Owning your own business may seem like a great dream for everyone. Anybody agrees that owning your own business means that you can be your own boss, keep your own schedule, and answer to nobody but yourself. Although it sounds so good, it doesn’t simply work like that. Most people are not prepared for time, money, patience, and hard-work that starting a business necessitates. Brandon Turner, an experienced real estate investor and co-host of the BiggerPockets Podcast state in his article “15 Things Every Newbie Needs to Know About Starting a Business” that being an entrepreneur is a bit like driving through a heavy fog where you are only able to see a few feet in front of the windshield, you don’t know what’s up ahead until it’s upon you.

However, the longer you are an entrepreneur, you will receive more experience that could help you navigate through that fog. Starting your own business is not a simple path, and being entrepreneur can be a tough game, most of the learning happens on the job and almost no college or university level education can prepare you for it. From several hours of research, iSeller team have summarized 10 useful tips for entrepreneurs who wanted to start a new journey in the world of business. Buckle your seat-belt and enjoy!

1. Do something you like

Sometimes, the difference between success and failure can be just selecting the right business. Don’t start something you won’t want to do in five years. Select a business where your passion lies and give all you have for your business, because if you’re successful, you will still be doing the same business in five years.

Entrepreneur is demanded to finish what they start, because this proof your  seriousness with your business. In spite of the fact that you have a lot of amazing ideas, that doesn’t mean you should pursue them. Pick one and go with it until it perishes or it makes you rich enough to buy a private jet. 

2. You are not going to know everything

When starting your own business, you are not going to know everything. In fact, you probably won’t know anything when you first start, specifically when you enter an all-new business environment with new industry and all. Some successful entrepreneur figured out most of the knowledge when they’re “on the job”, so not knowing anything regarding your new business is normal and acceptable. Just remember to read lots of books to increase your knowledge so that you are prepared to journey through the “unknown” business world.

3. Get the best people that makes you stronger

Many entrepreneur agree that getting the best employee is very important. However you need to be aware concerning getting the right people for your business. Many business select employee which makes them convenient, or selecting employee which is deemed to be a fun person. This is a wrong perception. Partner with someone which makes you stronger. The wrong partner will drive you crazy, make you hate your work and your business and in the end causing more problems than they solve.

4. Learn to manage people

For first-timer entrepreneur, you will suck at managing people. Don’t worry, we all do at first. However managing people is one important task you must get better at. By any means necessary, you must get better at managing people.

If you have the capital, hire a professional human resource manager to manage your people, if you want to save up your capital for other division you can get virtual tutorial on managing people. Even if it’s $3 an hour virtual tutorial, it will give you numerous great training and benefits on managing people. 

5. Read more books!

An average CEO read 60 books on average each year. And not just business books, read motivational books, self-help books, success books, fiction books, biographies — any full-written book. From reading books, you could broaden your knowledge and even get many experiences, reading books also known to bring many benefits such as:

• Keeping your brain active: reducing the risk of Dementia and Alzheimer’s by keeping your brain muscle strong and healthy.
• Stress reduction: starting your own business will create handful of stressful situations. It all just slips away when you lose yourself in an amazing story. Well-written novel can transport you to different world, while reading articles could distract you from your stressful situations, letting tension drain away and allowing you to relax more.
• Knowledge: Everything you read will eventually fills your head with new information, and that information might come in handy someday. The more knowledge you have, the better-equipped you are to tackle challenges.
• Memory improvement: When you read any book, you are required to memorize all sort of characters, backgrounds, history, nuances, plots, sub-plots, and many bits of information. This will enhance your brain and allow your brain to create forges new synapses which enhance short-term memory.
• Improved focus and concentration: In business world, you are required to be able to multi-task. Reading enhance your brain synapses and keep you more focus and enable you to concentrate more on details.
  

6. Money is important but not enough

Generating income is important but it’s not enough to bring your business to the top. Generating consistent cash flows is very important. Besides, you need the right people to develop your business, and hiring the right people comes with some cost. Focus on building a business so wonderful people throw money at you. 

7. Try to stay out of debt

Getting into debt is very dangerous, the effect might “snowball” on your business. For first time entrepreneur, it’s very risky getting into debt to start your business. If your business fails, the business owner still needs to pay back debt because it’s personally guaranteed by you. If you really need to acquire debts, be very careful, less optimistic, and make sure your debt is within manageable limits.

8. Maintain strong work-life balance

Balanced ratio between work-life is as crucial as getting the best tool. Many entrepreneurs spend 12 to 13 hours a day for their business, and they have been doing it over 10 years. This is very unhealthy, spending time too much can be very unproductive. You could experience fatigue faster and lack of concentration.

The most important aspect is always give number one priority to your FAMILY. Without family, no matter how successful you are, you will still feel empty inside. Create a balanced lifestyle between your work/company and your personal life. Don’t stress too much for your work. 

9. Think about your exit strategy

Let’s be realistic for once, over all start-up businesses published in 2011, four percent made it to the second year, three percent made it to the third year, nine percent made it to the fourth year, three percent made it to the fifth year. Although with hard-work and dedication, your business might survive for decades, statistically speaking, it’s challenging to develop a business and survive for years. That’s why you need an exit strategy. Methods that might save some of your investment, rather than lost it all when your business failed. This way you could “live and fight another day”.

10. Get the right tool

Each business have different tools needed. Starting your own business with limited starting capital doesn’t give you much choices in term of working tools. You need to find the company that provide the best tools with affordable price. It’s even better to find company that allows you to upgrade your tools anytime, so you can start small and keep developing your business and upgrading your tools.

iSeller POS is the Perfect Fit for Start-up Businesses

iSeller fits perfectly for start-up business owner, enabling owners to start selling in-store (point of sale) with minimum upfront investment. You can choose Starter subscription for your starting point, and easily upgrade your subscription as your business grows. Combining the most advanced Cloud technology, cutting-edge mobile apps and beautiful hardware, iSeller is arguably the best-in-class point of sales giving the utmost flexibility for various business types including retails, restaurants (F&B), and quick service restaurants (QSR).

For restaurants edition, iSeller provides a wealth of features and benefits not available in other conventional POS, such as integration between POS, POO (point of order) and KDS (kitchen display system). The combination between POS, POO and KDS is proven to reduce complaints and boost your sales, read more here.

Aside from personal determination, perseverance, diligence, and hard-work, getting the right tool is as important as the other factors. iSeller is the perfect fit to get your business started quick and lean, so what are you waiting for? Sign up your store today here, or reach us at hello@isellerpos.com for further information.

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