So you want to learn about business maybe you want to start a business maybe it’s something you’ve been thinking about for a while.
Well we’ve all heard things like in order to quit your job and travel the world you need a business or in order to reach financial freedom for the rest of your life you need a business.
All these things are true, maybe but for now, but I’m just going to assume that you want to get started in the business world and you’re wondering where do I start. So in this video we’re gonna take a couple steps back we’re gonna talk about what business is what makes up a successful business how to get started how to choose the right business for you and we’re going to talk about the ones that fail and the ones that are successful and the difference between those.
Glad you’ve landed on my channel my name is James Westin and I teach people how to take what they have and create the life that they want.
I do this by helping people learn how to become more resourceful if you want to learn how to leverage your time, your money, your skills, your habits and your connections to create the life that you want.
Go ahead and subscribe to my channel and hit the notification bell so that you are notified when I drop a new video every week I’m gonna teach you the things that I’ve learned over the past seven years in business building multiple businesses that have gone on to do over six and seven figures in revenue.
I’ve also coached several people in starting their first business and also bringing those businesses to the six and seven-figure level as well alright so let’s get started.
I think the first thing that we need to get really really clear about is what this word business really means. If you ask some people they may tell you a business is something that solves a problem or a business is something that is a product or a service.
The truth is those definitions are somewhat correct but there’s something missing there now if you define a business as something that solves a problem. Then technically a calculator could be a business right? because calculators solve problems but are they really businesses? no.
Now if you define a business as a product or service then simply a shirt or your shoes or just driving a car could be technically called a business, but the truth is there’s something missing here.
The definition that I like to use for business is this a business is an organized system that brings value to the marketplace consistently through a product or service in exchange for money. I know that may sound a little bit complicated so let me give you an example. Let’s take a restaurant for instance. We all know a restaurant is considered a business but how well a restaurant consistently provides value to the marketplace in the form of a product which is food and a service which is cooking and actually serving the food in exchange for money. So it fits that definition perfectly.
Now the first myth that I want to bring up is something that I think a lot of people get caught up on and that’s the idea that every business requires a big investment it, requires a lot of money to start. If we’re talking about a restaurant yeah you’re gonna need some money right? You’re gonna need to rent or buy a location, you’re gonna need to set up a kitchen, you’re gonna need an oven you’re gonna need chairs tables all this equipment just to start the restaurant.
Then yes, there are some businesses that definitely require a lot of money but don’t get yourself caught there what you need to understand is this is : there’s thousands of businesses that require little to no money to start.
For example let’s take someone that plays the guitar or let’s say you play the guitar and you’re really good at it and this is a skill that you have. Assuming that you already have a guitar you really don’t need much just start teaching other people how to play the guitar. All you need to do is create a curriculum and then after that find some people that want to learn how to play the guitar and are willing to pay you to teach them. If you start doing that weekly you essentially have a business.
Let’s put it through the definition we said that business has three parts: number one is it’s an organized system that consistently provides value to the marketplace well if you’re a guitar teacher and you have
a business teaching people the guitar
well you’ve got an organized system
that’s bringing value the market place
it’s a product or service it’s a service
teaching people and it’s in exchange for
money you’re not doing it for free
so right there you’ve taken a skill
hardly any investment and created a
business so my point is this a business
could be something as simple as taking a
skill that you have and offering it to
the marketplace in the form of a service
guitar lesson you don’t need a lot of
money to start a business you don’t need
a huge investment so don’t let that stop
you but your next question is probably
this what business do I start well that
leads me into my next point
what do businesses do well most
businesses do one of two things either
number one they solve a problem or
number two they make life better so if
you’re trying to get started in business
here’s something that i really suggest
make sure that the product or the
service that you’re going to offer the
marketplace is something that you
actually care about it’s not just some
random business model that you see you
know a mistake that I see a lot of
people make is they’re online and they
get some ad that pops up on YouTube or
on Instagram and it’s basically some guy
in his Ferrari or walking around his
penthouse on the beach and telling you
about how he started this business maybe
it’s an econ business or it’s a real
estate business or some marketing agency
and he was able to make a million
dollars and you turn around you say wow
that sounds great I think that that’s
something for me if he can do it so can
i and then you end up paying this guy or
buying his course to teach you a
business model that may not actually fit
you your lifestyle and the things that
you care about but here’s the big
problem with something like this if you
start a business with the sole focus on
the potential to make money well you’re
leaving out the fact that you’re going
to be with this business for hours days
years building this business and if it’s
something that you don’t care about it’s
something that you’re not at all
passionate about well it’s gonna be
extremely hard to number one build it
and to go through the tough times when
the business is not making money and not
producing and that’s why most people
quit before they have success so this is
why whenever I’m coaching someone who is
new in the business world trying to
figure out where to get started
I tell them to ask themselves two things
number one is this what is a problem
that I see a lot of people struggling
with that I know I can solve and then
number two is what is something that I
can do with my skills and my experience
that is going to benefit a lot of people
and improve their lives now there’s
something that a lot of people talk
about which is turn your passion into a
business now I want to differentiate
