Whether you’re a professional card player, a collector, an investor, or someone who is just flipping spare things on Facebook marketplace, the question “should I start a business” is one that will generally float through your mind from time to time. It can be incredibly difficult to pinpoint down on what the right decision is if you’ve never started your own business before, or at least came from a business-oriented background. In this article I’d like to look at a few things to consider when deciding if forming a business is right for you. 

Goals:

The first, and most important, factor in deciding whether or not to start your business is figuring out what your goals are. Are you interested in what you’re doing only on the hobby level? Do you want to scale what you’re doing to the point it could be your full-time job? Do you have a passion for what you’re doing? Is it something you could see yourself doing long term? Is there a consistent revenue basis around what you’re doing? Many of these questions can be answered by sitting down and figuring out what your goals are. For example, let’s say we take someone playing cards professionally, whether that is Pokemon, Magic, Poker, or anything else. Is this something that you’d like to eventually become a career? Are you looking to get a sponsorship, brand deals, and eventually market yourself as a professional with all the responsibilities that it includes? If so, then starting a business might be the right option for you. On the other hand, if you ask yourself that question and the answer is that it is something you like to do on the weekends to have fun with your friends and relax, then the reality is what you’re doing is probably more of a hobby than a business. That being said, many hobbies do eventually transition into businesses (Squeaks Game World began as a hobby of mine). So how did I decide? Well, I laid out a few goals and it made my decision pretty simple. 

1. I want to be able to leave my job I currently work at.
2. I want to be able to be my own boss.
3. I want to set my own hours.
4. I want my income to be determined by how hard and how frequently I work, not based on a corporate pay structure. 
5. I want to be able to transition from my role as a consumer and competitive player to fill the role of a customer service based company that caters to people who were like me before I made that transition.

When I laid these goals out it became pretty simple, what I’m looking to do is start a business. I’d get to work for myself, leave my job, set my own hours and get paid based on how hard I worked. I could structure my business to meet goal number 5. This is how it begins. You can do this with anything, but the key here is to be honest with yourself. Along with making the goals you should summarize your strengths and weaknesses. 

Strengths Are Important, but Weaknesses are Everything

While deciding if I wanted to start a business, and ultimately how I’d start a business, I sat down to analyze what would make me a strong business owner. On the other hand however, I also looked at what would make me a weak one. Here was a short list of what I came up with…

• Pros
• Good Listener
• Incredibly Headstrong
• Strong Foundation of Knowledge on the Products I’d Carry
• Many Fantastic Connections Within the Community
• I’m a Good Talker
• Willing and Able to Learn New Things
• Strength in Problem Solving
• Strength in Creating Alternative Solutions
• Spent Many Years Not Going to Class and Being Self Taught (This is Not a Joke)
• Cons
• Little Money to Start
• Incredibly Headstrong
• Little Knowledge on How to Run or Structure a Business
• I Struggle to Separate My Emotions From Business
• I Can be TOO Loyal (to the point I’m taken advantage of)
• I Can Let Anger and Jealousy Cloud My Judgment

Now many of you probably noticed that “Incredibly Headstrong” is on both lists. This is because sometimes a trait can be a fantastic asset in some situations, but a massive hindrance in others. It is incredibly important to be honest with yourself when analyzing these things so that you can make appropriate applications of your pros and cons so that you can begin to formalize a plan on how you’ll address them. While my “Pros” column was a little weaker than I would have liked it to be, I felt that the “Cons” section was actually manageable and could easily be addressed with some time, effort, dedication, and focus. In an effort at overcoming your cons, being self-critical is extremely important. Note: There is a difference between being critical and being defeating to one’s self. 

I came up with solutions to the “little money to start” that I’ll address in future articles about cash flow. I researched and put the time in on “how to run and structure a business” using websites such as Tax Jar, Google, my state government’s website, talking it over with an accountant, and discussing it with others who have started a business. That doesn’t mean I still don’t learn new things everyday, but I gave myself enough of a foundation to work with. Remember everyone, the key here is to build a workable foundation, not to have all of the answers from the start. I can give you stories to this day about the last there and where I still struggle with them from time to time, especially on the customer service side. Again, I’m not perfect and we shouldn’t be asking ourselves to be. When these situations arise we should be critical of them to improve, but not defeating because they happened. They will happen. 

