ForumsStarting a Business

And dont forget to display the sign "PROUDLY MADE IN AMERICA'
Good Luck

Sorry, should've given you an update, it's just been so hectic here. Well, it's kind of a long story, but I'll try to sum it up...
I was on the fence as you know as to whether I should take the plunge or not. About 2 mos. ago I had an email correspondence with a big company about buying some of their product. The gentleman I was speaking to asked about my business, and when I told him what I did he mentioned he may need my services in the future. Well, as much as I wanted to be optimistic about the prospect, I knew better than to get my hopes up, and dismissed it as a nil opportunity and all but forgot about it. A few weeks pass, and my day job was really starting to grind me down. I wanted to leave, but was reluctant to b/c of the whole recession and state of the economy going on. What I really needed was something to prompt me to make the move.
And then, at my darkest hour of working and out of the clear blue, I received a phone call. It was from the big company I spoke to weeks before. They wanted to hire me for some work, and asked when I could fly out there to do it. I was estatic. Well, I wanted to tell them "right away", but of course I was still working the day job and couldn't leave. So I told the company it would be about a month. They were fine with that. The next day I walked into my day job and handed my one month notice. Why one mo. and not 2 weeks? Well, it's a small place with only 5 people, myself included. Two of the employees had vacations in the coming weeks, so my departure would have left the business very short handed while trying to find my replacement. So, being the nice guy I occasionally am, I stuck through for the month. Mind you, I hate my job, but the people I work for and work with always treated me ok, so I felt I owed it to them to stay.
Now, here we are, May 23rd, 2008. I have one day left of working the day job and that's it. No more, ever! From then on, I control my destiny. And in another week, I fly out to a very large and prestigous account. Any reservations I may have had before about leaving the day job are gone. And just today, I was comparing this years sales to last years sales, and my sales are up over 500% for 2008 compared to '07. So I think I'll be ok, and have no more worries. Well, some worries, but the typical kind that go with running a business.

Congratulations! Stepping away from a job or a career to start or work at your own full time business is a very scary and thrilling experience. Over the years I have worked with over 352 entrepreneurs starting or developing their own business and there is nothing more fulfilling than hearing of their successes. I wish you the best of good fortune with your business.

I saw one of your earlier posts that you had not created a business plan for your business. Here's some advice from 26 year experience: One things I've learned is how important it is to develop a plan for your business - it does not have to be anything fancy ... but when you create the plan it does become a road map for you to follow. Now that you are committing your self full time to the business do try to carve out some time to create a plan. You don't have to nail it completely the first time you sit down to come up with one. To give you something to shoot for here is what one should consist of (especially if you ever plan to look for funding or capital for your business from banks or other funding sources or investors):

1. Executive Summary
2. Market Opportunity
3. Vision, Mission, & Objectives
4. Management
5. Business Strategy
6. Competition
7. Risk
8. Financial Plan
9. Capital Requirements
10. Summary

When you start you will probably feel you don't have enough data, information or even experience to complete some of the sections. Don't worry about that; focus on the ones that you can do some work on and that you can get put to paper. They can be refined and revised as you go and the other sections you can work on or seek help with to get them down on paper when you need to have them done. Once you have a good working draft ... the whole plan could be polished further. Treat it as a work in process and work on it as you can a little at a time. The process of thinking about it just by itself will help you with your business.

Again, good luck to you and best wishes.

Dennis Lowery
Adducent, Inc.