Detailed Notes
Overcoming barriers to starting a business can be challenging, but it’s a necessary step for aspiring entrepreneurs. Many people dream of launching their own ventures, yet few actually take the leap. In this episode of Building Better Developers, hosts Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche break down the common barriers preventing entrepreneurs from starting a business. They discuss fears, practical roadblocks, and solutions to help business owners move forward.
Read more: https://develpreneur.com/overcoming-barriers-to-starting-a-business-why-havent-you-started-yet/
*The Challenge: Overcoming Your Business Startup Barriers Today*
At the end of the episode, the hosts issue a challenge: Face one of your barriers today. Whether it’s researching licensing requirements, drafting a business plan, or networking with industry professionals, taking one concrete step forward can make all the difference.
*Stay Connected: Join the Develpreneur Community*
We invite you to join our community and share your coding journey with us. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting, there’s always room to learn and grow together. Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, feedback, or suggestions for future episodes. Together, let’s continue exploring the exciting world of software development.
*Additional Resources*
* Learning From Your First Business (https://develpreneur.com/learning-from-your-first-business/) * Business Finance Management: Building Better Businesses for Success (https://develpreneur.com/business-finance-management-building-better-businesses-for-success/) * Securing Your Product And Business – Nate Sheen Interview (https://develpreneur.com/securing-your-product-and-business-nate-sheen-interview/) * Creating a Podcast – Not Just a Lot of Talking (https://develpreneur.com/creating-a-podcast-not-just-a-lot-of-talking/)
*Follow-us on:*
* https://develpreneur.com/ * https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZOuFN_LhczvGyT2KSItH_g/featured * https://facebook.com/Develpreneur * https://twitter.com/develpreneur * http://linkedin.com/develpreneur
Transcript Text
[Music] and we are recording what do yall so what were you think of barriers to business what are you thinking um like I don't know like Financial barriers time barriers like what are some of the barriers people can run into how to kind of work through them or ways around them seems old broad how do you want to focus it or what do you think about from like a if you want to do a challenge or something like that uh well let's last time we were talking about you know um kind of budgeting in you know um accounting things of that nature how about so removing barriers this could be one uh barriers to get started you know um if you're starting a business or about to start a business or you have a business you know what are some of the barriers stopping you from doing it you know are there uh environmental is there competition and then I guess the challenge could be uh to kind of outline their barrier and come up with a solution or an outline on how to tackle it I I like that so like okay so why haven't you started yeah I like all right um I think the other one I wanted to do was I think it'd be sort of fun to go a talk a little bit about elevator pitches and stuff like that sort about phrasing and branding and consistency and some things like that because it's some one of the things we do it all the time as the introduction basically and so I think it' be a cool one to sort of Branch into yeah so like branding elevator pitch yep it's always something can use help I mean we can always improve on them I think when you've kind of got one down I'm always kind of swapping because I'm still a little too not Niche enough I guess well that's part of it I think it is it's like you know finding the right keywords and the right things that sort of speak and then making sure that you do them in a way that's consistent essentially so all right let me this first and do a little three two one well hello and welcome back we are continuing our season that's building better businesses we are actually building better developers developing or podcast and we are getting into this season we're just getting started we're going to start talking about we're going to the business side of the develop andur the entrepreneur side the second half of that as opposed to developer but beforehand I need to introduce myself my my name is Rob brand I'm one of the founders of building better developers develop manure also a founder of RB Consulting where we are what they call Boutique Consulting because what we do is we go in and we help you we help you understand your business sometimes I mean you may understand it but we do it in a way that is so that you can sort of get into your head get some of that information out and help craft like that perfect recipe for your business to better leverage technology through simplification automation integration and even Innovation how we're going to do it whether we're building a team whether we're finding products whether we're building products whether we're just sort of shuffling the chairs on the deck because it will help you be more efficient sometimes it's as simple as that that's what we help you do and that's what we're here for to make your your investment in in technology a better investment a more of an Roi good things bad things I'm going to go with the I'm like continuing my my series of stuff where it's basically the the same thing so we're working on downsizing and simplifying a lot of stuff it's that simplification this is like a big part of my life right now which is cool because it's like I don't have clutter I don't have near as much crap to deal with um you know I have a little extra cash laying around for some of the stuff that we actually sold versus stuff that we just gave away or threw out so that's I guess the plus side the downside is things like I don't have a kitchen table right now because we've already given it away and we're like we're like going down to zero basically before we rebuild and that can make it a little bit complicated sometimes to I don't know live your normal life whether it's your best life or not so who is the guy that is living his best life as far as we know it and he's going to correct his otherwi Michael on the other side goad and introduce yourself thanks Rob hey