Famous Entrepreneurs

Research and evaluate your business idea
Here’s a step-by-step guide to evaluating whether you and your chosen business are a good fit.

1. Try it out. Before you start a business of your own, get some experience in the industry or profession that interests you — even if you work for free. Learn everything you can about every aspect of the business. For example, if you want to start a pasta shop, but don’t know ravioli from cannelloni, go out and get a job with a pasta maker. After a few months, you should be an expert in every aspect of pasta prep, from mixing eggs and flour to flattening the dough and slicing it into strips.
2. Talk to entrepreneurs in the same field. If you’re not familiar with the business you want to start and you’re unable to find work in the field, talk with others who provide the product or service that interests you. To increase your chances of getting interviews and reliable answers to your questions, it’s best to do this in a different locale from the one in which you plan to locate. Small business owners are often quite willing to share their knowledge once they are sure you will not compete with them.
3. Evaluate whether you enjoy the work and excel at it. If not, find a new venture. It’s a lot harder to make a success of a business you don’t like, and it’s unlikely you’ll like something you’re not good at. If you enjoyed the work and determined you were skilled enough to base your own business on it, go on to the next step.
4. Judge your ability and desire to handle every aspect of the business. If you don’t want to or can’t pitch in wherever and whenever something needs to be done — whether it involves manufacturing a product, dealing with customers or keeping the books — you should think twice about starting that kind of business.
5. Determine whether the business has a solid chance of turning a profit. After working in the field for a few months, you should have a good idea of whether the business is a potential moneymaker. To be sure, you should analyze your market and conduct a break-even analysis, a preliminary financial projection that shows you the amount of revenue you’ll need to bring in to cover your expenses (this amount is called your break-even point). If you’re able to bring in more revenues than your break-even point, you’ll be in the black (that is, you’ll make a profit).
6. Evaluate the risk this particular business requires. Even the best-laid plans can sour if you pick an unusually risky business. For instance, the following businesses have higher than average failure rates:
   • computer stores
   • laundries and dry cleaners
   • florists
   • used car dealerships
   • gas stations
   • trucking firms
   • restaurants
   • infant clothing stores
   • bakeries, and
   • grocery and meat stores.

If your business idea is on this list, don’t despair — it doesn’t mean you should automatically abandon it. However, you’ll need to be more critical and careful with the numbers when preparing your business plan.