Steps.
Do you want to start your own business?
If so you have plenty of company. Millions of other people do too.
But how do you do that? That is the question so many begin with – along with trying to figure out what business to start to begin with.
Ultimately the answers to what business you should start must come from you. But even so, there are some key questions that can and will help you find the right answer for you right now.
Here are some questions to use to help you figure out your own answers;
- WHY do you want to start a business?
- WHAT are your current resources?
- WHAT experience do you have now that you may use?
- WHAT information, training, and skills will you need to obtain?
- HOW much money do you have to invest?
- HOW much money do you need to get it going?
- WHO do you need to help you?
- WHERE can you get more information, more help, and more support?
- WHEN will you start and how much time do you have?
- Where will your business be?
The list could go on. There are many key questions you will need to consider but these will get you started. Once you know the answers to these questions you can then decide what you want to name your business and what entity you will choose.
Then you can go ahead and get that entity filed and brought into existence, get a federal EIN (much like a social security number for your business) if needed, and proceed from there.
Each answer and each action depends much on the previous answers and actions needed by previous questions.
Excitement and Optimism Tempered by Realities of Business
On the one hand, being excited and hopeful about your new business is a necessary and wonderful thing that can help you do better faster.
Starting your own business is very exciting!
Yet on the other hand if you have the wrong expectations and time frames in mind – that simply are not reality – then you will quickly become overwhelmed and will reach burnout soon after starting. Then you will fail or you will quit.
To help you avoid that it is a better idea to have realistic time frames and expectations in mind.
For example, if you realize going in that it will likely take you nine months to a year of hard work to reach a certain milestone goal – then you are far more likely to keep after it than you would be if you erroneously thought you could do it in thirty days or a couple of months.
That is the difference between realistic expectations and hopeful guessing.
Do you see the difference – and how knowing that clearly going in can help you do better in your own business?
Getting More Information Before You Start a Business
Today you and I and everyone else have far more options and opportunities to gather information and get help than ever before in history.
Whatever business you are considering, begin with a Google search.
Look up information and begin reading about your business on blogs, articles, and within groups and communities that may be applicable and which you can join – many of them are even free.
Once you have done some initial research and want to begin getting more in-depth information try some courses on Udemy.
Udemy courses are all very affordable – and many of them can be completed from start to finish in about the time it takes to watch a movie or two. Others will take you a few days to a few weeks to complete – on your own schedule.
You may also try some eBooks, books, audiobooks, and training manuals. Such things can often be found directly on your Instructors website or through links from there to a Shopify store or Amazon etc.
You can also go directly to Amazon and search for what you want.
Youtube is another good resource to get basic information and to see various things of interest pertaining to your chosen business.
Podcasts are available to you as well from many creators/instructors and they can be listed to as you are doing other work or recreational activities.
How do you find these things?
Once you find an instructor or author – someone who has some specialized information and authority on the subjects you want to learn more about – simply search their name. For example – I teach business, entrepreneurship, productivity, leadership, and related topics – search L.D. Sewell – and you will find that it pulls up my primary author instructor site, my YouTube channels, some of my Udemy courses, some of my books, and on and on it goes.
From any of those things, you can find more links to other things I do, teach and offer.
If you land on any of my profile pages on any platform, such as Udemy, or on an about page on any of my sites – there you will find links and information to help you get to more information and how to connect with me directly if you choose to do so.
The same thing is true for many other instructors and creators of specialized information products too.
Find them, and then find what they offer that can help you and go get it.
Be Careful With Debt
Often people begin a new business with thousands or tens of thousands of dollars – and even more – in debt.
This can be a critical mistake and a fatal blow to your business right out of the gate before it even gets started good.
Be very careful about borrowing money. Be careful about buying equipment and supplies that are excessive to what you really need at any given time – and if you must borrow any money at all – keep it as low as you can and keep your cash reserves and savings high.
Too many businesses run only until the borrowed money runs out – then they are done shortly thereafter – yet the debt remains for the owner because they personally guaranteed it in most cases to be able to get the loans.
Debt can and will destroy your business and your life – if you are not careful.
Conclusion and Next Steps
I hope this has given you some information to make you think and to help you do better in your own business.
As you can already see – there is much to consider and do when you want to start and run your own business. These are all things I had to learn and so do many others. Today I run my own successful business full time, a business I like to say is a company like no other… That is because our focus is on specialized information products that help other people do better in work, in business, and in life.
Which is kind of odd coming from a company called Transport Resource Solutions…
When you hear the name you might think perhaps this is some kind of Trucking Company or a Consulting Company focusing on trucking etc. You would also be partially right.
Transport Resource Solutions LLC was originally founded and started by me as a training, consulting recruiting company focused on trucking and helping people start trucking businesses or trucking careers as professional drivers and to help owner operators and small fleets with business management training. Especially recruiting, onboarding, training, and with DOT compliance and risk management training and support.
Trucking is very heavily regulated and the rules and regulations can be very complicated and hard to understand – and overwhelming to many Trucking Business Owners.
So that’s how Transport Resource Solutions (TRS) got started originally.
Over the years I added books and other publications, online courses and training – and eventually motor carrier authority so we could run loads too. Both as a source of revenue and as a way to keep directly engaged in what we teach.
Beyond that, I realized that many of the lessons we had already learned were applicable to entrepreneurs and small business owners of all kinds. I myself, and my wife both had extensive additional experience running other small and micro businesses throughout our lives together, and many part-time while we were engaged in our primary business pursuits.
Together we owned and ran businesses over the years ranging from wood crafting to candle, soap, bath, and body products, to medical claims processing, commercial cleaning, real estate sales, real estate property management, and real estate investing, and eventually all the way to TRS.
She also ran her own graphic design/website development company for many years. Her primary full-time work was medical office management and administration for well over two decades and mine was military for over a decade, real estate for a couple of decades (including some part-time while on active duty), followed by Trucking.
I realized when I got into trucking that I had found what I was searching for and that I would probably be in trucking in some way shape of form for the rest of my life.
I realized early on that I eventually wanted to own my own trucking Business – but I was not sure exactly what form that would take. I started as a truck driver and ran all over the country and much of Canada. Then regionally to be home more often, and then a dedicated account pulling doubles ( 2 trailers ) to Kohl’s department stores – where I was home daily and off each weekend, which gave me time to begin building what would become Transport resource Solutions LLC a few years later.
Then I moved to a smaller company as a dispatcher and from there progressed through several positions including recruiter and safety director – learning everything I possibly could about Trucking Business as I did so.
As I learned more and more and gained more experience – other people and other companies began to contact me and ask me questions about how to do things. Some wanted me to come to their offices and others came to me. Several offered to pay me – and some were quite insistent about it too!
That was the beginning of my consulting business.
Others wanted more in-depth training – and that was the beginning of my own Training Business too.
Eventually, I made it formal and started TRS as an LLC which I ran as a part-time business out of a small upstairs bedroom of our home at the time in Winchester VA.
A laptop, a cell phone, and a headset became very important business tools to me – and the same things still are today too!
Over the years I discovered online courses and learned how to create them, so I became an online course instructor. I wrote more content, including a few books, and thousands of articles, posts, etc.
TRS Office Tour
After many years and a long journey, TRS became my sole business – and so it is today – even though within TRS there are many different business elements. At its core, TRS is and always will be a Specialized Information Products company that helps other people start their own businesses and do better in their work, their businesses, and their lives too.
If you want to get more help and support you can find links at www.ldsewell.com or come join our communities on Facebook!
Until next time, have a great day and make it count my friend!
Best regards,
L.D. Sewell