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Ten business tips for entrepreneurs
John A. Weeks III writes:
Only think about a "launch" if you are planing to take a dive. It sounds like you are thinking that all you have to do is hang your single out, and customers will knock on your door.
In reality, most small businesses are grown. You start with one job. If that works out, and you can collect, and you can make a profit, then you get another job. And another. And another. You keep your day job so you can pay the bills and keep things going. When you get so much business stacked up that you think you can never get it all done, then you consider backing off of your day job.
You have likely heard that something like 95% of all businesses fail in the first few years. That is actually pretty true. But what far fewer people have heard from that same study is that a certain class of business has a very, very high success rate. What class of business is that? One where the owner has at least 5 years of experience in running a similar business prior to starting his or her own business. Your biggest success factor can be nailed down by working for someone else for a few years, or getting an education in small business to supplant your editing expertise.
The only thing worse than working hard for a living is to go broke while working hard. If you go through all the effort of finding a customer and making a sale, then doing all the work, you should at least get paid fairly for your work. Anything less is a lack of confidence in your self or your skills, and that is deadly when trying to make a sale. Your key selling point is that you can give individualized service. A premium service should command a premium price.