everyone my name is Michael molash I'm one of the co-founders of develop preneur building better businesses I'm also the founder of Envision QA where we help small to midsize businesses clinicians uh basically small businesses help them build software that meets their needs we do it through test driven development we do it through basically user stories identifying what it is that your business needs from the user's perspective and we make sure that the software delivers let's see good and bad so not quite as compressed like Rob does it uh bad uh had a project I'm working on uh with a couple other teams a lot of changes got rolled in nothing was communicated holded down the code today went to run my test and nothing worked come to find out that we had a whole brand new Docker container we had to stand up the one we were using no longer used all our configurations no longer worked so basically had a full relearn a project the good side of that is I actually learned quite a cool new features uh and some additional new Docker containers today and how to set them up so that was kind of fun uh but beyond that it was uh kind of one of those manic moments it's like why the hell is nothing working those are never fun but what is fun is our topic for today or maybe it is I think actually I think it is because it's one of those things maybe as a serial entrepreneur it's one of those things that I like to tackle on a regular basis we're going to talk about your your barriers to starting your business this is sort of the you could also think of this as like why haven't you already started your business kind of a topic this time now we sort of step back first and say one of the biggest things that struggle that stops businesses from being successful is that they never start when you go if you go to NBA programs part of going through your NBA is that you write a business plan and one of the things that they talk about is that the reason that most of those business plans don't succeed is they never actually started is that they did the whole business plan and and then that was it then they were done they didn't actually try to execute on it so for you it may be that you don't have a business plan yet that may be the first step is that you need to actually think about it plan through it like what does this look like what are the products and the services or how am I going to generate money how am I going to pay people that need to be paid and get paid by people that need to pay me all of those important pieces and it may be something along the lines of like I just don't have the time to do this or I don't have the SK to do this or I don't have the tools right now to do this there's there's a lot of I don't or there's not here or we can you know there's a lot of excuses essentially to kick it down the road the problem is is that if you're just excusing it and kicking down at the road sooner or later you get down the road and you're going to be there again you're going to be right there and you either get to kick it again or do something with it what we like to do which we do all the time so you probably figure this out is we like to find a way to like start working on that today preferably yesterday but hey today's as good as we can do right now unless you're you're Doctor Who and you've got a tardis or something like that so we are going to focus on like what can we do today and now that's going to be where our challenge is going to end up coming from is is figuring out how to get started but I think we want to start there is like what are like for yourself what are some of the barriers that you've run into uh and maybe even a little bit of like how did you how did you Deb barrier them how did you get around those and and move forward when you saw a couple of these so what are some of the barriers I've run into and how did I how how do I essentially handle them so at one point I had a I kind of had two issues one um it wasn't so much the barrier of starting the business it was the barrier of planning what the hell I was doing before I started the business and ran with it uh so the barrier I ran into is like hey I I'm a business owner I'm doing this and it's like what the hell am I doing so one of the barriers I ran into was I didn't know what the hell business was I had had perceived uh notion it's like yes I own something I sell a product I I take money and that's it you come to find out if you don't go into some of these businesses or starting a business with some type of planing like Rob mentioned the business business plan you essentially could fail fairly quickly or run into these barriers where you're just overwhelmed by what you don't know it it's like oh crap I didn't know I needed to pay uh sales tax or oh I didn't know I needed to get a state tax uh ID to be a business to collect taxes so sometimes the barriers we run into uh especially what I've run into almost every time I start a business it is what do I need to start the business the barrier I run into that I'm anxious about a lot is what federal what basically governmental rules are in place that I have to follow in order to establish my business make money not get audited and not go to jail for not paying some tax or doing something that I was supposed to do that was very easy I just didn't know I needed to do it because unfortunately the government doesn't accept I didn't know as an excuse they will basically sleap you with a nasty fine or throw you in jail so now I want to stop there cuz that's like one of those it's a perfect because that is like the what's the worst could happen and it's like it's right you could be in jail okay what's worst is they could send Jack booted Thugs and they could shoot you and you would be dead so okay we'll take it one more usually what's going to happen is yeah you may get a fine if you do that it could be a hefty fine it could be a scary fine so you don't want to just go out there and do do something that is going to uh you know turn you into a criminal or something like that you don't want to be suddenly an excon because you didn't follow the right paperwork the odds of that happen are actually not super high but that is one of the things is you want to make sure that you're you know you've got your ducks in a row now I would say that before that um I think as part of it is like you you really do want to know what your business is going to be so I