Are You Ready to Start a Business as a Service Provider?
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When I first started my business back in 2017, I was not prepared. I didn’t know that yet - I really thought it would be easier. I already knew how to do the work, I just needed people to pay me to do it. How hard could it be?
I really underestimated how hard it would be and how unprepared I was to be an entrepreneur. But I was so desperate to get out of my career and I was so sure that being an entrepreneur was my “calling” that I just jumped and figured it out as I went.
I don’t think I could have done it differently, to be honest. I’m the kind of person that if I’m 60% ready to go, I’m ready. I don’t like to take in information and then act. I just dive in and figure it out. And here I am, nine years later and still kicking.
But I don’t recommend doing it that way if you can avoid it. It’s just really hard to run a business, especially if the thing you’re selling is yourself and what you can do. There are definitely some things you can do to prepare. Still, at some point you gotta leap. Because you’ll never be prepared enough and you won’t get everything right.
If you want to start your business and you’re looking for a resource to help you do it in a way that maximizes your efforts, check out our guide 10 Steps for Starting a Business as an Online Service Provider.
In this post, I’ll give you five questions to answer so you can figure out if you’re ready to take the leap into entrepreneurship. Remember, you don’t have to be perfect or totally ready (no one ever is). But these questions will help you figure out if this is something you actually want to do.
DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA THAT CAN MAKE YOU MONEY?
This doesn’t mean that you will make money on day one or even day ten. But the difference between working on a hobby and running a business is the amount of money you make from it (seriously, that’s how the IRS defines it). If you can’t make money on the first day, then you have a lot of prep work to do. You have to define how you help people solve a problem, define what you offer, get yourself seen. You should have all that figured out before you officially start your business. This is why it’s a great idea to keep your job while you formulate your plan.
It takes a while to build momentum for most people, at least to the point where you can make enough to cover your expenses and your life. So if you don't know what you want your business to be, take a good amount of time to figure that out. I know so many people who took the leap without doing the prep work and they were back at a job within six months.
WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO SACRIFICE?
This is something I was prepared for when I first started. Because I had no idea where my first paycheck was coming from. When you are solely responsible for the money you earn, it can be very overwhelming. You realize that the only person who is gonna get your bills paid is you. There’s no company paycheck anymore. But your life doesn’t stop moving just because you start a business. You still have bills to pay, food to buy, yourself to take care of. Make that part easier by figuring out how much you need to live for six months, adding at least a 20% cushion.
I downgraded my life drastically. I stopped buying brand name everything, stopped doing all the self-care stuff and cancelled anything I didn’t absolutely need.
This is one of the biggest differences between someone who wants to be an entrepreneur and someone who just doesn’t want a 9 to 5 job. You have to want it so much that you’re willing to give up things you also want in order to make it happen.
It’s worth noting that I was able to add back all those things I gave up in the beginning. The pain of entrepreneurship does get better with time if you have a viable business.
ARE YOU GOOD WITH MANAGING A LOT OF THINGS AT ONCE?
One of the things that can happen really quickly in business is that you start to take on a lot of stuff.
You have a constant marketing engine running that needs fresh content
You have a stream of inquiries and leads that need follow up
You have to manage the money to make sure everything is getting paid on time
You have to deliver the work clients pay you for and it has to be top notch
And then there’s your life, family, friends, health and on and on. It accumulates and can keep you up at night. A lot of people start businesses and find that it becomes overwhelming and they are not built for it and that’s totally fine. This is something you need to evaluate at the beginning before you get into it.
And it may be that you start really small while you still keep your job. What I have learned is that I need to pay attention to my capacity and how much I’m adding to the business, both in terms of what we do and what we have to manage.
This is why I talk about starting small with just a few services in our business guide. You want to choose things you can easily manage and then build from there.
ARE YOU PREPARED FOR STARTUP COSTS?
It is not true that you can start a business with zero dollars. Don’t pay attention to coaches that try to sell you on the “easy road.” You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars, but you will need to spend some money to get your business off the ground.
You also don’t need to spend a lot of money on a coaching program or a huge course to teach you how to start a business. Because honestly, what you start initially is likely not gonna be what you are doing in a year. Most people pivot a lot before finding the thing they want to build. I certainly did. My business went through a bunch of iterations before I landed on helping people build courses.
So in order to not be caught off guard by your expenses, you need to do some research. Decide what you need to get up front and plan for those costs. And remember that there is a big difference between what you need to have and what you want to have. You may have to put off some things until your business is making money.
ARE YOU READY TO TALK ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS EVERY DAY?
And I do mean every day in some form. That doesn’t mean you have to constantly be “on.” There are plenty of ways to schedule things for days or weeks out. But marketing is not something you can do every now and then. It has to be a primary focus.
One of the things I have had to do is figure out what kinds of marketing work best for my personality. Because I’m an introverted person, it’s a bit difficult for me to just open my camera and record a video. I’m not comfortable with that medium so I don’t do it. You don’t have to do every single thing. You’ll find a rhythm that makes it easy for you to be visible.
There’s a lot more that goes into deciding if you’re ready to become an entrepreneur. It might be that you just have to try it and see how it works out. I’m not one of these people who says you shouldn’t have a backup plan. That is just not good advice. But you should definitely give it your best effort. That is what I did because I really wanted it and nine years later, I’m still here.
If you want a step-by-step blueprint for getting your business up and running, get your copy of 10 Steps for Starting a Business as an Online Service Provider. It’s just ten lessons that take you through the progression of building your business in a practical and manageable way. That’s the only way to do it.
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