Owning Up

Almost certainly as important as developing your life plan, owning up to your weaknesses, strengths, likes, dislikes, needed skills, and goals is integral in the process of planning your business. When you are completely honest with yourself and any partners you may have, your business will come out stronger.

It is definitely hard for anyone to admit that they don't have everything that it takes to start and run their own business, or just weakness in general. Identifying these key areas will help you realize what you need to work on. The same is true for listing your strengths. If you take the time to do some deep introspection, you will have identified areas that need less attention in your planning process and those that need major focus and work.

You should also consider what skills are needed for your particular business. Creating a list here will help you match needs to your strengths and weaknesses or identify areas that you may be missing a needed skill set. Missing areas do not necessarily mean that you cannot run this business, but may identify needed consultants, employees, education, or training that should be included in your start up costs.

It will also be helpful to list your likes and dislikes. This will help you identify areas that you will need to constantly remind yourself to focus on, since, if you don't like it, you are probably going to leave it last on your list of priorities.

Lastly, you should set goals for your business. Write down what you expect your business to accomplish and where you would like it to be in 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years.

Once you have completed these 4 lists, you can then sit down and compare them. Show them to friends, family, and partners. Get feedback from them, and use this information in your planning process.

You may come up with a pre-business plan to work on those areas of weakness in the way of training, or you may decide that a partner with complementary skills is needed. You may also develop a reminder list of tasks that you are not necessarily fond of that you will display in your work area. No matter what tools you develop through this exercise, you are undoubtedly going to know more about yourself and your business in the end.

-Rebecca