A new year is coming - 2009. With any new year, we end up looking back and re-assessing the way that we handled certain events, and often we try to develop a game plan to improve ourselves in some way. Some people call them "resolutions". Others just see them as goals. By February, most of them have been forgotten.
When I look back at my business development during the last year (or two), it's pretty embarrassing. For someone who helps other people with their web marketing, I didn't spend very much time and effort on mine. Perhaps it was because I was too busy working on everyone else's business problems to address my own. Or perhaps (and this is a scary thought), I was using other people's businesses as guinea pigs for new marketing schemes and ideas that I could eventually use for my own business model (assuming that they were successful). Realistically, the catalyst for my marketing neglect was probably neither of these things. Rather, the reason that I wasn't pushing my web design services was because I didn't want to do very much web design work for other people. I was more focused on my own web projects and "passive" income opportunities, such as affiliate marketing. Is that so wrong?
Unfortunately, affiliate marketing isn't very exciting and most of the web sites that I design for myself aren't the types of sites that generate a lot of revenue. Trying to sell someone else's product or service just doesn't thrill me, which is why I have also decided that opening up some sort of franchise is not in my best interest. Instead, I recently thought of a new idea that I'm truly psyched about. It is something that I am very interested in, there is very little competition, minor start-up costs, and yet there is quite a demand for it. Sounds like the perfect business opportunity, doesn't it? It could very well be, if I can get past the other usual business startup hurdles (R&D, marketing, permits and licensing, redtape).
Some of these "hurdles" may be figments of my imagination, or mere speed-bumps. I know that some entrepreneurs manage to get their paperwork taken care of with very little fuss (usually with the assistance of a pricey attorney). Others report that business licenses and tax forms are still a pain. I'm also hearing that loans are very difficult to obtain these days, although that type of news usually revolves around the housing industry. With very little searching, however, I have discovered websites that are stating just the opposite - that small business loans can be had far quicker and easier than what your traditional bank would have you believe. Businesses like OnlineCheck.com advertise no closing costs and less stringent requirements for their business loans, but I can't help but wonder why they also have to rely on income from credit card processing. Are business loans truly that much easier to obtain online, and these companies are only diversifying their offerings by running credit card transactions for people, or are these types of sites simply echoes of an entrepreneurial hey-dey that lost their lending flexibility some time before the current economic collapse?
I suppose I'll never know for sure unless I decide to submit a loan application somewhere. I'm actually hoping to get this new business rolling without taking out any loans, but that may be a pipe dream. The other massive obstacle right now is time. I can't very well put my current regime of web clients (and the associated revenue that pays my bills) on hold so that I can take the time to develop this new business. So I guess for now, I will need to continue to flesh out my business idea on paper, in the hopes that I will sometime soon be able to take it further. In case you are wondering what my business idea may be, I'm sorry but you'll just have to wait! Having less competition is a nice position to be in at start-up. ;)
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