This question isn’t tough to answer… but the answer to the above question is another question.
Are they the right match for me?
Let’s try to answer it for when starting a new business! The process of self-assessment when proposing a match or starting a new business is a critical step in determining your suitability for marriage and entrepreneurship.
For this article though, let us focus on entrepreneurship and convince ourselves that self-assessment helps find the type of business that aligns with your skills, interests, and goals.
Hereafter, I share an outline of the process of self-assessment that you can follow and find conviction with each step. The goal of self-assessment is not only to choose the right business for you, but also sifting the wrong businesses out of the picture. The process I recommend has the following steps:
1. Identify Your Skills and Strengths:
You should start by listing your skills, strengths, and areas of expertise. These can include technical skills, soft skills, and industry-specific knowledge. Generally your skills originate from the profession you have been engaged in, or a hobby you have pursued passionately.
For example: If you have a background in marketing and excellent communication skills, this could be a strength you can leverage in your business.
2. Assess Your Interests and Passions:
Consider what you are genuinely passionate about. What activities or subjects excite you? Your business is more likely to succeed and bring personal fulfilment if it aligns with your interests. If it does not, it is likely you will lose interest and start seeing your own business as a liability that demands your time, energy and effort.
A good example of a passion leading to business is if you love cooking and experimenting with recipes, a food-related business, such as a restaurant or catering service, or even a food blog or a vlog, might be a good fit.
3. Determine Your Values and Goals:
Define your personal values and long-term goals. How do you want your business to align with your values, and what are your aspirations for the future?
Your values are your beliefs and your personal sense of right & wrong. Your values could range from prioritising family to your patience with corruption. These could decide the type of business you could or should not pursue.
Goals from business are generally financial. But they could very well be non-financial. For example, if you value environmental sustainability, you might be drawn to businesses that focus on eco-friendly products or services.
4. Evaluate Your Risk Tolerance:
Building a business is hard work and you may have to work nights. But, no business is worth losing your sleep over! If your business becomes a cause of worry, then you will spend every second regretting the moment you started it… and that is not healthy for your foray as an entrepreneur.
So before you jump on the entrepreneurship bandwagon, you must assess your risk tolerance and willingness to handle uncertainty your new business will bring. Entrepreneurship often involves taking more risks than employment and to avoid nasty surprises and mental stress, you must not underestimate them.
Most common form of risk people have a low tolerance for, is financial risk. So you may want to start a business that requires minimal upfront investment – maybe a cloud kitchen in place of a full-blown restaurant! What say?
5. Consider Your Lifestyle:
Every buddy entrepreneur must incorporate their lifestyle preferences and how their new business will impact them. Questions you need to ask yourself are whether you are looking for flexibility, or are you comfortable with a more structured routine? How expensive are your tastes and how much are you willing to compromise on brands, cars and holiday destinations? But it can be worked out. For example, if you have young children and need a flexible schedule, an online business or freelance work may be more suitable than a business that requires a formal workplace.
6. Analyze Your Financial Situation:
Evaluate your financial situation, including your savings, access to capital, and current financial obligations. In my previous articles and videos, I have talked about the importance of having a Personal Financial Plan even before you work on a business plan.
Needless to say, you need to determine how much capital you can invest in your new business. Simply put, if you have limited savings and high personal expenses, you may consider a business that requires low startup costs or (risk permitting) seek external financing.
7. Examine Your Commitment Level:
Then you need to reflect on your commitment and dedication to the business. Entrepreneurship will be a demanding journey, so it’s essential to commit the time and effort required. No wonder the VC’s do not like to invest in up-and-running businesses that have a part-time founder!
So, if you have a full-time job and can only commit evenings and weekends to your business, choose a venture that can be managed part-time or consider partnering with someone who can share the workload. In both cases, with limited inputs from you, be prepared for your business to have a limited upside and become (at best) a side hustle.
8. Understand Your Weaknesses and Areas for Improvement:
You may give any bull in an interview about what your weaknesses are. But for the first time in your life, be honest about your weaknesses and areas where you may need improvement. Now there is no one else to answer to, but yourself. And until you are honest with yourself, you will not be able to address these weaknesses or compensate for them.
Once the weaknesses are identified, and if you are yourself not able to make up for it, do not fret. Go get an education, or an advisor, or an employee, or a partner!
9. Gather Feedback:
Seek feedback from friends, family, mentors, or colleagues. They may offer insights into your strengths and weaknesses that you haven’t considered. On this front, I would caution you that your enemies might be more insightful (and hence more valuable) than your friends. Generally, friends and family are better at support, than criticisms.
10. Create a Personal Inventory:
Compile all the information you’ve gathered into a personal inventory, including your skills, interests, values, risk tolerance, financial resources and any other assets you might have access to.
11. Match Your Inventory with Business Ideas:
Research potential business ideas and assess how well they align with your personal inventory. Look for business opportunities that capitalise on your strengths and passions and sidestep your weaknesses and areas of risk.
12. Prioritise and Narrow Down Options:
By now, you are ready to rule out ideas that strike red on any of the above lists. Rank the business ideas based on their alignment with your self-assessment. By focusing on the top-ranked ideas that best match your profile, you are now ready to pick from the short list of business ideas left on the table.
To conclude, by following this self-assessment process, you can identify a business opportunity that not only has the potential for success but also resonates with your personal characteristics and goals, increasing the likelihood of satisfaction and fulfilment as an entrepreneur.
Keep watching this space for my vlog on the same topic, coming soon!
Happy entrepreneuring!
