If being a small business owner is your chosen path, you will want to experience every phase in it to its fullest. So what should be on your bucket list? Start with these 10 that are on mine:
1. Launch a business
Stop writing the business plan. Stop asking your friends what they think about your new company. Push back from the computer and start that business by selling something to prospective customers. The world looks a lot different when you are out there finding prospects that have a pain you can solve and the money to solve it.
2. Borrow money and pay it back
There is nothing like borrowing money from a family member, friend or even a bank with the sincere promise to pay it back. One of the best days of my life was when I repaid my bank the $1.2M I had borrowed. The bank president said that I could borrow from their bank anytime.
3. Sell a business
This too can be a near-death experience. It is an unbelievable process because you are stuck between having a financially successful windfall and the buyer doing due diligence where they are saying “your baby is ugly”. Talk about riding another rollercoaster!
4. Be part of an IPO
The process of taking a company public is extraordinary. All the events leading up to the opening day (including the investor road show) are memorable no matter what happens. Watching the stock price during the owners lock out period can even be more memorable.
5. Go out of business
While not a required or recommended part of the cycle, it is a gut wrenching experience to watch the promise of your business evaporate. This will test your resiliency, your ability to let go and move on to another opportunity.
6. Write a book
While hundreds of thousands of books are written every year, memorialize what you have learned in a book that can be shared with others. While it may not be a business best seller, it will touch someone and make their journey more fulfilling.
7. Mentor another business owner
When surveyed, business owners state that the single most important factor in their success is to have a mentor they can talk to. Be that mentor to someone that can benefit from your direct business experience.
8. Get fired
Again, while not a required step, having someone fire you is a humbling experience. It is important to be on the receiving end so when you fire someone, you know how it feels.
9. Fire someone
I got sick every time I had to do this. I always had to bear some of the responsibility by admitting that I had made a mistake by hiring the wrong person.
10. Lose a key employee to a competitor
Nothing teaches preparation more than the losing of a key employee to a competitor. After getting over the feeling of being betrayed, it will teach you to always be prepared with overlapping skills, procedures and a database of intellectual property that doesn’t walk out the door every night.
Check your balance, review recent transactions and pay your bill on the go.
Carlota Pringuey 8 months ago
11) Create a facebook business fan page, and then install the retainapp widget to create your own deals and retain your most loyal customers, set up 5 deals for free and see for yourself how the Retainapp application on facebook can help you reward your fans ; learn more here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Retainapp/177696252300183?sk=wall