3 Important Resources You Need for Starting Your Own Business

3 Important Resources You Need for Starting Your Own Business

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1. Money

The first most useful resource you can have to start a business is money of course. You need money to do everything: you need money to register your business; you need money to buy inventories; you need money to buy supplies; you might even need money to gain a skill. Whichever way you spin it, you need money for all kinds of things. As a matter of fact, as a small business owner you can never have enough money. That’s why they say “cash is king,” because without cash even if you have a great business and great idea you are not likely to be successful.

2. Time

The second one, we don’t talk about as much: it’s time. I’m going to spend a little bit of time talking about time here. Time is a very important resource and is frequently overlooked. When you first start a business, your business will rely on you quite a bit. So much so that probably every waking moment of your day will be consumed with your business. There are endless tasks that you need to do to launch and run the business. Most people who have never done it before are overwhelmed when they actually start their business and stare down all these tasks. Quite differently, when you’re working at a larger company, there are other people to help you if you’re unable to finish a little task you can go back to your supervisor you can go back to the owner and ask for more resources. You can get either more time — maybe extend the deadline a bit — or more people — human resource — for someone else to come and help you. But when you start a business on your own it’s very difficult. You will have a set budget. So if you need more help, you have to take money out of your set budget that you didn’t account for to get that help. Maybe you need to hire a consultant; maybe you need to hire some workers to help you finish your product; maybe you need someone to answer the phones! All those help cost money, so what happens is many times the owners end up doing it themselves. All these little but crucial tasks will fall on the owner out of necessity. So as an entrepreneur, you have to take care of it all. If you don’t have enough time, things won’t get done and business will suffer.

Many people like side hustles. They may work a full-time job and have a small business on the side. Those kinds of business are sustainable in the short term if you have the right expectations. If you never expect your side hustle to get big, then perhaps you can run it on the nights and weekends in your spare time; but if you want to scale or you want to grow big, you will have to expand and you will need the time. As such, many incubators and accelerators require the founders work full time in order to get funded, because as investors they understand that if the founders don’t dedicate all their time to the project the project is not likely to succeed and scale. So your side hustle, without all your time, involvement, and energy, might stay a side hustle forever. That’s why time is important.

3. Network

The third important resource is your network. I think a lot of entrepreneurs understand this is important, but they don’t spend enough effort, energy, and focus to build their network. When you first start your business, the first set of customers might be your friends, associates, and other people you know, so the bigger your network the better it is to get it started. Of course not all of your customers will come from your network, but your network is a really important starting point. They are the seeds that can help you grow. Most of your friends and associates — people you know — your classmates and your co-workers are the people that will give you the benefit of doubt and patronize your business when you first start. If they really like what you have to offer or even just be supportive, they will tell others and bring other customers. Those will be the first wave of referrals for your business, which is super important. Thus having a big great network will make launching your business a lot easier.

So how do you cultivate that network? Many of us know a lot of people through all avenues. We can go on LinkedIn or Facebook find hundreds if not thousands of contacts and connections. But if you don’t talk to those people regularly, when you contact them for the first time in a year or two to ask them to look at your new business or to ask them to patronize your new business, they might not come. They might even feel offended because they might feel like you’re only contacting them to ask for their money. So as an entrepreneur, before you start your business you should cultivate your personal and professional networks to make sure that you stay in contact with everyone. Because one day when you’re ready to launch your business, you can ask them for feedback and you can ask them to check out your business. Maybe there will be your first customers and bring your second group of customers. Those are the easiest customer acquisition you will ever have in your business!

So take some time, figure out your network, and cultivate those relationships today.

Like these simple but practical tips? I cover entrepreneurship, business, legal, and tech topics in my 5 minute lecture series on YouTube (channel link here). The lectures will also be posted on my blog (theProfessorZ.com). Please subscribe to the YouTube channel and my newsletters for the lectures and other content goodies!

Again this is Dafan the ProfessorZ, join me on the journey to success, freedom, and satisfaction through entrepreneurship.

Be successful!

3 Important Resources You Need for Starting Your Own Business