Entrepreneurship Isn't for Everyone: Part #2

Not everyone is able to become their own boss. Not everyone has the skills needed to make your own company efforts successful. It dose take some fearlessness and definitely takes skills. I have always wanted to be an owner of my own business, not just a paid employee. Therefore, when I would be offered some new position or opportunity, I looked at it as a chance to learn more about the working positions that I hoped to one day hire and manage. Not understanding how a job works when you are managing the workers who hold that position can be very costly. Making demands of your workers needs to be done with knowledge of how the position works. If you are a manager and demand an item be prepared and restocked in a half hour, but what you are asking for takes an hour to bake, let alone prep and packaged, you will be disappointed and/or a conflict will arise between you and the employee because you are asking for the impossible.

Not understanding the type of work and/or the skills needed for this or that position is very costly. Some find themselves hiring the wrong people over an over again because they don't fully understand what is needed. This effort to advertise and recruit staff can end up dragging your whole staff down, as they are working harder and harder to take up the slack left by being too short staffed. This effort to get new people takes manpower away from other activities, especially if you have to do it again and again. An employee that is underpaid, overworked, or see no chance at advancing, will eventually disappear and you will have to hire someone else to do the job.

It takes two to make a thing go right... Sometimes it takes a village. Opening your own food spot, from greasy spoon to fine dinning, takes not only culinary genius, it also take a vast amount of support. A good chef knows that they will need investors, workers, bookkeepers, lawyers, customers, market research, advertising, networking, licensing, insurance, and location support. Offering the wanted products in a area that is willing to buy from you regularly is key to your location efforts. If you are not at a good area for your business, your customers are less likely to go out of their way to give you their business.

On top of all that, there are no guarantee that success will come. You can offer the best products at reasonable pricing in a area that doesn't have a lot of food business and still fail. It's sad but true. Sometimes you capture lightening in a bottle, other times, closing your doors and perhaps trying again is the best solution.

O.A.N.: Let's discuss money, both inside and outside of your business. There are a couple of money issues faced by all companies, how much is this item worth, and what are my customers willing to pay for it? Both of these answers are quantifiable but the best of calculations can still end on a sour note. There will always be competition in the market place. For example, I create custom cakes and cookies, and sometimes potential customers get sticker shocked when they ask me for a quote. The most commonly heard complaint is "I can just buy a Walmart cake". Often this reaction comes from a customer who hasn't ever ordered a custom cake and does not understand the difference or the reason that the cost has been set. Many customers may wish to buy a cake that looks like it is right out of a magazine but don't have the budget to order such items. Therefore, a business that is concerned with longevity needs to take the temperature of the marketplace from time to time to see if they are pricing themselves out of the market or if they are not charging enough and losing potential profits.

Part #3 is upcoming..... stay tuned

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