In a bid to diversify my income, I started a small cafeteria where I sell fast foods and I have employed one woman to run the business. The woman is a trained cook and I do not have much to say in the business since my specialty is and has always been fashion. However, despite the fact that it is not my specialty I always find that I cannot get enough sleep during the night because of thinking about the business, its viability, its location and whether it was a good idea in the first case anyway. There are also issues with cash flow, bad debts from people who do not want to pay up even when services are delivered to them and you have to keep on pestering them day in day out. There is also the issue of the employee feeling that they are underpaid although the business is not really doing well to enable me pay her well.
There was this one week when I went silent on everything as I meditated whether I did the right thing in starting the business in the first instance. And then I remembered why I did it. I wanted to have a side hustle other than my main source of money. I also wanted to empower the woman who was unemployed and since she now has a job, she is more peaceful even at home as she runs her things, knowing that she will have bread and bacon to take to her kids.
Count the positives
One thing that most startups will go wrong in is counting the negatives and the much they have invested in the business yet it is still going through massive losses. You need to think of it in a positive light and start counting the good of the business so that you are more comfy with its running. Think about your clientele who want to see consistency in you. They want you to treat them with respect and they value the kind of relationship you have formed. When you feel like quitting, think about them and how they would feel betrayed by you for doing such a thing.
Think too of the much strides you have made. Think about your first sale that you made and how excited that got you. Think of how much you felt good when you started doing the business. Do not always count business in monetary value but also see the other social value the business is adding to your community and to the clientele who come to your premises.
With my business, I decided to list all the positives I have seen from it after going an article on the Entrepreneur that specified so. Whenever am stressed about the startup, I look at the paper and it gets me going.
Finances and borrowing from financial institutions
Every start up is going to face a financial difficulty either they are not able to sustain themselves or they are not able to break even. Forbes has it that for a start up to succeed, it really requires that they plan their finances way ahead before even thinking of investing. One source of capital is your personal savings.
If you have an awesome credit score history, you can also check for fast business loans that come at favorable interest rates and will give you time to pay up as your business picks up. Personally for my cafeteria business, I went to Quick Loans Direct which offers fast business loan with rates starting at 5.9%.
Other sources of capital for your business could include donations from family members or contributions from other partners who are in the business. If you are in a partnership, you really need to keep a record of the amounts that each of you has contributed which will be essential when you are doing your dividend sharing when profit comes.
Priorities
Most businesses suffer because the proprietor has so much to do that they are unable to decide what to do first and leave out what. This creates a challenge where you have a backlog of things undone and this will end up affecting your business in a bad way. Write down everything that needs to be done and then rank them according to the level of importance so that you are informed on what to do and what to leave out until you get time or resources to do them.