I want to start my own business. I want to be my own boss. I just don’t know where to start. I don’t want to deal with taxes. I can’t handle the stress of running a business.
Does this sound like you? This was me for the longest time. I wanted to make money on my own. I wanted to be responsible for my own income. I just didn’t know where to start. I made the usual excuses and did nothing to improve my situation. Finally, one day I decided to grab control of my own situation. I figured that it was time to stop making excuses about starting a business.
Before we get into setting up your own business, we have to get past a few hurdles.
What are the absolute biggest hurdles to setting up your own business in your 20s?
- Getting off the ground.
- The accounting stuff.
- Making your first buck.
I was guilty of these three barriers for the longest time. I’m ashamed to admit that I was concerned with making money off this site. I wasn’t sure how I would make money. I used to worry about how I would be compensated for my time spent on all of my work. I failed to realize that you don’t need to always be compensated for helping someone. It’s okay to give your best advice without expecting anything in return.
As time went on I realized that I love this work and don’t even care about the money.
How can you overcome these hurdles to starting your own business? Let’s destroy these hurdles!
Getting off the ground.
Where do you begin? What do you do first? Should you get business cards first? Should you pay for the best web site design in town?
Nope. None of that crap.
Just launch. Just do it.
I put together the ultimate piece right here: read it and do it. How you can start a business with no money. Once you’re done with this article you’ll be ready to launch any sort of online business for the time being. Oh and a real business is no different. Just launch and learn as you go. Perfection is for losers. Get your work out there and work on it based on the feedback that you get.
The accounting stuff.
I’ve always worried about the accounting stuff and the thought of getting screwed over and owing thousands of dollars in taxes. This is why I asked Pat Flynn during a case study about how he takes care of his accounting-related stuff. Pat’s response was simple:
“For this kind of stuff, I let someone else do it for me. I hired a bookkeeper for $50 a month that I send my income reports to (just downloaded from the shopping cart services I use), and she puts it all into Quickbooks for me. I also have a CPA who takes care of all the tax stuff for me. He takes those Quickbooks files, runs the numbers and tells me the exact amount I owe to the government.
I was worried about that stuff at first too, but if you hire the right people, you don’t have to worry so much about it.”
That doesn’t sound so bad. Pay someone else to take care of the accounting and tax stuff so that you don’t have to worry about it. Instead, you can focus on what you’re good at and building your business.
Making your first buck.
The first thing that you need is tangible proof that you’re onto something with your new business. Sorry but asking your parents or girlfriend what they think won’t help you out here. You need to find some sort of tangible proof to see if it’s even worth pursuing your new business.
How do you find tangible proof? You can conduct all sorts of fancy calculations and market research. The truth is that there’s an even simpler strategy to help you determine if it’s worth setting up your own business. What is this?
You need to find three paying clients.
Find a paying client before you even attempt to promote your business or buy fancy business cards. That’s the worst entrepreneurship advice in the world. Don’t waste your time and money on business cards! Find someone willing to pay for your services. Find a client that’s not related to you?
How can you find paying clients?
Check out my two articles on the topic: 3 Quick Ways to Find Paying Clients & Testing Your Business Ideas to See if They Work.
If you’re worried about “complicating” your life because you are earning a lot more money, then seriously just stay in your 9 to 5 job. If you don’t feel like completely crushing those hurdles to starting your own business after reading this piece, then maybe you shouldn’t work for yourself.
That’s how you can overcome the most common hurdles to setting up your own business. What’s holding you back from starting your own business?