No Dummies Needed
Self-employment may be just your ticket
The coolest career may be the one you create for yourself. And while there are mountains of books guiding entrepreneurs to successful self-employment, the best advice revolves around five basic concepts:
Generating the idea. People think the secret to a successful business is The Idea. Actually, that's the easy part. Just copy a proven winner. One method: Find a store with customers lined up to buy. Then open a similar store in another great location.
Putting your toe in the water. How to test your idea? Watch someone in the biz. With training, could you picture yourself doing that well? For 40 hours a week? Also do guerrilla market research: Describe your product or service to others, and ask them how likely they would be to buy it.
Creating your mini-business plan. There is no need for a massive document. Just include:
Evidence from your research that a market exists for your product or service.
A description of your target market.
What you'll do to reach that market.
Your business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Estimated budgets for the first two or three years, and where you expect to get the money.
Controlling your costs. Here are ways to keep your cash flow positive:
Start your business at home. You'll save a fortune on rent and other costs. If necessary, meet clients at their places of business, a restaurant, or a temporary office.
Learn how to be a savvy businessperson. How? Work for one, or volunteer to.
Avoid buying high-end office furniture, equipment, or pricey ads. Use that cash for marketing, building a website, or hiring a consultant.
Avoid hiring employees. Hire other self-employed people on a just-in-time basis.
Getting business to come to you. Network and schmooze at professional and trade association meetings and through formal networking groups like linkedin.com and BNI (www.bni.com), with chapters nationwide. Even social networking sites such as match .com, facebook.com, and youtube.com can be used for business networking. In your profile, describe what you do, with enthusiasm.
If you're good at it, cold calling can be very effective.
Hire a pro to ensure that search engines like Google and Yahoo! rank your website highly.
There is one other key to self-employment success: being more likely to get it done than to procrastinate.
Follow these tips, and I'll bet you'll succeed as your own boss.
Excerpted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., from Cool Careers For Dummies, 3rd Edition, by Martin Nemko. Copyright (c) 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc. Available at Amazon.com and wherever books are sold.
This story appears in the March 19, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.