Whether as a part-time self-employed person or full-time, most small business owners start with the best conditions that they can develop for themselves at the moment – and the rest is a continuous learning process.
In fact, it is not necessary that you experience every mistake and failure yourself. You can also learn the most important recipes for success from others.
Recipe for success
Always keep moving
No matter how well your business is currently going: everything is always in motion, and you have to be prepared for that too. As a small business owner, you don’t have the resources of a corporation and you don’t need a research department or a team of experts to explain the latest trends to you. Listen to your customers, collect feedback from users and stay alert to all trends in your industry – that’s enough. You might need a website to reach more customers.
Learning to delegate
Doing everything yourself is not the right way. You don’t really save if you do everything yourself, because your time would be much better placed on the growth curve of your company. So it’s best to work on outsourcing as many tasks as possible to professional support right from the start.
Stay in good spirits
Self-employment often resembles a roller coaster ride, where it is not clear when it ends or even just pauses. Building a company is not a goal that you will reach at some point; it is always about being on the move and keeping everything on track, even when requirements and markets change.
Be careful with partnerships
Starting a company with friends or nice colleagues is a wonderful feeling. How cozy not to have to face the challenges alone and to be able to discuss everything with others who are experiencing similar things in everyday work.
But no matter how quickly a partnership is established, it seldom works in practice and it is even more seldom that it is sustainable in the long term. In far too many cases, the commitment to the common goal and the skills differ widely, so that a partnership does not last once a crisis occurs.
Never forget your goals
How deep you are in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, never forget what your goals were when you started your business – and not only those from the business plan but also your personal feelings and your vision of what independence should look like for you.
And last but not least: don’t be afraid of mistakes. Everyone makes them and learns from them – it would only paralyze you if you try to avoid them.