think part of that is going to help inform things like okay if I'm you know like with my business plan part of it is well what are my what are the licensing fees you know do I have to go get a special license like if I wanted to be a a plumber I have to have like a certain you know be certified and all this kind of stuff and bonded and all that kind of lots of stuff involved there if I just want to drive a truck and haul stuff across the country there's a lot of regulations around that so one of the things you may look at is a deregulated kind of industry somewhere where there's not a lot of regulations where you can step in and and not have to worry about as much but I think that's like a good example right there of the challenge is that sometimes we we look at it and say wow this could be really really bad and while Michael's you you know carried forward with it and he's like he's using that to uh curb his tendency to just Dive Right In instead he's like okay I got to make sure I got my ducks in a row sometimes it's just like it's too scary like well I could end up in jail probably not going to happen that way so instead of the I guess I'm better to kick this down the road than I am to end up in jail in 6 months is maybe you address this take it you know head on and say all right how are we going to handle this particular obstacle now I cut you off so I'm G to go jump I'm gonna like swerve back in and let you pick right back up there no I like that because so for me and we talked about this a couple seasons ago because I was going through the process of rebranding my company from aash Consulting to Envision QA one of the steps I took to avoid that fear from past experience I've run into this a few times these were barriers I had struggled with even on my third fourth fifth company is I finally broke down and I looked for resources and you can do this too find resources to help you figure out what it is you need to just start a business to get started in my case I went through my local uh company called the co and they ran a program for 9 10 weeks called co- starters that essentially walked you through building a business plan all the different stages of marketing and different things and by the end you kind of had a pitch you kind of had a business plan you kind of had an idea for what you wanted to do but you kind of had a road map so you kind of went in with an idea and even if you had a business plan you walked out with a more formalized structure of what it is that you want to do and for barriers that is a huge barrier to overcome from starting a business if you're already in a business yes you still have some of those barriers but it's not as bad as that initial push that initial get started get it out there there's always those unknowns you're just kind of compounded with oh I didn't know that or oh do I need that like Rob mentioned you know things like licensing um you know maybe getting into a deregulated industry but even then if you're a truck driver you still need to get a uh Class C license to drive a truck so there are still things you need to do so the other barrier I would say uh that some of you might run into to kind of work through is if you are getting into something that is other than merchandise because merchandise typically is fairly straightforward you buy wholesale sell retail or make something and then sell it but depending upon the industry or the product you're looking to sell some of the barriers you could potentially really run into are legal and I'm not just talking taxes you could run into some issues be if you're a baker and you bake bread and you want to sell bread you still have to follow certain uh FDA rules before you can even sell your bread so you might have regulations that you don't even know about so as you go through your journey and you run into these barriers or you're looking to start your businesses some of the suggestions I would have is take your product Google it and say hey what does a baker need to be a or you know if I want to be a baker in say the state of Tennesse what do I need to do what do I need to register and you may get a couple websites that may or may not guide you in the right direction but that could get you started the other thing you could do is go talk to a baker go find someone local in your area that does what you want to do and find out you know find someone that's willing to talk to you and have them kind of maybe Mentor you a little bit or hey can I ask you a few questions on how you got started that's always a great kind of foot in the door to kind of help you get into the area or the industry that you're trying to do I think that's also you just sort of dovetail off of that is that I think that's really a great way to get through those barriers as well because now you can if you can find somebody that's done it then it it becomes a little less scary it's not like I don't know how this would work now you're like oh this person did it and they don't seem like they're you know they're no Albert Einstein or something like that they're they're a normal person so hey maybe I can do the same and a lot of times you'll find that that person if you reach out to somebody that whether it's a sort of a mentor relationship or even if it's just sort of a a professional you know friendship kind of thing or something like that that those people will invest in you a little bit and say like hey well how's that going you can get a little accountability and say I'm going to start a business of you know I'm going to do a b bread business on the other side of town and they say you know that's great I would love to hear how it goes and they may call you back in a month and say hey how's that going and you're sitting there going I actually haven't done anything in a month so you're going to feel a little bit more like compelled to go do something so I think that's a great U you know great suggestion to get things going as well so I have one more the last barrier and this is one I struggle and I Stumble and Rob knows as well is you may be excited about your product or your business or whatever it is that you want to do or you are doing just understand you may not be the sole expert in that field you may not even really know what it is that you're doing and if someone comes in and tries to help you or guide you or maybe S suggest that hey maybe that's not quite the right way maybe that's