Start by Analyzing Your Interests and Skills
Feel free to copy this into wordpad or MS Word, and spend an afternoon figuring out what business you could start that you are already qualified to run. The questions below are intended to help you think through what you bring to the game of small business as well as what skills and knowledge you can match with some of the many, many business opportunities in our society.
Be prepared to spend a couple of hours at this, perhaps more. But, please don’t make a big project out of this exercise -- this is something you can complete in an evening or over a weekend at most. Ask yourself these questions:
About My Career:
1) Is my background in sales?
Administration?
Production?
Support services?
2) What on-the-job things am I best at?
3) What am I worst at?
4) What specific jobs have I held in the past?
What was I responsible for?
What skills and knowledge did I use to meet these responsibilities?
5) What tasks or functions of these jobs did I dislike?
6) What tasks or functions of these jobs did I like?
7) What was my favorite job? Why? What did I like about it?
8) In what industry have I spent most of my career?
9) What types businesses currently exist in this industry? (Contact the trade association(s) for this industry and ask for a suppliers guide or list.)
As services?
As suppliers?
As consultants?
Do businesses in this industry hire contract or free-lance workers?
10) Can I identify a special need of this industry that I can supply?
(You would be surprised at the types of businesses that exist provided services within a specific industry. I remember reading recently about a small business that supplied area restaurants with peeled potatoes, onions, carrots and other vegetables. The owner built a nice business supplying something that all restaurants need. Chances are this business saved the client businesses a lot of money in labor and hassle, and made a nice profit. Not glamorous, certainly not a high tech business -- but a good example of the opportunity thinking that successful small businesses are built on.)
About My General Interests:
1) What do I like to do with my time?
2) What technical skills have I learned or developed?
3) What do others say I am good at?
4) Do I have any hobbies or special interests?
5) What special skills or knowledge have I developed pursuing this hobby?
6) Would I like to pursue this as a job or a business?
7) Is there a market for these things I am good at and enjoy?
About My Education:
1) The subjects I enjoyed most while in school were: Why?
2) My best subjects in school were: Why?
3) The sports I enjoyed while in school were: Why?
My Achievement and Accomplishments:
1) Those achieved or accomplished either on the job, as a hobby, in school, in the military are:
2) I found these achievements or accomplishments the most satisfying: (Why?)
3) What activities or tasks were necessary to these achievements? i.e., working with your hands, solving problems, working with people, analyzing data, drawing up detailed plans, and so on.
Your Dreams:
1) When I was young, I wanted to be a?
2) If I could magically create a dream job for myself, is would be?
3) What appeals to you about your dream job? Why?
How Do You Want to be Remembered When You Are Gone?
This next part of the project may seem a little morbid, but it is critical for being successful. Define what you success is to you by writing your own obituary: How do you want to be remembered? What do you want to be remembered for?
If your obituary were to be published today, while you’re still around to read it, what would say? Alfred Nobel, the wealthy inventor dynamite, had this rare opportunity. When his brother passed a newspaper wrongly ran Alfred’s obituary. The newspaper described him as a man who had made it possible to kill more people more quickly than anyone else who had ever lived. Nobel was appalled. He had invented dynamite to save lives in the mining and construction industries, not as a weapon. His altruistic motivation wasn’t mentioned.
This was not how he wanted to be remembered. After reading his obit, Nobel created and funded the Peace Prize as well as for Prizes for contributions in the fields of economics, medicine, science and so on. Nobel effectively re-wrote his obituary with action late in his life.
People are never remembered for what they owned when they passed. People are remembered for their accomplishments and contributions, as well as the family and friends they leave behind. Spend some time listing those things you want to be remembered for: Being a good parent. Being an asset to your community. A good friend. Someone who created jobs and opportunity for others. Someone who gave something back, who helped people, someone who will be remembered fondly and missed.
Write your own obituary. Post it and live each day of your life as that person, the one you truly are. Make this obituary your definition of a life and career successfully lived.
Combine this vision with your personal inventory from above, and use that information or model to look for the right business (or career) for you, one you will bring the success you just described.
