Many people believe that all it takes is a great idea to create a successful business. And not to take anything away from the importance of the great idea, but that is just a single aspect of what is needed to grow a successful business. All of the preparation, planning and learning before you open your business, that is just a fraction of the time and dedication that you will need to devote to running your business. You need to think in terms of everyday tasks, planning and management over the long term to understand more about life as the “parent” of a small business.
It is great that you have come up with a great idea for your business, but that is just the beginning of your creative process. Once you are operating, you will need to continually think of new ways to market yourself, new products or services to offer your customers, new ways to make processes more efficient and so on. It is a never ending process to keep the business feeling new, interesting and exciting to your customers.
In addition to continually tapping your creative side, you will need to stay on top of your company finances. Each day can bring new financial challenges and questions as you navigate business taxes, employment taxes, fluctuating costs of materials and even the cost of benefits for yourself and your employees. Keeping current on bills and planning for future growth and expansion can be a full time job but one that you will need to manage along with all of the other hats that you wear as a business owner.
As the company grows, you will find that there are simply too many tasks for one person to address in a day. You will need to pass some of the decision making authority on to trusted employees. Not only can this be challenging because you have maintained total control up to this point, but it can be frustrating as you allow the person to create their own management style and accomplish tasks using their own methods. It is important to understand more about the differences between starting a business and running a successful business to ensure that you will be successful in both endeavors.