going to be harmful take a pause try not to immediately jump in and argue the point listen to people are suggesting now they may be giving you false advice but take a pause take it in make sure you understand the problem or understand what it is they're trying to explain to you and take a moment maybe write it down or revisit it but don't dismiss all the criticism or all the advice you get sometimes we put up barriers because we try to protect ourselves not just in our business but in our lives and sometimes we can get defensive and if you get defensive when you're trying to start out you may close too many doors and not open up the right ones I think that's one of the things that will be helps you with the barrier approach is getting rid of those barriers is it's like sometimes you don't have to actually go through it sometimes you can go around it sometimes that barrier is more in your head than it is anything else and that doesn't mean that it's completely just baseless but it does mean that the uh The Fear Factor of it is bigger than it needs to be so there are things where it's just like you know for example uh years and years ago I was one of the things I was like I don't think I can ever really learn another a foreign language like that's just going to be too complicated it's too tough waste of my time and I was never like I was never great at the foreign languages I had to take in school so I was like you know I'm not going to bother and I was like well I'll give it a shot because I just wanted to give it a shot I was like you know I think this will help me and it didn't take very long before I realized oh okay this is doable this is something that is I can succeed at and even you know things that seem overly easy to do for example like if you're a developer and you like oh hey I think I'd be great as a consultant a lot of times we figure like I coded today I can code at night and so some of those things it's like you know those are the kinds of things you're like well yeah this is this is pretty easy but the barrier is you know it's like well I get to the end of the day I don't know if I want to do any more of that I'm like I'm hungry I want to go play games or I want to like go for a walk I want to do something other than the work so sometimes those are going to be your barriers is it's your your lifestyle and you need to just think about it's like where a lot of times it does come down to like where do I want to be six months from now or a year from now or five years from now because maybe it's worth it for me to sacrifice now to have something better in the future that I you know be more where I want to be and so you know a great way to do that would be to send us an email at info developer.com and let us know what is it you would like to see us doing you know six months from now or a year from now what are some of the topics even six days from now what are some of the topics that you would like us to talk about now before I dive in or actually before we wrap this one up I do want to flip back and do sort of a challenge essentially for this one and I've got a dog barking so hopefully it's not gonna get picked up here um I think the challenge this time around is face that barrier like if you have a barrier if you haven't started your business or if you're if you're struggling this goes back to that whole eat the Frog if there's something that you know and you probably already have it in your head as you're thinking about it's like yeah there's this thing I really don't like to do I really don't want to do so the challenge this is go face that like how do you remove that barrier do you you know is it something where you need to go hire somebody to go do that for you is it something that you need to just like suck it up buttercup and go do it is it something something where you need to like spend a little time maybe you need to step back from it and look at it and say is there a way that I can get around this that is not you know too much time too much money or or some other resource so I think that's your challenge is like let's let's pick a barrier and knock it down get through it go around it remove it whatever you need to do next time around we are going to continue this season as we're looking at building better businesses and just continue to give you some you know sort of some challenges but Lally just try to get some of these action items so that we can get off our Duff and get forward move forward and get our businesses going so that we can actually be develop andurs of some sort or another that being said we're going to wrap this one up so go out there and have yourself a great day a great week and we will talk to you next time bonus material so in the digital age that we're in now um I was going to say check out uh the 4our work week but a lot of unfortunately some of the references he has in there aren't um around anymore but if you are even if you have a business if you're starting a business social media news groups social media social groups events in your area look around see what's going on talk to people find out be careful when you do talk to people if you're starting a business be careful to ask them would you buy this is ask them hey I've got this in my trunk will you buy it you kind of you have to make sure you're asking the right questions and asking the right people if you want feedback about a business you're starting if you're already in the business and trying to figure out what your customers want or your particular target audience wants go into these groups and start kind of befriending people talk to people learn what their wants are and see if that falls within your product if it is hey you may have just found a new customer I think that's the best thing is to just talk about it I think that's like it really seems so simple but really when you get some of these obstacles these barriers is to just like talk about it and it's it it may be talking about your product and and getting people to buy into it but it may be that it's like you know there's this like I'm really struggling with how do I get all these licenses for this business or how do I learn how to do this skill I'm going to need to have for my business how do I do books how do I Market how do I you know so many things are part of a business especially the entrepreneur side of it and I think that's the best way to look at it it's like talk