It’s hard to know whether you should start your own business.

There’s a world of small businesses out there, and the truly tough concept to grasp is that the majority aren’t successful.

So how do you know when you’re ready, to ensure that your business will be successful and continue to grow?

You can start by answering each of these questions - brace yourself, it’s a long list, but it’s worthwhile, as it helps you refine your vision and define your path to success.

Are you ready? Let’s get started...

Why do you want to start your own business?

You may be at the point where you’d like to start your own business and stop working for others, but don’t necessarily know what your business should be. 

It’s important to do something that you enjoy -- something you can put your passion into -- so you can keep your energy levels up through some potentially challenging times early on.

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking about your business:

• What do you spend your money on?

• What are your hobbies?

• What are your skills?

• What makes you get up in the morning?

• How do you want to be remembered?

• What would you do if you had all the money you could ever need?

• Who are your idols?

Something that can work well for successful businesses is combining two skills, problems, or solutions that are linked but may not be something that springs to mind immediately.

So think about your skills or passions, and combine them to create a business proposition that’s truly unique.

What should your business be?

You already have your mind and heart set on starting your own business, but you need to hone in on the reason why.

If it’s just because you don’t like a particular boss or a specific industry, that’s simply not reason enough.

You might have specific ways that you want to run a business, or want to leave a legacy for your family. 

Perhaps you want full control of your career, without relying on anyone else.

What problem is you product or service solving?

Every product or service needs to be solving a problem that your audience encounters - be it regularly or occasionally.

In order to know whether your product or service actually solves that problem, you need to know both your audience and your product like the back of your hand.

Before you even start to create your product, promote what you’re planning on selling or even start a website or social media profile for your business, speak to your audience.

Find out what makes them tick, and what ticks them off.

Then be the solution to their problems.

How much money do you need to start?

The key word here is need, not want.

Plan out a budget of the bare basics you need to start your business, down to the money to craft your product or service, where to sell it, how to sell it, and how to attract your audience.

Make sure that, before you quit your day job or burn any bridges, you are actually financially able to start.

What’s the competition like?

This is where so many businesses fall short.

In order to succeed, you need to be keeping track of your competitors.

Almost every business has competitors -- although there are a few monopolies that seem to have conquered their sector.

It’s up to you to know your sector well enough to know who your competitors are, how they run their business, what their brand is, and how you can be better than them.

Once you know who they are, you then need to keep regular tabs on them -- dedicate a couple of hours of competitor research each week to stay on top of them.

We’ve covered more on researching your competition, including what to find out and where to look, in our article, Beat the Competition.

Keeping track of your competitors helps you define your USP, which leads us into…

What makes you different?

You need to stand out from your competitors, to do something different that further benefits your audience.

This special spark that sets you apart from the rest is your USP -- your unique selling point.

For example, you could be a computer repairs company, but what sets you apart from the rest is that you come to your customers’ houses to collect their broken electronics, rather than having them come to you.

Harsh truth time: if you don’t think you have a USP, then your business won’t succeed.

You need to be doing something different in order to grow, otherwise, why would your audience buy from you if they can get exactly the same service or product elsewhere?

Define your USP and make that a prominent part of your product promotion and your brand.

Check out our article, Finding Your X-Factor: USPs for Small Businesses for more on your unique selling point.

What do you have ready to start?

Chances are, if you’re considering starting your own business, you already have some of the things you need to get started.

It may not be something physical, like funds or premises to sell your product - it could be a certain level of skill, or the ability to do something like create a website or run a social media profile.

Make a checklist of everything you need - physical and non-physical - and cross off what you already have ready to go.

It’ll help you get on track with your launch plan, and will give you a much-needed confidence boost while you’re getting things ready.

How much time can you realistically dedicate to this?

We all have other obligations in our lives apart from our careers and our businesses.

They might be families, hobbies, day jobs, friends - anything that takes up time in our lives that we don’t want to give up.

You don’t have to shut out your family and friends, or quit your day job and hobbies, in order to start your own business.

It’s time to shut down that myth.

Consider the things you don’t want to (or can’t) give up when you’re starting a new business, and allocate time to them, then see how much time you have left over for your business.

It helps put into perspective what you can realistically dedicate to your startup without dampening your spirits by making you think that you can’t spend time with your friends and family, or doing the things you love.

There may be some things in your life that you will have to cut out (or cut down), however - frivolous activities like playing video games (I’m sure we’re all guilty of that in one way or another), scrolling through social media, or popping to the pub for a pint (or five).

Is it the right time for you?

This is a hard question, but one you have to ask yourself: is this the right time to start your business?

If you have a legitimate reason to wait, you should wait.

