3 Missed Opportunities When Starting a Business

As BIGG supporters of entrepreneurship, there are things we see new entrepreneurs often get wrong. This week, we’ll share some of the advice we give our clients to help them avoid pitfalls and missed opportunities.

Click the player to listen to this episode of The BIGG Success Show Podcast. Below is a summary.

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According to Google’s Year in Search 2021 trends, more people searched “how to start a business” then “how to get a job.” We learned of this trend via a tweet from Shopify President, Harley Finkelstein, who predicts that, “This is not just the year of the entrepreneur – this is the start of a new era where being an entrepreneur is people’s first choice for a career.”

We’ve we’ve preached this for years that even if you have a job, it pays to have a business on the side – something that is yours that gives you control of your future.

With that in mind, let’s go to The Professor’s whiteboard for the three missed opportunities when starting a business…

1. Missed resources

One example of this is paying for free space. There are certain things that we’re already spending money on, and those are sunk costs, right? One of those being space we live in. The point is, most entrepreneurs have started from a room in their apartment, or their basement or their garage.

Hear the mistake Henry Ford made while doing work in a barn! Click the player starting at: 3:15

We always encourage our coaching clients to list the resources they already have? Or the ones they can procure very easily. The key is to use the assets you already have, as much as you can.

These are all risk management tools, if you really look at it. So keep that in mind as we continue on with the rest of the missed opportunities.

2. Missed cash flow

Don’t kill your golden goose. It’s kind of like our last point where you’re already spending money on the living space where you can start your business, but in this case you have money flowing from a full-time job while you’re starting the business and going through the process with things like market research, etc. The money from the job keeps the bills paid, and you can put aside some of that money for the startup costs of your business.

It’s true that we are going through the Great Resignation, but be patient and don’t quit your job too soon because it’s helping you get to the goals that you want to achieve faster.

The other thing to think about is in finance, we talk about portfolios. Well, when you just have one source of income, you don’t have a portfolio. If you add a business as a second source of income, now you’re starting to work on a portfolio.

When is the right time to let go of the full-time job? it’s going to depend on lot of things that you’d want to discuss with a coach, a financial advisor, your accountant, an attorney – somebody to help you figure out if it’s the right time to make the jump. If you start bringing in outside funders, keep in mind that expectations are going to increase and your need to be more involved in the business is going to increase as well.

If you are thinking it may be time to quit your job, check out podcast episode #995: 10 signs you’re ready to quit your job and start a business.

3. Missed information

We’ve talked about slowing things down. Now we’re going to talk about speeding things up. You want to be quick to getting to potential people who might buy from you, or refer others to you. We challenge our clients to reach out to 10 people that they can talk to about about their business.

A common reluctance do doing that is the fear that someone might steal your idea. Keep this in mind…

no matter how good your idea is, it’s going to be all the work you put into bringing that opportunity to market, finding customers, controlling your finances, etc. All of that is what makes a business not just the idea.

BIGG Takeaway

As the late great H. Jackson Browne once said, “Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity”. They may seem like little things, but they lead to BIGG Success!

George “The Professor” & Mary-Lynn
Co-Founders, BIGG Success

Direct link to The BIGG Success Show audio file | podcast:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/biggsuccess/01087-011222.mp3