about it like when you're hanging out when you're having a you know a drink with your buddies or you're you know you're you're hanging out at the the kids sports game or you know you're at the church event or whatever happened you wherever you happen to be it's just like you know sort of throw some of those things out you don't have to like do this on your own you have a little conversation about it you'll be amazed at how often that there'll be somebody else that's like oh yeah I've got you know run into something similar or I fixed that in the past or hey have you thought about this and they may be competely you know coming out of left field but it may be exactly the approach that you need to tackle whatever your barrier happens to be so I think we'll wrap this one up and we're not not even close we're just getting started it's like episode three and we got dozens left so just keep on coming back cuz we have a lot more ahead of us but until then go out there and have yourself a great one and we will talk to you next time [Music]
Transcript Segments
[Music]
and we are recording what do yall so
what were you think of barriers to
business what are you thinking um like I
don't know like Financial barriers time
barriers like what are some of the
barriers people can run into how to kind
of work through them or ways around
them seems old broad how do you want to
focus it or what do you think about from
like a if you want to do a challenge or
something like
that uh well let's last time we were
talking about you know
um kind of
budgeting in you know um accounting
things of that
nature how
about so removing barriers this could be
one uh barriers to get started you know
um if you're starting a business or
about to start a business or you have a
business you know what are some of the
barriers stopping you
from doing it you know are there uh
environmental is there
competition and then I guess the
challenge could be uh
to kind of outline their barrier and
come up with a solution or an outline on
how to tackle
it I I like that so like okay so why
haven't you started yeah I like
all right um I think the other one I
wanted to do was I think it'd be sort of
fun to go a talk a little bit about
elevator pitches and stuff like that
sort about phrasing and branding and
consistency and some things like that
because it's some one of the things we
do it all the time as the introduction
basically and so I think it' be a cool
one to sort of Branch
into yeah so like branding elevator
pitch yep it's always something can use
help I mean we can always improve on
them I
think when you've kind of got one down
I'm always kind of swapping because I'm
still a little
too not Niche enough I guess well that's
part of it I think it is it's like you
know finding the right keywords and the
right things that sort of speak and then
making sure that you do them in a way
that's consistent essentially so all
right let
me this first
and do a little three two one well hello
and welcome back we are continuing our
season that's building better businesses
we are actually building better
developers developing or podcast and we
are getting into this season we're just
getting started we're going to start
talking about we're going to the
business side of the develop andur the
entrepreneur side the second half of
that as opposed to developer but
beforehand I need to introduce myself my
my name is Rob brand I'm one of the
founders of building better developers
develop manure also a founder of RB
Consulting where we are what they call
Boutique Consulting because what we do
is we go in and we help you we help you
understand your business sometimes I
mean you may understand it but we do it
in a way that is so that you can sort of
get into your head get some of that
information out and help craft like that
perfect recipe for your business to
better leverage technology through
simplification automation integration
and even Innovation how we're going to
do it whether we're building a team
whether we're finding products whether
we're building products whether we're
just sort of shuffling the chairs on the
deck because it will help you be more
efficient sometimes it's as simple as
that that's what we help you do and
that's what we're here for to make your
your investment in in technology a
better investment a more of an
Roi good things bad things I'm going to
go with the I'm like continuing my my
series of stuff where it's basically the
the same thing so we're working on
downsizing and simplifying a lot of
stuff it's that simplification this is
like a big part of my life right now
which is cool because it's like I don't
have clutter I don't have near as much
crap to deal with um you know I have a
little extra cash laying around for some
of the stuff that we actually sold
versus stuff that we just gave away or
threw
out so that's I guess the plus side the
downside is things like I don't have a
kitchen table right now because we've
already given it away and we're like
we're like going down to zero basically
before we rebuild and that can make it a
little bit complicated sometimes to I
don't know live your normal life whether
it's your best life or not so who is the
guy that is living his best life as far
as we know it and he's going to correct
his otherwi Michael on the other side
goad and introduce yourself thanks Rob
hey everyone my name is Michael molash
I'm one of the co-founders of develop
preneur building better businesses I'm
also the founder of Envision QA where we
help small to midsize businesses
clinicians uh basically small businesses
help them build software that meets
their needs we do it through test driven
development we do it through basically
user stories identifying what it is that
your business needs from the user's
perspective and we make sure that the
software
delivers let's see good and bad
so not quite as compressed like Rob does
it uh bad uh had a project I'm working
on uh with a couple other teams
a lot of changes got rolled in nothing
was communicated holded down the code
today went to run my test and nothing
worked come to find out that we had a
whole brand new Docker container we had
to stand up the one we were using no
longer used all our configurations no
longer worked so basically had a full
relearn a project the good side of that
is I actually learned quite a cool new
features uh and some additional new
Docker containers today and how to set
them up so that was kind of fun uh but
