SERIES: Lessons Learned While Starting A Small Business – Part 3
Welcome to the latest series on JosephSangl.com – “Lessons Learned While Starting A Small Business”. Starting a small business can be tremendously exciting and frightening at the same time. One of the most common trends that we see among small business owners is that they are very good at providing their product or service, but they are not so skilled at the “business side” of doing business. This series will focus on some of the key lessons we have learned from meeting with many small business owners as well as truths we have learned as we have built a small business.
Part Three – Risk is part of the game.
It is risky to start a business. You could immerse yourself into the business spending unbelievable amounts of money and time, and the entire venture could still fail. You could leave a great career where income and job security seems to be a given. It is a risk. If you want to play it safe, have at it, but please do not start a business. It will lead to a bad case of fear, panic, and frustration.
When you start a business, you are putting your reputation on the line. People who have trusted you in your old business will put their trust in your new business, and you could risk a friendship if the quality of your product or service is low.
I have found that risk is inherent in anything I do. It is even risky to stand still and do nothing. It has required a great deal of effort, but I have learned to embrace risk and the unknown. Please note that I stated that I have “learned” to do this. It is not a natural thing for me to do. For example, I want to hold on to our cash instead of invest it in a new product or service we are thinking of offering – because the potential of that new product/service is unknown. But it is too risky to stand around and not generate our next new product. It will prevent us from growing and stagnate us from achieving our mission “to help others accomplish far more than they ever thought possible.”
Risk is part of the game. If we fail, we fail. We will do an autopsy on the failure, find out what went wrong, and then pick up the remnants start on the next project.
Bottom-Line: Risk is part of the deal. Learn to embrace it.
The greater the risk, the greater the reward.