You have a passion of business and you want to own your own someday. You want to be in control of your own destiny and future. To start a business, you need an idea. You need a business plan. You need funding and you need an infrastructure to ensure your business has a solid foundation. It can be overwhelming. But with the right combination of passion and partnership can bring your idea to life.

The SBA outlines the following steps to consider when considering business ownership. Note that passion is not one of the factors they list as a requirement.

  • Conduct Market Research
  • Write a Business Plan
  • Fund Your Business
  • Pick a Location or Modality
  • Choose a Business Structure
  • Choose a Business Name
  • Register Your Business Name
  • Get Federal and State Tax IDs
  • Apply for Licenses and Permits
  • Open Business Bank Accounts

Wait a moment, those 10 steps don’t look so bad right? You could get those done in  a couple of weeks, right? No way! Starting a business can takes months if not a few years. To do to it correctly and ensure that your business launch propels you into a long-term orbit and a trajectory of success instead of just crashing and burning.

Consider just the Market Research. To really understand your market place, qualitative and quantitative surveys and data gathering are needed to hon in on your demographic targets and understand their needs and pain points. Without this insight you can’t develop a USP (unique selling proposition) that will set you apart from your competition.

Don’t forget that you need to build a brand as well which includes a logo that identifies you to your audience. This mark and typeface need to communicate the essence of your brand and that takes time to refine and define. It can be a costly endeavour if you get it wrong.

There are other tasks such as buying the right insurance, choosing your vendors, hiring staff, creating training materials, setting up standard operating procedures for everything from opening to restocking, from closing to handling a customer complaints. You have to do all of this yourself before you ever sell one single product or service. Before you ever make one pound of profit. That’s enough to suck the passion right out of a person.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), small business survival rates are as high as 91% after one year of trading in some industries, but fast-forward five years and just 40% small businesses are still trading.

Surely, it isn’t from a lack of passion that these small businesses are failing, its because of these factors that small enterprises are meeting their demise. Passionate business novices start with good intentions but fall victim to these traps;

  • Entering an industry in which they have no experience
  • Hiring an inexperienced team
  • Putting together a team that can’t cooperate to work together efficiently
  • Failing to recognize the market has no need for their products or services
  • Ignoring what customers want
  • Refusing to be flexible and adapt to changing trends

Now we get a bigger picture of how unbridled passion can blind someone into making bad business decisions.  When choosing a business structure, consider one that has built in assets and ready-made solutions that you don’t have to create from scratch. Consider a franchise option. One you can put your own stamp on but lean on years of experience and knowledge. Also consider a professional service franchise where there is little competition and low start up costs.

When choosing a business option consider some of these factors.

  • Is the industry you are considering “bullet proof” or recession proof? Meaning, does it have a consistent tract record of steady growth and revenue through even the toughest of economic times.
  • Is there a dominant player in the market that offer franchise opportunities? Franchise offer more ready-made business solutions to make your business transition easier.
  • How well developed is their franchise infrastructure and their franchise community? Can you draw from their learning and experience to build your business quickly?
  • How developed is the partners brand and intellectual property? How much support material is at your disposal and ready-to-use on day one?
  • What kind of training and ongoing support does the business partner offer and how often do they do educational events for their franchise partners.
  • Does the franchisee offer you unlimited growth potential and options for long-term success?
  • Does the business let you use the skills and experience you already possess and let’s build a legacy you can leave for your family?
  • Does the business actually make a difference in peoples lives and will it let you make difference in your community?

If you find a business that can do all that, you have found a business that will likely allow you to thrive and really build an asset that will build value over time. It’s not a pipedream it’s a business that offers real solutions for some of the today’s most pressing dilemmas.

Business Coaching is becoming a mainstay in today’s business environment. A £2 billion industry showing no signs of slowing down. No longer only for businesses in crisis, business coaching is fast replacing pricey consultancies because of its ‘boots on the ground approach’ and long-term solutions offer business owners real results. Today, businesses who want to stay ahead of their competition and want to maintain a thriving work environment look to a coach to keep them accountable and on track.

So, if you have a passion. Show it!