Feel free to copy this into wordpad or MS Word, and spend an afternoon figuring out what business you could start that you are already qualified to run. The questions below are intended to help you think through what you bring to the game of small business as well as what skills and knowledge you can match with some of the many, many business opportunities in our society.
Be prepared to spend a couple of hours at this, perhaps more. But, please don’t make a big project out of this exercise -- this is something you can complete in an evening or over a weekend at most. Ask yourself these questions:
About My Career:
1) Is my background in sales?
Administration?
Production?
Support services?
2) What on-the-job things am I best at?
3) What am I worst at?
4) What specific jobs have I held in the past?
What was I responsible for?
What skills and knowledge did I use to meet these responsibilities?
5) What tasks or functions of these jobs did I dislike?
6) What tasks or functions of these jobs did I like?
7) What was my favorite job? Why? What did I like about it?
8) In what industry have I spent most of my career?
9) What types businesses currently exist in this industry? (Contact the trade association(s) for this industry and ask for a suppliers guide or list.)
As services?
As suppliers?
As consultants?
Do businesses in this industry hire contract or free-lance workers?
10) Can I identify a special need of this industry that I can supply?
(You would be surprised at the types of businesses that exist provided services within a specific industry. I remember reading recently about a small business that supplied area restaurants with peeled potatoes, onions, carrots and other vegetables. The owner built a nice business supplying something that all restaurants need. Chances are this business saved the client businesses a lot of money in labor and hassle, and made a nice profit. Not glamorous, certainly not a high tech business -- but a good example of the opportunity thinking that successful small businesses are built on.)
About My General Interests:
1) What do I like to do with my time?
2) What technical skills have I learned or developed?
3) What do others say I am good at?
4) Do I have any hobbies or special interests?
5) What special skills or knowledge have I developed pursuing this hobby?
6) Would I like to pursue this as a job or a business?
7) Is there a market for these things I am good at and enjoy?
About My Education:
1) The subjects I enjoyed most while in school were: Why?
2) My best subjects in school were: Why?
3) The sports I enjoyed while in school were: Why?
My Achievement and Accomplishments:
1) Those achieved or accomplished either on the job, as a hobby, in school, in the military are:
2) I found these achievements or accomplishments the most satisfying: (Why?)
3) What activities or tasks were necessary to these achievements? i.e., working with your hands, solving problems, working with people, analyzing data, drawing up detailed plans, and so on.
Your Dreams:
1) When I was young, I wanted to be a?
2) If I could magically create a dream job for myself, is would be?
3) What appeals to you about your dream job? Why?
How Do You Want to be Remembered When You Are Gone?
This next part of the project may seem a little morbid, but it is critical for being successful. Define what you success is to you by writing your own obituary: How do you want to be remembered? What do you want to be remembered for?
If your obituary were to be published today, while you’re still around to read it, what would say? Alfred Nobel, the wealthy inventor dynamite, had this rare opportunity. When his brother passed a newspaper wrongly ran Alfred’s obituary. The newspaper described him as a man who had made it possible to kill more people more quickly than anyone else who had ever lived. Nobel was appalled. He had invented dynamite to save lives in the mining and construction industries, not as a weapon. His altruistic motivation wasn’t mentioned.
This was not how he wanted to be remembered. After reading his obit, Nobel created and funded the Peace Prize as well as for Prizes for contributions in the fields of economics, medicine, science and so on. Nobel effectively re-wrote his obituary with action late in his life.
People are never remembered for what they owned when they passed. People are remembered for their accomplishments and contributions, as well as the family and friends they leave behind. Spend some time listing those things you want to be remembered for: Being a good parent. Being an asset to your community. A good friend. Someone who created jobs and opportunity for others. Someone who gave something back, who helped people, someone who will be remembered fondly and missed.
Write your own obituary. Post it and live each day of your life as that person, the one you truly are. Make this obituary your definition of a life and career successfully lived.
Combine this vision with your personal inventory from above, and use that information or model to look for the right business (or career) for you, one you will bring the success you just described.
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