I never take this preliminary step lightly. I always start off with thorough planning. As we always say, plan your life, and then plan your business. Once you know where to go, you can then have a pleasant journey.

I have noticed that there are many successful business people who are not happy in many ways even though they have all the money to last them for generations. On the other hand, I also found out that business people who are successful, joyful and happy are entrepreneurs who created a business that's in perfect synchronization with what they want out of life. They do what they love, the kind of things that fit into their personality, their life purpose and their lifestyle.

Therefore, before I lunge into a new business venture, I would run though a personal checklist to ensure that I am aware of what I am doing and where I want to be ultimately.

Here is what I'll do:

1. Review my area of importance – I would review thoroughly my current job or business, my physical being, my lifestyle, my relationship, my family, my hobby, my finance, my spiritual aspect and my emotional state. Next, I would grade each area of my life on a scale of 1-100 (1 means not important at all; 100 means utmost important; 50 means in between). When certain areas of life (at different phases of life) do not concern me much, they are usually not important to me. However, aspect of life that I want to elevate desperately or thing that bother me most of the time, are usually aspect that I perceive as utmost important.

For instance, if my life is motivated solely by relationship with my loved ones, I would rate it 100. And if my top priorities in life are making money and being happy (simultaneously), I would rate my business at 90 and my emotional state at 90. Let say currently I am obese, and that doesn't bother my conscious, so my physical being would get somewhere around 10!

2. Perform goal setting – Then, I would review (or maybe redo) my personal life goals for the short and long term. My goals in life would be referring to the “ideal life” that I want to live in. Factor in things like family time, hobbies, charity work, and early retirement - anything that gets me really excited or motivated.

3. Identify my skills, expertise or interest – Next, I will list down my highest abilities, strengths or area of interest, that I can build on to attain “commercial value”. I would finalize what are my skills, expertise or interest that could be an asset to my business.

4. Identify what kind of business is most ideal – I would list down several kinds of businesses I want to venture into; that meet my life's purpose, my skills, expertise or area of interest. Ultimately, I need to choose the kind of business that I can be enthusiastic about during the startup and daily management. One pointer, I must be 100% certain that the business I've chosen must present a “hungry market” or else I'll be a sitting duck.

5. Discover my ideal work style – Finally I would discover how I want to run my new venture; full time or part time, mobile office or home office, one-man show or with a team of people, online or brick and mortar business.

Once I have completed the above five steps, all the above elements will get consolidated into a very brief document called “MY ULTIMATE PLAN”

It's very important for me to have MY ULTIMATE PLAN printed out and kept in plain view. The reason for doing so… to constantly remind me of what I want, what's important, and what to do next (especially when things get tough).

I would utilize MY ULTIMATE PLAN to provide a context for most strategic decisions I'll make - including what niche business I choose to venture, what business model to employ, who to employ, where to operate, how much capital to raise, product pricing factor, how to automate my daily operations, home based, or a one-man operation.

Most importantly, MY ULTIMATE PLAN will position me to do what I LOVE MOST and that will always bring out the best in me as an entrepreneur - unleashing the untapped potential within me!

*Note: Unproven teories to not be shown to my readers! If you need any small business startup help, feel free to visit my Website :)

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