beyond that it was uh kind of one of
those manic moments it's like why the
hell is nothing
working those are never fun but what is
fun is our topic for today or maybe it
is I think actually I think it is
because it's one of those things maybe
as a serial entrepreneur it's one of
those things that I like to tackle on a
regular basis we're going to talk about
your your barriers to starting your
business this is sort of the you could
also think of this as like why haven't
you already started your business kind
of a topic this time now we sort of step
back first and say one of the biggest
things that struggle that stops
businesses from being successful is that
they never start when you go if you go
to NBA programs part of going through
your NBA is that you write a business
plan and one of the things that they
talk about is that the reason that most
of those business plans don't succeed is
they never actually started is that they
did the whole business plan and and then
that was it then they were done they
didn't actually try to execute on it so
for you it may be that you don't have a
business plan yet that may be the first
step is that you need to actually think
about it plan through it like what does
this look like what are the products and
the services or how am I going to
generate money how am I going to pay
people that need to be paid and get paid
by people that need to pay me all of
those important
pieces and it may be something along the
lines of like I just don't have the time
to do this or I don't have the SK to do
this or I don't have the tools right now
to do this there's there's a lot of I
don't or there's not here or we can you
know there's a lot of excuses
essentially to kick it down the
road the problem is is that if you're
just excusing it and kicking down at the
road sooner or later you get down the
road and you're going to be there again
you're going to be right there and you
either get to kick it again or do
something with it what we like to do
which we do all the time so you probably
figure this out is we like to find a way
to like start working on that today
preferably yesterday but hey today's as
good as we can do right now unless
you're you're Doctor Who and you've got
a tardis or something like that
so we are going to focus on like what
can we do today and now that's going to
be where our challenge is going to end
up coming from is is figuring out how to
get started but I think we want to start
there is like what are like for yourself
what are some of the barriers that
you've run into uh and maybe even a
little bit of like how did you how did
you Deb barrier them how did you get
around those and and move forward when
you saw a couple of these so what are
some of the barriers I've run into and
how did
I how how do I essentially handle them
so at one
point I had a I kind of had two issues
one um it wasn't so much the barrier of
starting the business it was the barrier
of planning what the hell I was doing
before I started the business and ran
with it uh so the barrier I ran into is
like hey I I'm a business owner I'm
doing this and it's like what the hell
am I doing so one of the barriers I ran
into was I didn't know what the hell
business was I had had perceived uh
notion it's like yes I own something I
sell a product I I take money and that's
it you come to find out if you don't go
into some of
these businesses or starting a business
with some type of planing like Rob
mentioned the business business plan you
essentially could fail fairly quickly or
run into these barriers where you're
just overwhelmed by what you don't know
it it's like oh crap I didn't know I
needed to pay uh sales tax or oh I
didn't know I needed to get a state tax
uh ID to be a business to collect taxes
so sometimes the barriers we run into uh
especially what I've run into almost
every time I start a business it is what
do I need to start the business the
barrier I run into that I'm anxious
about a lot is what federal what
basically governmental rules are in
place that I have to follow in order to
establish my business make money not get
audited and not go to jail for not
paying some tax or doing something that
I was supposed to do that was very easy
I just didn't know I needed to do it
because unfortunately the government
doesn't accept I didn't know as an
excuse they will basically sleap you
with a nasty fine or throw you in jail
so now I want to stop there cuz that's
like one of those it's a perfect because
that is like
the what's the worst could happen and
it's like it's right you could be in
jail okay what's worst is they could
send Jack booted Thugs and they could
shoot you and you would be dead so okay
we'll take it one more usually what's
going to happen is yeah you may get a
fine if you do that it could be a hefty
fine it could be a scary fine so you
don't want to just go out there and do
do something that is going
to uh you know turn you into a criminal
or something like that you don't want to
be suddenly an excon because you didn't
follow the right paperwork the odds of
that happen are actually not super high
but that is one of the things is you
want to make sure that you're you know
you've got your ducks in a row now I
would say that before that um I think as
part of it is like you you really do
want to know what your business is going
to be so I think part of that is going
to help inform things like okay if I'm
you know like with my business plan part
of it is well what are my what are the
licensing fees you know do I have to go
get a special license like if I wanted
to be a a plumber I have to have like a
certain you know be certified and all
this kind of stuff and bonded and all
that kind of lots of stuff involved
there if I just want to drive a truck
and haul stuff across the country
there's a lot of regulations around that
so one of the things you may look at is
a deregulated kind of industry somewhere
where there's not a lot of regulations
where you can step in and and not have
to worry about as much
but I think that's like a good example
right there of the challenge is that
sometimes we we look at it and say wow
this could be really really bad and
while Michael's you you know carried
forward with it and he's like he's using
that to uh curb his tendency to just
Dive Right In instead he's like okay I
got to make sure I got my ducks in a row
sometimes it's just like it's too scary
like well I could end up in jail
