So, you woke up today thinking of managing your own business. But ideas in your head are a bit blurry; you don’t know where to start. Well, this is definitely not a comprehensive guide on purchasing a business, but it will surely give you ideas and, hopefully, help make up your mind.
Putting up from scratch vs. Buying an existing one
Either of the two has its pros and cons. Making the decision by yourself may be painstaking. What you can do is to ask for advice from experts, such as the business brokers. They know everything from business brokerage, franchising, or buying and selling businesses.
Another option you have is talking to consulting business advisors. They can help you with business planning and look into your financial statements to help you come up with the best type of investments.
But whether or not you have decided on your business idea, watching the following videos will help get the ball rolling.
A smart loan for people with no credit history (yet)
This is a talk presented by Shivani Siroya, the creator of a tool that helps you build your financial track record using only your mobile phone. In this video, she discusses how anyone can have a credit score based on our everyday transactions. All you have to do is download the app.
Here’s how it works:
In a nutshell, it tracks your daily activities and benchmarks them against previous relevant studies. For example, according to data, people who talk with close contacts regularly have a higher chance of paying their debts. Hence, if you make regular phone calls to your family, it shows that you can be trusted to repay. Therefore, your score is increased.
If you have a regular travel pattern, it could also mean you have a high chance of repaying, which again adds to your score. In other words, the app helps you prove to the creditors that you can be trusted. So, if you need to borrow money for your business but you don’t have a credit history yet, you can learn a lot from this.
How to run a company with (almost) no rules
No idea how to be in charge of a business at all? Or would you like to have a radical change in how companies are run? This TED talk by Ricardo Semler will give you inspiration. Semler owns several companies in Brazil and would like people to rethink how organizations are managed.
In this video, he talks about how cleaning ladies get equal voting rights in a board meeting, employees can take several days off starting Wednesdays, and workers can report in any branch they want.
Profit’s not always the point
Harish Manwani, the COO of Unilever, talks about ensuring that your company survives in the modern era. He said that the traditional model of business espouses three G’s: “growth that is consistent, growth that is competitive, and growth that is profitable.”
If you want your business to flourish, however, you have to embrace the 4th G—goodness. A company must care for the society around it. It must create that value and purpose. This video is beneficial as you create your business plan to help you outline your mission and vision.
As mentioned, these videos are not a definitive guide on how you can establish a firm. That’s best left to the business brokers and advisors. Nonetheless, you can still pick up pieces of helpful information, which can assist you as you go through the planning process.