For example, if it’s for you to make enough money to start your business, or enough time to develop a new skill, or even because you’ve just had a baby and need time to both recover and look after your child, just wait.

It’s okay to wait.

How much do you need to make for your business to be worthwhile? 

Another task you should undertake before launching your business or investing time or money into it is to do an estimate of how much money you need that business to make in order for it to be worthwhile.

Calculate your expenses - rent, mortgage, electricity, gas, childcare, food, phone bills… everything - and add more that you consider enough for your investments.

Make this calculation for the next few months, quarters (3 months) and years.

It’s not necessarily about just surviving with your business, but about thriving.

Write the figures that you would consider to be successful for your business, and work towards that.

Do you have the energy to work longer hours?

Another hard pill to swallow - are you physically and mentally able to run your business?

Starting a business is an incredibly exhausting feat, both on your body and on your mind.

Especially in the early days (weeks, months, years), you will have to work longer hours than you might have done whilst working a traditional 9-to-5.

Ask yourself honestly whether you have the energy to push through those early days, and take steps to prepare yourself against the impending exhaustion.

Do you feel positive or apprehensive about starting your own business?

Take note of how you feel when you think about and plan your business launch - do you feel excited, doubtful, worried, confident?

If you’re not feeling positive, consider a different business, or making other changes in your life - it may be that this business idea is not quite right for you.

If you’re feeling keen, energised and raring to go, then you’re on the right path.

Where will you sell your product? 

It’s not just a case of having a product or service and an audience - you need a place to sell it.

The place you sell your product could be your own website, a brick-and-mortar shop, on a host website, from your own house, or even from an office space.

Consider which place would be best for you, your product and your audience -- the traffic to that place, the cost to rent, hire, or buy it, the skills you need to use it, and how your product will look there.

Don’t just choose whatever everyone else is doing, or what’s ‘in vogue’ at the time.

If it helps, make a pro and con list of every viable option you have available, and use that to determine which place(s) would work best for you.

If you decide to start your own website, read our article, The Cyberspace Marketplace: Building Your Business Website, with lots of handy tips to guide you along the way.

How will you promote your product?

When it comes to starting your own business, it’s not just about having the product or service and a place to sell it - you need to promote it, too.

When it comes to promotion, there’s a whole wide world of choices, but they may not all work for you.

To help you figure out which platforms and methods you should use to promote your product, we’ve written an article, 23 Ways to Promote Your Product.

Who is your audience?

You may have an affinity to your product or service, but that alone doesn’t mean that’s what your business should be.

If you have no audience, you have no business - it’s really as simple as that.

You should create customer profiles to pinpoint who your customers are in order to provide the best product or service to them and market to them effectively.

Ask yourself what sort of people would buy your product or service, and that will help shape the logical and creative aspects of your business - where to sell your product, how much to sell it for, where to promote it, even what the actual product or service is.

Ideally, you should have 2-5 customer profiles, describing as many details of your audience as possible.

Some things to consider include:

• Age

• Job or career

• Skills

• Family

• Friends

• Hobbies and interests

• Income

• Gender (and/or gender identity)

• Location

• Education

• Goals

• Likes and dislikes

• Hopes and dreams

• Worries and fears

Check our Dean’s nudenotes post on Instagram for more information on creating the perfect persona.

Do I know the legal implications of starting a business?

You need to make sure that what you’re doing is legal -- you don’t want to invest time and energy into a new business only to find out that it’s infringing on another company’s brand, or that something you’re doing isn’t totally above board.

Ignorance is no excuse either.

There are plenty of resources available for you so you can find out exactly what steps you need to take to make sure that your business is legal, but here’s the basic information you need to know when starting a business in the UK and in the US.

Are you willing to learn? 

Confidence is key when starting a new business, but don’t mistake it for knowing everything.

You don’t have to pretend to know everything about starting a new business, or even about your sector, in order to start your business.

It’s okay to ask questions.

Plus you should always be looking to learn more - you will never know everything, and there’s always something else to learn.

As we always say at NSC, Always Be Learning.

Are you ready to network?

Networking is a scary word for so many of us - particularly those of us with social anxiety, or introverted tendencies.

But it doesn’t have to be so scary.

There are many ways to network, and networking is key to building your business, and learning from others - it’s simply a case of finding the right way to network for you.

If you aren’t sure where to start, check out our article, Networking for Introverted Entrepreneurs.

Do you think your business will succeed?

Finally, ask yourself whether you think your business will succeed.

Answer honestly.

If you feel positive, and see a bright future, then you’re doing the right thing.

I hope that these questions help you to decide whether you’re ready to start your own business, and truly wish you all the best if you’ve chosen to get started.

We’re here to help you on your entrepreneurial journey, to guide you when you need it, and encourage creativity in all that you do.

Let’s go.