Invest in your Career, Become Self Employed
Starting a business is both exciting and financially rewarding. The process for getting it up and running however can be a bit challenging, but with proper planning, research, passion and commitment to reaching your goal, you'll have your virtual business up and running in no time.
A major challenge that some virtual business owners often find themselves in is that he/she will begin the investment process of (starting their business) and because they don't see an immediate financial return, the excitement level for getting the business up and running begins to dwindle.
How can you position yourself to overcome this challenge and get down to the business of building your business? Below are ten surefire ways to help you build a successful virtual business.
- Ensure that starting a business is the right career move for you. What do you have to offer (product or service) that others will be interested in purchasing (Be honest with yourself). Take a long and hard look at your skill sets, knowledge, capabilities and finances.
- Make certain that there is a market large enough to support your business over the long-haul (you can only know this information by doing your research).
- Empower yourself through formalized training (especially If you are new to self employment) (example: Virtual Business Owners Training Program, SBA Online Courses, etc..), after you've been accepted into a training program, be active and proactive in your training. This will require setting aside time to invest in your learning and development (Tip: setup a learning schedule that you can realistically stick to).
- Communicate with your instructor, teacher, and/or mentor, this person is available to help you reach your goal, utilize their experience and wealth of knowledge.
- Develop an action plan or a plan of action (be honest and upfront with yourself and establish attainable goals). In your plan outline how you will move from phase A to phase Z, your steps should be clearly defined, just in case you need to refer back to them later on.
- Build resource networks and form alliances early on; start with family, friends, and fellow students.
- Verify that you have entrepreneurial traits: a true entrepreneur will: create markets where there are none, take risks for opportunities they believe in, seek out opportunities before they exist, be proactive in obtaining clients, and will never sit idol waiting for opportunity and chance to come to them.
- Don't start something that you can not absolutely finish, this is a sure sign that starting a business may not be the right career move for you.
- Establish a bookkeeping / accounting system (either budget to hire someone to manage it or at the bare minimum invest in software and training that will help you to manage your finances.
- Invest in your online virtual office (website design, domain name URL, home office equipment, software, and marketing collateral materials).
If you follow these tips, you will find the process for getting your business up and running to be easier than you imagined. Remember, if this is the career path for you, stick to what you start, finish the course, and prepare to reap the benefits later on.
About the writer:
Victoria M. Parham is a retired military spouse and the president and chief technology officer for VSSCyberOffice.com, a forerunner in the virtual support services industry, and an advocate of portable careers for work at home parents, trailing spouses, and family members. The companys’ web-based Virtual Business Owners Training Program, the first virtual careers program for Department of Defense and Military ID cardholders, is available online. To apply to the program, military spouses can visit www.vsscyberoffice.com/vbo, the general public can visit www.vsscyberoffice.com.