Do the Small Business Startup Juggling Act

Starting a small business is like juggling plates. In other words, it’s not easy, but what is?   Starting a business involves many different tasks and projects, and you will need to work on many of them at the same time. It’s kind of a chicken-and-egg thing, but there’s no way to tell for sure which comes first – the chicken? or the egg?

Image: Newscom

Here are some examples of what I mean by juggling:

Leasing and Financing Juggling Act: You must find a location for your business, so you’ll be running around looking at offices or buildings or warehouses. At the same time, you’ll be working on your business plan, trying to gather up financial information in particular. But you can’t get all the financial information to the bank until you know where your business will be located. And you often can’t get a lease without details about the bank financing. See what I mean?

The Marketing Juggling Act: You have to figure out how to market our business and develop advertising materials. But you can’t do that until you have a name and logo for your business. And you need business cards to start promoting, to let people know who and where you are. But, you guessed it, you can’t get business cards until you have a location. Again, the juggling thing.

So what do you do?
1. Submit to the inevitable. Figure out that juggling will be a way of life, so get used to it. Know that everything will take longer and cost more than you expected. Count on it, and don’t get frustrated.

2. Take Baby Steps. Each day, figure out what has to be done in order to get to the next step. For example. today maybe you have an appointment with the leasing agent for the place you want to lease. If you and the landlord can come to a decision on leasing terms, you may be able to hold him/her off with a letter of intent. Then you can put the monthly lease payment in your business plan and take it to the bank. If the leasing company wants something from the bank, you’ll have to hold them off until you can get a commitment from the bank. But don’t get too far ahead of yourself. Just do what you can every day.

3. Push When Necessary. Sometimes you have to push, to assert yourself to make things happen. One young professional was getting pushed around by the landlord, who refused to start the improvements until he got a letter from the bank. And the bank was stalling. So he walked into the bank (this was a couple of years ago) and nicely but firmly got the bank to give him a written promise to loan him the money. He was able to take it to the leasing company and got the improvements started. In other example, a business woman waited for a friend to get her the logo and design for her business cards – he was doing the job for free. Finally, she went to someone else, paid for and got the logo. Sometimes you just have to make things happen.

4. Relax and Enjoy the Journey. Starting your first business is like having your first baby.  It’s a lot of stress, but it’s also fun.  Relax and have fun.  You’ll never get to start your first business again.

Juggling is hectic and difficult, but if you are prepared for the many juggling acts you will have to do to get your business started, you’ll get pretty good at it. That’s great, because the juggling will continue while you are in business.