What Should YOU Do?
Over the short period of time that I’ve been coaching, the question I’ve received the most from up and coming entrepreneurs is, “I know I want to be an entrepreneur, but how do I figure out what business to start?” I’ll make it real easy for you. The thing about starting your own business is that it has to satisfy 3 needs.
1) Passion
You should be passionate about what it is you do. If you aren’t passionate, starting a business can be a real drag and eventually you may begin to hate it. Passion will also fuel you to reach extraordinary levels of success because you are willing to go through the grind, because it’s NOT a grind for you, you enjoy it. That is huge to the great successes of our time. They truly love what they do.
2) Expertise
You have to have some kind of skill or expertise that you know (or are willing to learn!) that can be developed over a lifetime. An expertise in swimming, for example, is not a very valuable skill, but a skill in marketing consultancy could be very lucrative. Take a look at what you already are good at and the skills that you have to determine if that could be channeled into a business or if you could learn a similar skill that could be used to build a business.
3) Market Hunger
You could absolutely love to do something and be extremely skilled at it, but if nobody wants or needs that expertise, solution, or service, then you aren’t going to have any customers. If you know there is widespread pain in the marketplace for a given problem, then you can tap into solving that pain to make a good living.
I have personally found that solving one of your own problems and helping others to solve that same problem is a great model to go with. This way you can be passionate about the solution because it would have made a difference in your life if you solved it. Also, since it directly applies to you, you know if improvements on the solution are valuable and applicable.
In terms of what business you should start, it’s really up to you. I have found consulting and service based businesses to be the easiest to start, but you can really go anywhere depending on what you’re good at.
Hope this helps!
P.S. Good luck! 🙂
-Christopher C. Burns