Fifteen Rules for Starting a Business - Minority Business Tribute

CELEBRATING MINORITY BUSINESS MONTH

Starting a business can allow you to gain freedom in your life and choice in your lifestyle. If you dream of doing work you love, earning more and creating a working environment that meets the needs of you and your family it could be your ideal solution.

Here are 15 rules for starting a business:

1. It has to be a 'BIG' idea that you, your team and your customers 'get' in one sentence and a matter of seconds.
2. When determining your price point, aim to provide at least ten times (and more like 1000 times) the value to your customers. Remember value is what your product/service provides to the customer not what it costs to make it.
3. In the planning phase make sure you have a reason why customers should do business with you and not your competitor. You need to be unique in some way and offer something new to the market.
4. Ideally get paid before you provide your product or service. And if possible add recurring income to your business model.
5. Create your new business around your life rather than having your business dictate your life to you. After all, one of the reasons you are starting a business is probably so you have a better life.
6. Get your idea out there as fast as possible even if it is not quite ready by setting must hit deadlines. Your market will soon tell you ifyou have a winner or not. If it isn't a winner then move on and get the next thing out there and try again.
7. When finding partners and team members, find people who are strong where you are weak so your skills complement each other
8. Your reputation is always important. Ensure that you honor your obligations and agreements.
9. Never ever get paid based on number of hours worked. Always get paid on achieving a goal, completing a task or providing a good.
10. Know from the outset that you will never have a perfect business and you will never be totally 'done'.
11. Provide a meaningful guarantee with whatever you are selling. This takes away the risk from your customers and will lead to more sales. If you can't guarantee what you are providing then maybe you should not be selling it in the first place.
12. Develop and build your business personality that stands out.People want to buy from people not from corporations. Just look at Steve Jobs and Apple.
13. Go the opposite direction to where your competitors are headed.You will stand out, have something unique and more than likely have more success. If you want average results do what average people (and competitors do). If you want outstanding results do the opposite of what most people (and companies) are doing.
14. Make your business fun and also doing business with you fun. If you are not enjoying life and your business then stop and do something else.
15. Above all, make sure you have a life. Business and making money are important but your life is the sum total of your experiences so go out and create experiences. Create adventures. Do something new. Then come back renewed, inspired and ready for the next big thing.

These 15 rules on starting a business are maybe not the typical 'rules' you see around. But do not dismiss them because of their simplistic and general nature. If you already 'knew that rule' are you actually implementing it? Go back and re-read the article. Stop after each rule and actually think about what it is saying and how you can incorporate it into your business. If you do this the results will be profound! If you go to the effort and commitment of starting a business> then make sure it is a success.

Todd Molloy is the founder of http://www.small-biz.com.au - an established website which offers help, advice, tips and resources on starting and running a small business. If you want to start your own business or are already running a small business you can read additional helpful information at:

http://www.small-biz.com.au/starting-my-own-business