Are You Ready to Start Your Business? (Issue #4)

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Are you ready to take the leap into entrepreneurship?

• How are you feeling about your job right now?

• Are you still committed to starting your own business?

• Is now the time to make a move and do it?

It's challenging to think about all of this with a million thoughts buzzing around in your head. You may have a good gut feeling about your eagerness to start something new. Your passion and excitement for your business idea may tempt you to rush right into it.

I get it. I’ve been there!

I value qualitative judgments (e.g., how excited you are), but I'm also a fan of quantitative assessments to understand your state of planning and preparation. So, I created a series of statements to assess your solopreneurial readiness.

You can take my free quiz online to find out! Your score will be automatically calculated and emailed to you.

Or you can think about your reactions to the statements below and manually score your responses instead. Regardless of your final score, I think you’ll find that these statements will get you asking yourself the right questions about your future business.

Be brutally honest with your reactions and how you score yourself. It will help you get a sense of how prepared you are to make this move and jump into entrepreneurship. It also gives you a sense of how much planning you may still need to do.

Score each of the following statements on a scale of 1 to 5. A score of 1 means that you "strongly disagree" with the statement. A score of 5 means that you "strongly agree" with the statement.

1. Strongly disagree

2. Disagree

3. Neutral

4. Agree

5. Strongly agree

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Solopreneur Readiness Quiz

Think about the current state of your business planning while scoring the following statements on a scale of 1-5.

Note: I go into more detail about these questions in the podcast for this episode. So, scroll up and listen if you’re wondering what I mean by some of these questions.

1. I have a clear vision and passion for the business I want to build. Score:

2. I can visualize where my business will be in 10 years. Score:

3. I know what I must do to make my business vision come true. Score:

4. I know my mission and the positive change I want to make in people’s lives with what I will offer. Score:

5. I know exactly what problem my business solutions will solve. Score:

6. I can clearly and succinctly state the value proposition of my solution. Score:

7. I have a ridiculously focused and detailed description of my ideal customer (i.e., my niche). Score:

8. I’ve talked with several people who fit my ideal customer profile to understand their problems, needs, and wants. Score:

9. I’m prepared to leave my 9-5 job and go out on my own. Score:

10. I have saved money and created a financial cushion that can support me for 6-12 months. Score:

11. I have a budget to tightly manage my expenses, benefits (e.g., health insurance), and “burn rate” until I’m sufficiently profitable. Score:

12. I have a backup plan that I can quickly put into motion if my business fails. Score:

13. I’m comfortable working alone and managing my schedule and productivity. Score:

14. I have a place where I can work and focus every day. Score:

15. I know exactly what the product or service is that I want to offer. Score:

16. I have already prepared my products or services to offer to customers. Score:

17. I know how to price my products or services. Score:

18. I have created a solid business plan. Score:

19. I have prepared a detailed business model that ensures profitable success. Score:

20. I have identified all of my potential sources of revenue. Score:

21. I have documented my potential business expenses and the cost of delivering my goods and services. Score:

22. I have a marketing and sales plan ready to go. Score:

23. I have created a plan to reach my ideal customer through various channels. Score:

24. I have a great name for my business. Score:

25. I have the brand identity ready for my business (e.g., brand attributes, tagline, great logo). Score:

26. My business name and product name are available for trademark registration. Score:

27. I have secured the domain for my business name. Score:

28. I’ve created social media accounts for my business. Score:

29. I have a website designed and built for my business. Score:

30. I’ve identified potential business partners and suppliers. Score:

31. I have determined the appropriate legal entity for my business (e.g., LLC, corporation, sole proprietorship, partnership, co-op). Score:

32. I have my business systems, services, and tools up and running. Score:

33. I’ve identified vendors, specialists, and consultants who can help me with my business (e.g., lawyer, accountant, admin, designers, engineers, support). Score:

34. Potential customers can easily find me and communicate with me. Score:

35. I understand the competitive landscape and have identified my potential competitors. Score:

36. I know exactly how to successfully differentiate my business from competitors and close a sale. Score:

37. I could sell my product or service to a potential customer this week. Score:

38. I’ve already started selling my products or services. Score:

39. I have a supportive community of friends, family members, and entrepreneurial peers. Score:

40. I have business advisors I can turn to for help and advice. Score:

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Your Total Score

Add your scores for the 40 statements and divide the total number by 2 (round up if necessary). Here's how to interpret your total score:

• 80-100

  • Congrats! You have a pretty clear idea of what you want your business to be and the problems you will solve for customers, and you seem ready to go.

  • Would you like to connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter? 😊

• 60-79

  • You have some ideas for what you want to do with your business and how to run it, but you need to do more research and define things clearly before moving ahead.

  • It might help to schedule a complimentary call with me to discuss your plans.

• 40-59

  • Your business idea and plans are a little fuzzy in different areas, so use these statements as a framework for digging into the details and preparing more. 

  • Learn more about my business coaching, solopreneur community, courses, and more!

• 20-39

  • Most of the details are missing for what you will need to plan and launch your new business. No worries! Now you have some homework to do. 

  • Let's talk so I can help you put together a strategy to define your solopreneurial plan.

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I’m excited for you!

I’ve been an entrepreneur before. I founded and incorporated my company with partners, built and managed a team of employees, and outsourced various services. It was a great experience, and I learned a lot.

However, I have now returned to being a solopreneur, and that was intentional. There are many benefits that I missed when I was an employee and an employer.

Being a solopreneur gives you incredible freedom that is hard to find in any other business model or employment relationship. When you structure your business the right way, you can enjoy the benefits and avoid most — if not all — of the potential downsides.

I know this quiz may seem a little overwhelming. But I tried to touch on the essential questions you must ask yourself as you define a new business. The good news is you don’t have to have everything completely figured out before you begin. Start small, learn as you go, and expand and grow when you’re ready.

I’m here to help! You can email me with questions and I’ll do my best to answer them here in this newsletter. Also, you can learn more about my new solopreneur courses and peer community launching later this year.

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Larry Cornett is a leadership coach and business advisor. If you’re interested in starting your own business or side hustle someday (or accelerating an existing one), check out his “Employee to Solopreneur” course (launching later this year).

Larry lives in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with his wife and children, and a gigantic Great Dane. He does his best to share advice to help others take complete control of their work and life. He’s also on Twitter @cornett.