probably not going to happen that way so
instead of the I guess I'm better to
kick this down the road than I am to end
up in jail in 6 months is maybe you
address this take it you know head on
and say all right how are we going to
handle this particular obstacle now I
cut you off so I'm G to go jump I'm
gonna like swerve back in and let you
pick right back up there no I like that
because so for me and we talked about
this a couple seasons ago because I was
going through the process of rebranding
my company from aash Consulting to
Envision QA one of the steps I took to
avoid that fear from past experience
I've run into this a few times these
were barriers I had struggled with even
on my third fourth fifth company is I
finally broke down and I looked for
resources and you can do this too find
resources to help you figure out what it
is you need to just start a business to
get
started in my case I went through my
local uh company called the co and they
ran a program for 9 10 weeks called co-
starters that essentially walked you
through building a business plan all the
different stages of marketing and
different things and by the end you kind
of had a pitch you kind of had a
business plan you kind of had an idea
for what you wanted to do but you kind
of had a road map so you kind of went in
with an idea and even if you had a
business plan you walked out with a more
formalized structure of what it is that
you want to do and for barriers that is
a huge barrier to overcome from starting
a business if you're already in a
business yes you still have some of
those barriers but it's not as bad as
that initial push that initial get
started get it out there there's always
those unknowns you're just kind of
compounded with oh I didn't know that or
oh do I need that like Rob mentioned you
know things like licensing um you know
maybe getting into a deregulated
industry but even then if you're a truck
driver you still need to get a uh Class
C license to drive a truck so there are
still things you need to do so the other
barrier I would say uh that some of you
might run into to kind of work through
is if you are getting into something
that is other than
merchandise because merchandise
typically is fairly straightforward you
buy wholesale sell retail or make
something and then sell it but depending
upon the industry or the product you're
looking to sell some of the barriers you
could potentially really run into are
legal and I'm not just talking taxes you
could run into some issues be if you're
a baker and you bake bread and you want
to sell bread you still have to follow
certain uh FDA rules before you can even
sell your bread so you might have
regulations that you don't even know
about so as you go through your journey
and you run into these barriers or
you're looking to start your businesses
some of the suggestions I would have is
take your product Google it and say hey
what does a baker need to be a or you
know if I want to be a baker in say the
state of Tennesse what do I need to do
what do I need to register and you may
get a couple websites that may or may
not guide you in the right direction but
that could get you started the other
thing you could do is go talk to a baker
go find someone local in your area that
does what you want to do and find out
you know find someone that's willing to
talk to you and have them kind of maybe
Mentor you a little bit or hey can I ask
you a few questions on how you got
started that's always a great kind of
foot in the door to kind of help you get
into the area or the industry that
you're trying to do I think that's also
you just sort of dovetail off of that is
that I think that's really a great way
to get through those barriers as well
because now you can if you can find
somebody that's done it then it it
becomes a little less scary it's not
like I don't know how this would work
now you're like oh this person did it
and they don't seem like they're you
know they're no Albert Einstein or
something like that they're they're a
normal person so hey maybe I can do the
same and a lot of times you'll find that
that person if you reach out to somebody
that whether it's a sort of a mentor
relationship or even if it's just sort
of a a professional you know friendship
kind of thing or something like that
that those people will invest in you a
little bit and say like hey well how's
that going you can get a little
accountability and say I'm going to
start a business of you know I'm going
to do a b bread business on the other
side of town and they say you know
that's great I would love to hear how it
goes and they may call you back in a
month and say hey how's that going and
you're sitting there going I actually
haven't done anything in a month so
you're going to feel a little bit more
like compelled to go do something so I
think that's a great U you know great
suggestion to get things going as well
so I have one
more the last barrier and this is one I
struggle and I Stumble and Rob knows as
well
is you may be excited about your product
or your business or whatever it is that
you want to do or you are doing just
understand you may not be the sole
expert in that field you may not even
really know what it is that you're doing
and if someone comes in and tries to
help you or guide you or maybe S suggest
that hey maybe that's not quite the
right way maybe that's going to be
harmful take a pause try not to
immediately jump in and argue the point
listen to
people are suggesting now they may be
giving you false advice but take a pause
take it in make sure you understand the
problem or understand what it is they're
trying to explain to
you and take a moment maybe write it
down or revisit it but don't dismiss all
the criticism or all the advice you get
sometimes we put up barriers because we
try to protect ourselves not just in our
business but in our lives and sometimes
we can get defensive and if you get
defensive when you're trying to start
out you may close too many doors and not
open up the right
ones I think that's one of the things
that will be helps you with the barrier
approach is getting rid of those
barriers is it's like sometimes you
don't have to actually go through it
sometimes you can go around it sometimes
that barrier is more in your head than
it is anything else and that doesn't
mean that it's completely just baseless
but it does mean that the uh The Fear
Factor of it is bigger than it needs to
be
so there are things where it's just like
