Nowadays more and more people are looking for work. Some have even gone several months already without a paycheck and so they're venturing out on their own, putting their experience and talents to use and starting their own business. After all, in a generation where nearly half of the population dreams of becoming their own boss - what better time to start? Could things get any worse? Let's pray not.
If you've decided to try and do your own thing, you're probably not alone in thinking right away that you need a website, and you're right. However, here are some practical suggestions for spending your money wisely when times are rough.
In short, remember the crawl, walk, run analogy. We used that analogy a lot when I was working for Village Homes and it has stuck with me ever since. Although the analogy is self explanatory, understanding how it relates to launching your first website may not be so obvious.
To illustrate, I had a guy call me a few weeks ago about wanting a new web site. He was starting his own business and wanted to sell some items online that he had made. He was asking me all these questions about e-commerce, credit card transactions, and getting his site to come up right away in Google. He wanted it all. After all, he had been out of work for a while and really needed to start making some money. In essence, he wanted to run and he was determined. I suggested some solutions and we talked at length about processes and so forth. But there was one problem, he didn't have the money; not to run anyway.
Suppose though that he did have the money. Does that necessarily mean that he should run? Certainly not! I've always believed that a good businessman has to take some risks. Yet it is more important to know when a risk is too great, especially when it comes to managing your money. Imagine a child who hasn't learned to walk yet, holding on to a ledge and then letting go and falling forward - faster and faster catching himself step by step. Sure that's running, but undoubtedly with fear and uncertainty of how it is going to end.
The same is true when launching your first website. I advise people all the time, before going the full-service ecommerce route and paying hundreds or thousands of dollars, why not go the cheaper route. Crawl online with a PayPal account and a cheap hosting package first to see how things go. Then after you've been online for a while and you've learned to "walk", you'll get the hang of it and can look at re-aligning more advanced solutions to your needs. That way, as your business is developing - your solutions are advancing and developing right along with it.
In a tough economy, it might be hard to crawl and walk when you feel the urge to start running. The biggest advantage to doing so however, is that you're always just paying for what you need; no more and no less. And just like some children learn to walk or run earlier than others, you may find your ebusiness running sooner than later too. And if that happens, you'll find that because you learned to crawl, walk, and then run - you won't be running with more than you can carry!
Adios!
Good read, thanks Matt. And I love that saying and use it all the time...
Posted by: George | July 14, 2009 at 11:31 PM