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Q: I’m thinking about starting my own business. Do you have any tips that might guide me toward success?
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A: Starting a business is often an extremely rewarding experience, although it's not always a profitable one — and therein lies the risk.
Romanticized stories of overnight millionaires can tempt people to leap into a new venture purely seeking monetary gain, when it's often a company's spirit of innovation, positive moral values, and committed team that lead most directly to its eventual success.
Serial entrepreneur Bo Peabody (an investor in Waterfront Media, the publisher of my online newsletter) embraces this concept wholeheartedly and as a result has been tremendously successful across different industries and economic climates.
His new book, "Lucky or Smart?," offers both a roadmap for starting a new business and proven methods for bringing creativity and passion into an existing enterprise. Peabody's tips from "Lucky or Smart?" will help point you in the right direction:
Persistence:
"Train yourself not to shut down when you hear the word 'no.' That is in fact just the time to really start fighting."
Professionalism:
"In every meeting, in every situation, you must always, always, always be gracious. The business world is a small place: what goes around comes around."
Personality:
"Learn to keep your ego in check. That's how you'll be able to distinguish the crucial difference between being lucky and being smart. Your ego is both the most dangerous and the most useful weapon in your entrepreneurial arsenal. Use your ego when it is called for and check it at the door when you sense that it will get in the way."
Jean Chatzky’s Bottom Line
This week: Invest in yourself
Although the outlook is perking up, the job market remains tough. As such, any expenses you outlay on keeping up with technical developments in your field and adding to your repertoire of skills could prove to be valuable. (And this could equally well apply to those thinking about starting their own businesses.) So, what are the most marketable skills these days?
- Computer skills: Not just Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but also database-management programs such as Access
- Communication: Written and oral
- Leadership
- Business acumen (being able to manage a budget)
- Languages
And remember, even the MBA you got 15 years ago is losing value unless you're updating your skills with today's classes in finance and international marketing.
Jean Chatzky is the financial editor for “Today,” editor-at-large at Money magazine and the author of “Talking Money: Everything You Need to Know About Your Finances and Your Future.” Her latest book, "Pay It Down: From Debt to Wealth on $10 a Day," is now in bookstores. Copyright ©2005. For more information, go to her Web site, www.JeanChatzky.com.
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