How Can Your Small Business Be a Home Run?

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”
- Vince Lombardi.

I always find myself reading articles on small business management and entrepreneurship. I even took courses in college on both areas. Unfortunately, just like with any other topic, college made both topics boring. This is why I love reading pieces from those that have been successful with entrepreneurship now. Steve over at My Wife Quit Her Job recently put up a piece on what makes a small business more likely to succeed.

Is your small business going to be  a home run? Is there any way to determine in advance how you’re business is going to end up?

In the article mentioned above, Steve reviewed a video on running a successful small business that he saw on TechCrunch. The tips in the article include:

1. Get a partner.
2. Get some experience under your belt.
3. It only gets tougher the longer you wait.

What do you think about these three tips? I wanted to add my input to all three of these points on growing a successful small business.

Get a partner.

I’m really on the fence on this one. At the end of the day I prefer to be in control of everything and to work on my own projects. That’s because my only experience with anything resembling a small business is blogging.

With that being said there’s no telling how far you can be pushed when you have someone holding you accountable. Have you ever tried to compare your workouts from when you go with a training partner instead of going solo? It’s a different world. When you train alone you don’t push yourself as much. When you go to the gym with a training partner you push yourself harder than ever before and you see exactly what you’re made of. I imagine that it’s the same when running a small business. There’s only so much you can do alone.

[For further reading check out: Family Businesses: Pros and Cons Of Hiring Relatives @ Financial Samurai.]

Get some experience under your belt.

What are you waiting for? The more you work and the more experience you get under your belt, the more knowledge you’ll acquire in your field of work. I think that this is a strong point but I don’t agree with it completely. I believe that the best experience can come from taking bold moves and failing once in a while. You don’t always have to acquire experience the conventional way.

[You can read: The Entrepreneurial Buzz… @ Man vs Debt.]

It only gets tougher the longer you wait.

When is it the best time to plant a tree? Thirty years ago. When is it the second best time to plant a tree? TODAY. I pondered the idea of starting Studenomics for so long that I don’t even want to admit the time frame. All I remember is getting frustrated watching other blogs grow while I still hadn’t even registered a domain name. Then finally one lazy afternoon I went through with it and launched Studenomics with the most disgusting theme possible. I didn’t care I just wanted to start writing about money management. As time went on I gave in and paid for a solid theme/design.

I think it’s completely true that it gets tougher the longer you wait. This can apply to any area of your life. What are you waiting for?

[For more help: Case Study: No more excuses. Turning a creative hobby into $12,000 @ IWTYTBR.]

Do you have any thoughts to add to these 3 points? Please share here…