Edited by
Amber Barkley
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An average of 4.7 million new businesses are started in the United States every year, according to Commerce Institute — a number that has been increasing since the COVID-19 pandemic. And owning a business can be a great way to make money, but it takes a lot of work.
“The most important thing when you start a business is that it’s incredibly hard,” said Liz Scully, a business strategist and mastermind coach. “But it can be, for the right people, unbelievably rewarding.”
Are you one of those people? Here are five ways to tell if you have what it takes to run your own business.
You Like Running a Business
Scully said she has seen many people over the years leave their corporate lives and spend lots of time and money training for a new career, but they don’t know how to run a business.
“Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you know how to run a business,” she said. “Running a business is marketing, business development and outreach.”
In fact, doing what you love is only 30% to 40% of what you’ll be doing as a business owner, Scully said. “You’ll spend most of your time getting clients, doing the marketing to get clients, speaking to the clients and then providing the actual service or product.”
You Can Play the Long Game
Start your business as a side hustle to test the waters. It will allow you to build savings without a significant financial cost.
“It’s also bringing in money, and it will show you how squished your life is going to be for a little while, because you will have to work out where to find the extra time if you’ve got kids,” Scully said. “You’re going to have to work around maybe a full-time job, a school run and managing everything else in your life.”
However, taking on the extra responsibility of starting your business as a side hustle will eventually give you the financial runway you need while your new business gains traction and clients.
You’re Willing To Eliminate Distractions
Dennis Siggins, a 40-year veteran of small business start-ups, swears by avoiding distractions to build a successful company.
“Building multilevel, multimillion-dollar companies doesn’t happen by accident,” he said. “I’ve worked with franchisees and other business owners. One thing I found is that some people don’t want to cut out any of the good stuff. But what they don’t understand is that that — the good stuff — is a distraction.”
Siggins said he sold his boat and his motorbike when he co-founded American Gutter Monkeys in 2014.
“Be single-mindedly focused on building your business,” he said. “Four or five years down the road, you can buy the Harley or the boat.”
You’re Willing To Learn
Running a successful business also means identifying what you don’t know and getting help.
“If you lack knowledge, then what you need is information,” Scully said. “You might do a course that will teach you bookkeeping or social media.”
Once you learn the necessary skills and have the available capital, Scully suggested getting a business coach to help you maximize your business.
“A strategist or a business growth coach might be really good to map out your two- or three-year plan,” Scully said. “A coach can say, ‘Here’s the shape of what you’re working on. You probably need to go find a little more help here.’ It’s a big part of the strategy of how that fits together.”
You Can’t Stop Helping People
Images on social media, especially the cliché photos of someone sitting at a pool with their laptop, make it seem that running a business is easy. But nothing could be further from the truth, Scully said.
“It’s overwhelming,” she said. “Not everyone should be running their own business.”
Scully said there was a difference between wanting to be a masseuse, for example, and running a massage business.
“If you love marketing, copywriting and messaging and want to be permanently talking about your business, then running a business is the right thing,” Scully said. “If you can’t stop helping people and talking about it, you will have to charge for what you do.”
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