you know for example uh years and years
ago I was one of the things I was like I
don't think I can ever really learn
another a foreign language like that's
just going to be too complicated it's
too tough waste of my
time and I was never like I was never
great at the foreign languages I had to
take in school so I was like you know
I'm not going to bother and I was like
well I'll give it a shot because I just
wanted to give it a shot I was like you
know I think this will help me and it
didn't take very long before I realized
oh okay this is doable this is something
that is I can succeed at and even you
know things that seem overly easy to do
for example like if you're a developer
and you like oh hey I think I'd be great
as a consultant a lot of times we figure
like I coded today I can code at night
and so some of those things it's like
you know those are the kinds of things
you're like well yeah this is this is
pretty easy but the barrier is you know
it's like
well I get to the end of the day I don't
know if I want to do any more of that
I'm like I'm hungry I want to go play
games or I want to like go for a walk I
want to do something other than the work
so sometimes those are going to be your
barriers is it's your your lifestyle and
you need to just think about it's like
where a lot of times it does come down
to like where do I want to be six months
from now or a year from now or five
years from now because maybe it's worth
it for me to sacrifice now to have
something better in the future that I
you know be more where I want to
be and so you know a great way to do
that would be to send us an email at
info developer.com and let us know what
is it you would like to see us doing you
know six months from now or a year from
now what are some of the topics even six
days from now what are some of the
topics that you would like us to talk
about now before I dive in or actually
before we wrap this one up I do want to
flip back and do sort of a challenge
essentially for this
one and I've got a dog barking so
hopefully it's not gonna get picked up
here um I think the challenge this time
around is
face that barrier like if you have a
barrier if you haven't started your
business or if you're if you're
struggling this goes back to that whole
eat the Frog if there's something that
you know and you probably already have
it in your head as you're thinking about
it's like yeah there's this thing I
really don't like to do I really don't
want to do so the challenge this is go
face that like how do you remove that
barrier do you you know is it something
where you need to go hire somebody to go
do that for you is it something that you
need to just like suck it up buttercup
and go do it is it something something
where you need to like spend a little
time maybe you need to step back from it
and look at it and say is there a way
that I can get around this that is not
you know too much time too much money or
or some other resource so I think that's
your challenge is like let's let's pick
a barrier and knock it down get through
it go around it remove it whatever you
need to
do next time around we are going to
continue this season as we're looking at
building better businesses and just
continue to give you some you know sort
of some challenges but Lally just try to
get some of these action items so that
we can get off our Duff and get forward
move forward and get our businesses
going so that we can actually be develop
andurs of some sort or another that
being said we're going to wrap this one
up so go out there and have yourself a
great day a great week and we will talk
to you next time bonus
material so in the digital age that
we're in
now um I was going to say check out uh
the 4our work week but a lot of
unfortunately some of the references he
has in there aren't um around anymore
but if you are even if you have a
business if you're starting a
business social media news groups social
media social
groups events in your area look around
see what's going on talk to people find
out be careful when you do talk to
people if you're starting a business be
careful to ask them would you buy this
is ask them hey I've got this in my
trunk will you buy it you kind of you
have to make sure you're asking the
right questions and asking the right
people if you want feedback about a
business you're starting if you're
already in the business and trying to
figure out what your customers want or
your particular target audience
wants go into these groups and start
kind of befriending people talk to
people learn what their wants are and
see if that falls within your product if
it is hey you may have just found a new
customer I think that's the best thing
is to
just talk about it I think that's like
it really seems so simple but really
when you get some of these obstacles
these barriers is to just like talk
about it and it's it it may be talking
about your product and and getting
people to buy into it but it may be that
it's like you know there's this like I'm
really struggling with how do I get all
these licenses for this business or how
do I learn how to do this skill I'm
going to need to have for my business
how do I do books how do I Market how do
I you know so many things are part of a
business especially the entrepreneur
side of it and I think that's the best
way to look at it it's like talk about
it like when you're hanging out when
you're having a you know a drink with
your buddies or you're you know you're
you're hanging out at the the kids
sports game or you know you're at the
church event or whatever happened you
wherever you happen to be it's just like
you know sort of throw some of those
things out you don't have to like do
this on your own you have a little
conversation about it you'll be amazed
at how often that there'll be somebody
else that's like oh yeah I've got you
know run into something similar or I
fixed that in the past or hey have you
thought about this and they may be
competely you know coming out of left
field but it may be exactly the approach
that you need to tackle whatever your
barrier happens to be so I think we'll
wrap this one up and we're not not even
close we're just getting started it's
like episode three and we got dozens
left so just keep on coming back cuz we
have a lot more ahead of us but until
then go out there and have yourself a
great one and we will talk to you next
time
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