To Start a Small Business
Can You Be a Jack of All Trades?

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If you are planning to start a small business of your own, you will be responsible for everything and that is a key point that many would-be entrepreneurs find difficult to fully comprehend. Unless you have the bucks to hire the right help immediately, you will have to be the jack of all trades and let’s hope you are a master at some in your start-up business.

That dream flower shop sounds great, but you will likely be the person at the big city flower market in the predawn hours picking out the best, freshest flowers for your customers. The new sidewalk bistro owner will be involved in the early hours picking out produce and meat and in the late hours ensuring that his customers are having the best dining experience possible. If you don’t want to get involved in effort to this level to start a small business, it might be best to work for someone else.

A quick example: We visited a new entrepreneur who had one employee and was having a hard time bringing in new business. After a few months in the struggling start-up business, the owner was approached by that employee who wanted a "piece of the action." "You can have half of the business," quipped the owner, "meet me here Sunday morning at 7 am, that’s when I clean the office and the equipment and make sure everything is ready for the week ahead. Then stay late on Mondays because that is when I make out all of the checks to pay the vendors and if I don’t have enough money in the business bank account, I borrow it from my personal savings or credit card." The employee said that he was not looking for that kind of a "piece of the action."

For more new businesses than not, this is the reality when you start a small business of your own. It is tough to begin with but hopefully, down the road, the rewards are great and the freedom irreplaceable.

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