The Most Popular Road To Financial Independence
Starting your own business is by far the most popular road to financial independence. It’s open to everyone and can be done with little or no money. All it takes is the determination and the will to do what ever is necessary. But this is where most people fail.
They think they can’t do it. I read somewhere that the most common factor in successfully starting your own business is having a role model. In other words, knowing someone who has done it before so that you know it’s possible. This gives you the confidence to try because you’ve already seen it done.
Fear of risk
The main reason people stay with a job is that they don’t want to take a risk. When you work for someone else you’re paying them for their business risk. They’re only paying you part of what you’re worth because you’re afraid to work for yourself. They are making money from your fear of risk.
When you work for yourself you’re not sharing the profits of your labor with someone. Then when business gets too much for you to handle you can hire others to work for you and you’ll get a share of their labor profits.
Start up capital
You don’t necessarily need much if any capital to start a business. You just need to be creative. Some businesses take nothing so you can use them as a starter business to make and save money for the next business. There are lots of no capital business opportunities.
No money is the biggest reason people give for not starting a business. But you can start a one person business using the knowledge and the resources you already have.
You don’t need a formal business structure, a fancy office and a new company vehicle. All you need is to start doing an activities that makes money.
Financial freedom
Failure to start a business is not a matter of start up capital. More likely it’s a matter of lack of confidence and motivation.
I only had one truly successful business in my life but that’s all it took to set me up financially. I started my business out of necessity. I had no skills, no education, and no money. But I wanted the freedom to do as I please and to travel the world. The only way I could do this was to have money.
So I started a business with the pieces I already had. I didn’t like the work. But I did it because it was my only option.
It took a few years but suddenly I was making good money. After that I was hiring people to help with all the extra work I had. Then I hired a manager to run things and started traveling the world for months at a time.
The only way I could do this was because I had a source of income. I had set up a business that gave me financial independence.
Some people can make it through their education, or their talents, or their personality in the corporate world. But people like me can’t. We have to find another road.
I’m not talking about making millions. I’m talking about making enough money to free yourself from the burden having of going to work every day. Just enough money to buy your time back so you can live your life as you choose.
Starting your own business is the road to financial independence for anyone who wants it bad enough. Motivation is the key, not start up capital or having the right idea.
2 Important ideas
There are two concepts that I rarely see talked about in the small business start up world. They relate to what kind of business you should start, and how to actually start the business. Once you have dealt with these two steps you are in business.
- What kind of business: opportunity vs desire
- How to start your business: informal/experimental vs formal
These ideas came to me many years ago when I was always talking with my friends about what kind of business they should start.
I’ve been self employed for many years and my friends were always asking my advice on how to go about starting their own business. And I found myself offering the same advice time and time again.
Business start up matrix
The first step is to determine what kind of business you will start. It can range range from an opportunity based business to a business based on passion. The idea here is to go with what you already know instead of what you want to do, or love doing.
The other question is how to start the business. It ranges form starting as an informal or experimental business to starting as a formal completely developed business. This is mostly a function of how much time and money you have to invest.
Any business you want to start will first have to answer both of these questions.