Business Will Strain Your Marriage
If your marriage isn't rock-solid, don't throw a new business into the fray. "A weaker marriage or partnership can be, and often is, torn apart when someone is working hard at starting something new," says Thomas Dandridge, a business professor at the State University of New York at Albany. "It's not really some fun adventure. Starting a business usually creates real stress."
To me, however, it's simply a shifting of stress, from meeting the expectations of others to meeting our own. Yes, I have a great bond with my wife, but even if I didn't, I feel I have more opportunity to control stress levels than I did working for someone else. And, by the way, working at home is an especially intense form of self-employment. I've invaded the space my wife has enjoyed as virtually "hers" while I've been at work all these years. But let's be upfront about the pluses. We're at home together a whole lot more than ever before, and we can make choices about how to spend our time with much more flexibility than ever. I'd say being self-employed can be a big positive in a marriage. If it's not a good marriage, on the other hand, then self-employment will make that issue all the more obvious.
Start Young
"Most people see the window of opportunity coming sometime right after college," says Wendell E. Dunn, academic director of the Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. "At that time, it's less likely that you'll have a family, a mortgage, car payments or other expensive responsibilities."
True. So what happens if you're 44? Or even 64? Too many financial obligations? This can be the case at almost any age and is a separate issue. Johnny Come Lately? Over the hill?
Forget it! We're talking about what people can do today to advance their careers in a stimulating, meaningful way. I can't think of a business in which age should preclude involvement at some level. Don't reject a self-directed career because you think you're too old to do so.
On the other hand, if you truly believe that you're not up for the challenge, no matter your age, then don't take it on just because others say it's a good idea. No one knows your limitations better than you do.
You Make the Rules
There are a great many good rules about being in business. One of them is that you can make up a lot of your own rules. The trick is to know which of the others you really need to pay attention to!
Among those rules that must be followed in some form is solid, thorough business planning. While I've already noted that it's quite possible for a journeyman professional like myself to enter self-employment without a full-blown market analysis and detailed cash-flow chart, your enterprise is probably more elaborate than mine. You may be entering a field in which you'll be making significant capital investments and employing people simply to be in the game. Great! This is where business planning gets serious.
So let's walk through the process. (And, by the way, even if you're like me and don't need to crunch big numbers to persuade others that your enterprise is worth their money, it's instructive to do this.)
Will your business have legs? That's what we want to know. Business planning isn't something other business people thought up just to slow you down on your exciting journey (or keep you out of their markets). It turns out that business planning has lots of benefits beyond the obvious: obtaining financing. It's actually a low-cost test run that will help you avoid years of professional and financial misery (if that can be determined ahead of time) and give you a great big green light and a way to direct traffic to your door if the test proves successful.
At best, your idea is so straightforward and so well-developed that writing the business plan will be a breeze. But it may not be a breeze, which is okay, too. Many great businesses have come from plans that were agonizingly difficult to pull together. That's why, and how, some entrepreneurs succeed where others have failed. One was a better business planner.
The plan isn't just a plan. It's a way of thinking. It forces you to confront, in what can be a conveniently brief format, the basic questions about your business. If it's not already your style to:
Writing a business plan will be a great experience in showing you how. It will help you recognize issues that are, in fact, irrelevant to your central purpose. It also will stimulate you to build your dream by making you think about it from several points of view.
Again, business planning isn't about throwing cold water on your raging enthusiasm or simply wanting to be successful and being inspired to do so in a particular field. It's an opportunity to see the future. If your idea is truly exciting, writing the business plan is a chance to go for a ride in your new career without having to buy it—until you decide it's a good investment. What could be more fun, as well as responsible?
