YOUR GUIDE TO SMALL BUSINESS
Your Guide to Small Business is designed to give entrepreneurs the tools they need to succeed. It’s not a “how to” book; it’s an information resource that will help identify the things one needs to do before, during and after launching a business. |
Part 1 - So, you're thinking of starting your own business
Topics Covered:
"Make sure you pick something you love to do, because you’re going to be spending an awful lot of time doing it. There’s nothing worse than working at something you hate. Money can be very motivating, and it’s nice to have, but it’s not everything."
Nicholas Courchesne
Extreme Blendz Nutrition Centre & Juice Bar
Ottawa
So, you’re thinking of starting your own business. You’ve picked a good place for it.
A recent CIBC report, Canadian Small Business: A Growing Force, finds that Ontario has the best environment in Canada for small-business growth—and predicts it will be the hot spot for small businesses in the years ahead.
What it takes to succeed
So now the question is: do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Even if you have a great idea, starting a new business is challenging. So before you even begin, you need to ask yourself:
Do you have the personality of an entrepreneur? Are you:
- self-confident
- independent
- ambitious
- self-motivated
- self-disciplined
- well organized
- resourceful
- flexible
- thorough
- hard-working
- realistic
- determined and persistent
- committed
- a people person
It may seem like a demanding list, but successful entrepreneurs possess all these characteristics—and if you don’t, your chances for success are diminished.
If you can honestly say you’re the right personality type, the next question you have to ask yourself is:
Do you know what you’re getting into? Are you really prepared to:
- work long hours
- sacrifice time with family and friends
- receive little—or no—pay at first
- live with ongoing pressures
The fact is people start businesses all the time. Some of those businesses become successful. But a lot of them—one-third to one-half—fail.
Business success is never the result of luck. When a business succeeds, it’s for good reasons:
- It offers good value;
- It has a solid business plan; and
- The owner possesses entrepreneurial qualities.
Finally, if you have a family, do they understand what’s involved?
Long hours and hectic schedules can take their toll on relationships. For your business to succeed, everybody has to be onside. So, talk it over with your family and make sure they know what you—and they—are getting into.
Spotlight on… Xystar Technologies Inc.
“I was bitten by the entrepreneur bug quite early. I’ve been looking for a cure ever since, with no luck,” jokes Ben Hum, Co-founder and Executive Vice President of Xystar Technologies Inc., a Toronto-based IT company and a recipient of the Best Company Start-up in the Chinese Canadian Entrepreneurship Awards.
Ben’s first experience with entrepreneurship came in Grade 9 when he and a couple of friends put together a deejay service. “We got an annual budget from our school for parties,” explains Ben. “ We quickly realized that if we put together our own deejay service, rather than renting one every time, we’d save money and be able to have more parties.”
Before long colleges and universities were renting the service. Things evolved from there with Ben eventually forming Big Productions, a company that specialized in beer and liquor marketing campaigns.
It was a successful business, but by the early 90s Ben was eager to do something different. Seeing the opportunities offered by the Internet, he and a partner decided to form Global Connexxions, an Internet service provider and e-business applications developer.
“At that time the commercial potential of the Internet wasn’t widely understood and it was very hard to find bankers willing to provide financing,” says Ben. A good business plan, persistence and a sympathetic and informed banker eventually got him the start-up capital he required.
But, as Ben already knew from his earlier experiences in business, fresh challenges lay ahead—everything from clinching sales in a then-new industry to cash flow problems to staying at the leading edge.
“The challenges never stop,” he says. “You have to be able to deal with them, even thrive on them. And you have to be innovating constantly.”
Today, the company, renamed Xystar Technologies in 2002 to better reflect its expanded focus, offers specialized software and web management to Fortune 1000 companies.
“Love your business, but don’t fall in love with it,” advises Ben. “Someday it may get so big you won’t be able to manage it yourself and you’ll have to give up control. You may even discover you’re not the best qualified person to lead it to the next level.”
What do you do then? “Start another business, of course!”
