1. Stop. Think. What is it that you want to accomplish? What exactly do you want to do? One sentence should be more than enough, whether you want to start an individual business or enter a franchise. 2. What is your final destination? Where you see yourself ending up has an impact on how you progress and how youall react when you reach your goal. 3. Why are you doing this? Is it personal, professional, or something else? 4. Now that you know where you are going and why, is this still something that you want? If youare saying yes, you have to move on to just how to get there.

The first step is to look at how to reach your dream, for example how to build a business from the ground up. 5. List what you will need. The odds of it being anothinga are fairly minuscule. If nothing else, it will need your time. 6. How much is enough? Despite your best intentions, there may come a point when you will have no choice but to turn your back on your idea, or at the very least leave it in a closet for awhile while you concentrate on other things. Although planning for failure is an unpleasant thing, it is important to know just how far you can go before you find yourself in over your head.

7. Make a list of projects based on your ideas. What takes precedence in that list? For the goals outlined previously, try and decide what you can do to reach them. For example, if someone wants to start a business, some possible options include:

Option 1: Work full time while building my own business on the side. Pros: Dont lose my health benefits from work while working on second job. Know I can feed my family while building up the business. Cons: No time with family. Every waking moment will be spent on the full time job or the to be full time business.

Option 2: Quit my current job and work full time on the new business. Pros: Greater odds of success, if the business cannot work if done on a part time basis. Time to pound the pavement. Cons: If it doesnt generate income soon, Ive lost two jobs. No health benefits.

Option 3: Buy into an already existing business or franchise. Pros: The startup work is done, and there may be clients willing to stay on. Also may be able to lean on the current owner while learning the business. Cons: There are fees for franchises, and does the seller have a good reason to get out of the business, say theyave made their money and are ready to retire at 30, or is it just a bad business to be in right now?

8. Now that you have considered the pros and cons of each of your options, you need to select one. Which one has the best risk-rewards ratio for your situation? 9. With a basic plan of action decided upon, you can begin to look more closely at what you need to do at each stage. Make a timeline, and stick to it. You also need to make a realistic budget, considering everything that you will need to start your business. There is advertising, office space, and donat forget that youall need some sort of salary.

Example: A manas plan to start a construction business, working from the premise that he will continue to work full time at his current job while building it up. 1. Advertising Part 1: Make a set of business cards. 2. Advertising Part 2: spread the word through friends and friends-of-friends that I do construction work, and get some referrals. 3. Work as much as I can on the new business on the side; try and finish as many jobs as possible without dropping. 4. Save money, Iam going to need liability insurance before tackling any big jobs. 5. Get liability insurance and bonds. 6. Incorporate; it has legal and tax benefits. 7. Work. Work, work, work, as much as I can around my full-time job. 8. Set aside some money to hire an assistant to work part time when an extra set of hands is needed. 9. Quit the full time job and go into business for myself. Congratulations on a job well done, or, conversely, congratulations for giving it a try. In that case, go back, look at what went wrong, and try again.