between building a business that you’re
passionate about and turning your
passion into a business these are two
completely different concepts so let me
give you an example let’s just say that
you love photography you love taking
pictures of nature and action sports and
your friends and your family but you you
decide to turn this into a business
now you’re getting hired to shoot
weddings and corporate events and
portraits and baby photos and all these
other things that you may not really
care that much about now the problem
here is that your income is now
dependent on photography you’ve created
your life so that your bills your
livelihood your rent every month you
need to go out there and do photography
as a service well you may end up losing
your passion for that as a result so
that’s why I say to keep those things
separate and build a business that
you’re passionate about instead of
turning your passion into a business so
I want you to think about one of your
big passions in life and I want you to
put it in the comments below and then
give me one reason why you would not
want to turn that into a business so
when it comes to choosing the type of
business that you want to start or get
involved in I think it’s really
important to look at yourself and
understand four things number one your
personality number two your skills
number three your resources and number
four your lifestyle and financial goals
now everybody has different personality
traits for you are you more introverted
or extroverted are you more of the left
brained logical type person are you more
of the right brained creative person
have you ever taken a personality test
see it’s important to really understand
ourselves before we get involved in
business now let’s talk about skills
understanding what you’re good at is
really really important one exercise
that I like to do with my clients is I
have them take out a piece of paper you
can do this as well take out a piece of
paper and I want you to write down the
20 things that come to your mind when I
ask you this question
what are you good at so maybe the first
thing comes your mind is cooking or
organizing or math or science what are
the things that you found in your life
that you’re good at write them down
now take that piece of paper and put it
aside grab another piece of paper and I
want you to do the same exact exercise
and write
the next 20 things that come to your
mind if you have trouble ask someone who
knows you really really well maybe a
friend or a family member but the point
here is this the first 20 things are
probably more obvious and less unique
when you start really digging into
yourself and what you’re good at you’ll
find that you have some skills that
other people don’t so that’s the purpose
of this exercise now let’s talk about
resources another common mistake that I
see a lot of people make is they don’t
take into consideration the current
resources that they have to create a
business see I’m gonna break it up into
three categories let’s talk about your
time your money and your connections now
when it comes to your time let’s just
say that you want to build a business
but you currently work a normal 9 to 5
job well you’re gonna need a build a
business that you can build after work
after 5:00 p.m. and on the weekends so
too often I see people that start
businesses that require you to be
available during normal business hours
and they think they can just make up the
hours during their free time or after
work but then they end up losing
customers losing opportunities and
stunting the growth of their business
don’t make this mistake so when it comes
to money we talked about how some
businesses do require money and some
don’t but let’s just say the business
does require money the important thing
here is to budget in advance you want to
look at a three to six month budget
don’t just look at what it costs to
start the business the mistake that I
see so many people make is they’ll go
and they’ll spend $5,000 starting a
business and then end up with no money
to keep it running for the next two or
three months and be forced to shut it
down so for example in my businesses I
run them all on a six month budget so if
one of my businesses requires let’s say
$10,000 a month in overhead expenses
between my marketing and my employees
well I’m gonna run a six month budget
I’m gonna budget for $60,000 and I’m
gonna make my decisions based on a
$60,000 budget not on just a one month
$10,000 budget now let’s talk about
connections connections are literally
one of if not the most important
resources that you have in your life and
in your business it’s really beneficial
to have people around you that can
support you and mentor you along this
journey so I want you to think about and
actually make a list of the people that
you know in your life that are doing
business
who do you know that is in a similar
business to the one that you’re thinking
about starting this counts people that
are in your life and also people that
you can find online that can mentor you
and show you the way it’s so important
to find people that have done the things
that you want to do in order to shorten
your learning curve and make sure that
you are successful all right let’s talk
about income and lifestyle goals see
it’s really really important to become
clear about how much money you’re trying
to make with a business if you don’t
know how much money you’re trying to
make it’s gonna be very hard to choose a
business that’s gonna be able to produce
that amount of money now a lot of people
are just gonna throw out this number and
say I want to make a million dollars
well that’s a great number to choose but
if you don’t have anything backing that
up if you haven’t actually come to that
conclusion for a reason it’s not a very
powerful number to work with so my
suggestion is this work backwards let’s
look at the lifestyle that you want
let’s look at how much that’s going to
cost and then let’s reverse engineer a
business that can actually do that so
let me give you an example when I used
to live in Miami the cost per month to
live in Miami between my rent my car my
food and my other expenses was about
five thousand dollars a month so if you
take five thousand dollars a month you
multiply it by twelve that’s about
$60,000 a year now $60,000 a year is a
lot less than a million dollars and I’m
not saying that you should stop there
but what I’m saying is start with a goal
that actually makes sense for you and
the lifestyle that you want then look at
whether the business can do more than
that as well
become clear about what that number is
and work towards that first then work on
scaling the business even bigger if you
feel like you learned a lot in this
video and you understand business better
go ahead and write helpful in the
comments below all right so now you
understand what a business is you know
that you don’t need a lot of money just
to start one and you also know a lot of
the common mistakes that people make
when they get started in business so if
this video was helpful please give me a
thumbs up subscribe to my channel and
share it with your friends and I will
see you guys on the next video