Beyond Debt-Free: Starting A Business

 

To my count, I am already earning my living through employment for about 10 years now. For the past few years the dream of starting my accounting practice has been lingering in my head. Also with my new-found passion for photography I am contemplating having it as a sideline.

Earning money to live and at times to enjoy life has been every man’s dream. I know you and I wanted to live a comfortable life thus we seek better ways to earn money to support a comfortable life and lifestyle. We have two means of doing it: getting employed and running on our own.

The very first things we Filipinos can actually hear from our parents is to study hard to get a good employment. This idea is not bad at all. If you got good grades and good skills the likelihood of you getting a high paying employment is high. At the same time it would be nice to have control of your time and be the boss of your own if you have your own business. So with that in mind how come lots of people are stuck in their day or even night jobs complaining when they have an alternative to be on their own terms?

FEARS OF STARTING YOUR OWN BUSINESS

There are so many reasons why so many complaining employees have not ventured on their own but I will be touching only on 3 things:

•    The costly start-up cost
•    The slow pace and the regret feeling of leaving employment
•    Does it worth: the low profit dilemma

Start up cost could be the top reason most wouldn’t jump into owning a business. Lots of employees can’t start because most of their salary goes to their living expenses and only a few go to savings if there is some at all. Getting a loan will also be a problem since a new business without any asset to give as collateral will surely be turn down by lending banks or institutions.

There are small businesses which could only need a few thousands but again looking at an ordinary employee’s habit of only allocating for daily living expenses it would take time even to set aside a small portion of money for a small business.

Lots of employee’s who jump ship and started their own business have a huge failure rate. With that others who have the means are having doubts with it. Also unlike employment which is a steady source, a business’s flow of cash or income entirely depends on the business performance. At times you can make huge sales or deals at there will be times that you don’t even have a single sale at all leaving you with problems on how to pay the power and rent of your business. For sure such scenario just playing in your mind will make you traumatized.

Also even though the business is going smoothly would the low income that you can get from it is really worth the try. Running a business at the initial stages is truly hard that you might have second thoughts why you jump into such mess. Also regret sinks in if the “your own time” thing does not really happen because you are the cashier, sales person, stock man, manager, and janitor of your business.

Indeed those things are scary but let us look of those things on the brighter side.

The Good Things of Having Your Own Business

• No more bosses, you are the boss
• You control your time
• You get all the profit

The very first thing about starting your own business is that there is no more boss because you are the boss. Some employees are actually overworked due to a tyrant boss and how they wish they are the boss of their own self. Yes being the boss of your own business means you do most of the stuff but this will all depend on how good are you at managing your business. Lots of people who started their own business at times have trouble giving that “boss” position to someone else thus they end up being in the store all the time even if the business is already profitable. You should shift yourself from the “boss” to be the “business owner”, meaning you got to put trust on some people.

I know it is so hard to find a person to trust especially in the area that involves money that is why you got to be careful in finding that good “boss” at the same time setup checks to prevent them from doing something bad. Yes even good people fall doing bad because of circumstances beyond our control. A good example is a good employee who is in dire need of money right now because his son or daughter is in the hospital. If such person runs out of options out of great need they will be tempted to steal money.

In order for you to be truly the boss you got to find someone who you can trust and at the same time setup checks to prevent good people from turning bad.

After solving the dilemma of you not able to let go of control of the business you now got time. Of course at the initially stages of setting up the business you won’t probably have the time you dream of. Back in your mind you might be day dreaming you are spending a month in Boracay because you know have your business. But in reality business are like babies. Yes babies.

Like a baby a business needs 200% of your attention and your soul. If back in your employment you hate being held up by your boss asking you to do overtime, in your business there are no such thing as overtime because your time is 24/7. Like a parent you got to tend to the needs of your business. Day by day you have to look after it thus you got ZERO time for Boracay dreams.
But hey look at it in the long term. Once you setup the business and once your business is operating and earning smoothly and of course after you have delegated some functions to trusted people you get to get you dream Boracay vacation time. Also with the advancement in the internet you can just check from time to time the operations of your business. You can even install a camera to check on your employees and your business to make sure it’s okay.

Always remember that the initial stages of a business are the hardest that you would regret that you left your work which only requires you to do overtime form time to time. Have patience and once everything is attuned you get to get your dream “ME” time.
The good thing about having your own business is you get your profit (and of course if it is not yet profitable the loss). Usually business earn after a year or two in operation. It is a fact that you got to setup the business first before it earns. It will take time before you reap returns.

Resources about how to start your own business in the Philippines

The problem why most people who decides to start a business fail is that they lack guides and other information in starting a business. I listed some below where you could start learning about business that you can start with.

Government resources
TESDA
DTI
BIR

Franchises
Franchise Expo

Online businesses
VA Business
Odesk Business
Online store business
Digital Products