Before starting your business, make sure you answer this question
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
It has never been easier to start your own business; you can create your own website for free, you can register your business in less time than it takes to make a cup of tea and you have an abundance of helpful resources online.
Amazing news, right? But before you jump into entrepreneurial life, ask yourself this question: why? The answer is harder than you might think. Why do you want to start this business and is the reason strong enough to keep you going through the inevitable struggles? As a career coach, I see many people starting businesses without a strong enough “why?” and yet they have invested a considerable amount of time, energy and money already.
Before you begin, it is essential that you do a bit of introspection and reflect on your values, strengths and weaknesses. Why do you really want to start this business? Is it because you want to be rich? You may struggle because many businesses don’t make a profit for months and sometimes years. You need to find something deeper that will keep you pushing even when you are wondering how you are going to survive or how you are going to rise to a challenge. Your “why?” will help you find a how.
Let me give you an example from my own business journey. I co-founded Rama Publishing (a stationery and publishing business based in London) with my husband back in 2017. I will spare you all the thousands of hurdles we encountered in the first few months and fast forward to when we received our first batch of planners.
We were still in Melbourne when the delivery company called from London to say that the driver couldn’t deliver the pallet through a normal doorway, so he would be leaving our planners on the pavement. These planners were worth thousands of pounds in sales, and we were freaking out at the thought of them sitting unattended on a central London street. We were on the phone for hours trying to get a hold of someone who could help. Luckily, we managed to convince the concierge to help shift the boxes. If we didn’t have a strong enough “why?” then we would have given up.
This episode is nothing compared to the hurdles that an entrepreneur can face. I remember seeing a presentation by the founder of Ugly Drinks. He told the story of their very first supermarket order becoming undrinkable because of an error in their recipe. They couldn’t afford to do another batch, so they became a PR company for the next six months until they had enough money to try again. That, for me, shows real heart. Their “why?” (they were extremely passionate about creating a healthy soft-drink alternative) was strong enough to keep them going.
We started Rama because we wanted to create tools to help people translate their goals, dreams, wishes into reality. We also wanted to give young unknown writers with no industry connections the chance to have their work published. Although we are at a very early stage, these are strong “why?’s” for us, they fuel the fire we need to keep pushing. Find your why BEFORE you start your business – it will show you the way forward.