Once you create your own pros and cons list you’ll have a better idea of the obstacles in your way to actually starting a business. This will allow you to see the hill you have to climb to get there, if it is a hill you want to climb, and if you do...how you’ll go about doing so. So say you decide you do want to climb the mountain of the goal you created and you think your cons are manageable, what’s next?  The next step is to determine if your business can actually make you money.

Cash is King

The reality is businesses can be a great avenue to transcending economic classes, to giving yourself a new found self-worth, and to becoming a contributing member in society. The truth is though, they are not for everyone. Businesses are incredibly tough to start, and no amount of lists or self-reflection is going to keep your doors open if the business you’re trying to create doesn’t make sense or doesn’t have a proper build out. In future articles I’m going to discuss Cash Flow, Creating a Budget, and Creating a Business Plan, but for now I’d like you sit with a more general question. How is it that you plan to make money? 

When I started my business, for me it was by buying and selling products to consumers. Over the years I have made money through this business in other ways on the service side as well, but from the beginning the overarching plan was a goods to consumer mentality. That plan overtime has evolved, so don’t worry about trying to nail down everything when trying to figure out if a business is right for you. Just as we discussed above, this is all about a foundation, so figure out IF the foundation is there to make money. Are you going to sell products? Are you going to be a professional card player and make your money from endorsement deals, prize winnings, and sponsorships? Or are you going to merely invest in things and make your money down the road when your items mature? One way you can go about figuring out if the foundation exists for what you want to do, is to see if it already exists. For me, there are tons of retail stores out there, so obviously the foundation to make money, if done correctly, is there. For other industries and avenues then business model might not even exist yet and so you’re in uncharted territory. This is okay! The best tip I can give here is to do research about your industry, other entrepreneurs in your field, and other businesses in your industry. This way you can get a better idea of where you’d fit in among them and can decide if you think there is a place for you. Once you’ve done that you’ll have a better idea if there is a business model you can form to generate you revenue. Note: If you’re sitting here saying, “my business goal isn’t to make money,'' then you’re either looking to have a hobby, or run a non-profit, neither of which would really apply to this article. 

Now that we’ve covered these main things, the next steps are actually much more simple to deduce, but much harder to put into practice. If you believe forming a business is right for you, you have to get properly registered with the Federal Government, your State (possibly other states), and your county (if applicable). Since I am not a licensed professional, I’d highly recommend speaking to an attorney or accountant on how to properly form and register your business. In addition, you'll need to create a business plan, a budget, your long term road map and goals (part of which you’ve already done!). We will cover these topics in future articles, so for now I’m going to leave you with a “To Do” list. 

To Do:

1. Sit down and create a list of your goals. Make sure to take time and be as exhaustive as you can. Consider whether these goals are obtainable by your business, or if they are a pipedream (unrealistic). 
2. Weigh out your strengths and weaknesses. Pay special attention to your weaknesses and try to come up with a plan on how you’ll account for some of these weaknesses in the structure of your business. (For Example: If you want to be a professional poker player but don’t know how to play poker, that would be a pretty large weakness to overcome) 
3. Come up with an idea of how your business would make money. You don’t need to flesh out a full business plan at this step (although it wouldn’t hurt if you wanted to), but at least create that mental foundation that you will know whether or not the business will be sustainable. This is a very research oriented one, as you’ll want to study your industry and those within it extensively to make sure what you’re wanting to do not only has a place, but will be a good fit. 

Once you finish your To Do list you’ll be that much closer to deciding if a business is right for you. If you’re still unsure there are a plethora of options at your disposal to help you figure it out, such as consulting a licensed expert, talking to others who have started a business, or further research. Let me know in the comments below what you all think, and as always, my inbox on all social media is always open!

- Squeaks

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