Hello, Everyone.

I've been wanting to start up my own business for years and finally decided to take the plunge. I filed a resignation letter to the current company I'm connected with. However, the more I research, the more overwhelmed I get! I begin to see all the risks and I start finding myself backing out of my plan.

I have always known that starting a business is risky. However, now more than ever, I find myself obsessing over the risks and getting overwhelmed by all the things I need to consider (e.g., should i sell online?, apparel or accessories?, etc). I have always wanted to open online store but given all the competition around me, I feel as though I'd do better selling something less risky if I go online. And, soon, my mind starts to spin out of control!

I know in my heart I want my own business but I am just terrified. Financially, it's a huge risk. Has anyone else gone through this emotional rollercoaster? If so, can you please share how you overcame your fear? And, has anyone ever backed out of a plan and NOT regretted it? I am trying to figure out how to tell when it's right to back out versus move forward (though, like I said, in my heart I know I want this).

And, does anyone have advice on how I can tackle all the questions surrounding the type of business to have, whether to go online or get a physical store, etc? Thanks so much, everyone!

Well, you are not alone. I think it's good to have such emotions because it is a constant reminder that you must push on. I have started 2 businesses since adulthood (not counting lemonade stand and selling home made ordnance and sling shots to the local kids). Boy, there were plenty of broken windows in the neighborhood that summer!

First thing, never quit your day job until you have a business plan or at least a nest egg to sit on while you plan.

For some, trial by fire works best. Also known in corporate environments as being thrown to the sharks. Here's a work order now go to it and call if you need help. This, on the first day of work really sets the pace. For others there is a need to have maximum security blankets in place before starting a venture. This can include:

1. having little or no overhead
2. already having a client base (depending on what your business is - hair cutting vs. web design)
3. having a backup plan in case plan A proves fruitless (brother in law promise to hire you part time if needed to pad the wallet)
4. have agreements from prospective partners before starting business (watch e-Dreams released in 2001 about Kozmo)
5. augment your income by having multiple revenue streams (this is my favorite and I allow this to make decisions for me)

If I had to decide if something was good for the business or not I would consider the alternate revenue streams. If there were none then it was a bad idea. If there were 2 then I was interested but not convinced until I saw 3 then I was "in like flint".

Multiple revenue streams is so important I feel the need to elaborate on this by stating an example. My first business was started with a partner and involved what we called "internet business developments". This was around 1999 when everyone was hot to get a website and many folks really didn't know why they needed one or what it could really do for them. This is where we would start educating clients to the point they started to understand the power of the internet and the many ways they could profit by introducing multiple revenue streams to their business. Now most of what I would call competition at the time was not really such in that the frenzy to create websites and grab money totally overlooked all chances of repeat business and alternate revenue streams not only for clients but also for the developers. One example of this is how your website can capitalize on traffic even if you are not selling anything. Search engines do not sell anything to users, they are free service providers who have such massive volumes of traffic they can sell ad space to just about anyone.

Thinking about how Corel started as nothing more than a CD with loads of images on it... we had created a website which offered ready made "buttons" for use on websites so users who were graphically challenged could just download them and stick them on their site for free. It was the largest site "of it's kind" in the world - ButtonMe.com with over 100,000 images and growing at the rate of approximately 14,000 images every other day thanks to my developing a macro which automated production not only of the images but also the HTML and zip files sending them by ftp to the server overnight as we slept. It was a marvel to watch this thing go - 14 hours it took to complete running on a 486 or Pentium I don't remember. Had we not already rented office space I would have taken the company in this direction and forget about web consulting! (the buttonme project was started as a hobby only)

We built it and they came. They came in droves! I was shocked at how well we did in the standings of Goolge and AltaVista and without even trying. I mean we didn't do anything aside from a few keywords and a robots tag and we were up to 10,000 unique visitors each month. So with some effort it could have been huge. So many places were linking to us that even today, almost 6 years after the domain name expired there are still sites out there that have a link to that name! Wow. Only so much time in a day though and we were spellbound by the money of online gaming.

Our mistake was to put all our eggs in one basket. We took on a silent partner who funded an internet gambling project that was supposed to start with bingo and move on from there using modular development of a game engine. We had his word (this was a friend of my partner) that he would pay what it required to get the job done rather than work within the confines of a budget. We had put all our time and effort into this project and thus did not have any government contracts to fall back on. In Ottawa, most successful design firms have govt. contracts and once you're in you pretty much have it made. Anyway we had done our research and discovered that most internet gaming sites were running the same back end. Hmmm, a red flag went up in my head. Rather than buy or rent a license to use someone else's engine we decided to make our own. This would allow us to resell our engine once it was proven and we would have one alternate revenue stream which we would not have to share with the silent partner!!! Bonus. Well my partner interviewed several programmers and we picked one out of work immigrant from Poland with a pregnant wife who looked at our back end model and said he could do it in 6 months for 60,000. Sold! At the time game engines were being leased for 75,000 per year and up so it was an easy decision. We went to the money man to ask for salary and he proposed to give us 2 weeks of the programmers salary. I said no, we can't be coming to you every 2 weeks for a cheque for this guy! I wanted to secure the pay for the programmer and the partner started to balk at this and then he started with the legal fears saying it was illegal to have ANY part in online gambling in Canada. Even though we had planned to locate the servers in Antigua and Barbuda due to the favorable regulations and offshore policies the government had at that time. So he dropped the bomb and pulled out just like that and we were left holding a basket of eggs.

Back into high tech I went but never was satisfied with the prospects though I was always in demand and earned good money. So I recently became fed up with the corporate rat race and started to work as a freelance graphic designer and web developer from the comfort of my own home (second business). I'm very happy now even though it's hard to make ends meet. Between small projects designing logos and such I am planning an online venture in which I will put to use some of my internet know how and that is where the real fruits are.


If you want a bricks and mortar type business then figure out how to create alternate revenue streams using the internet. You may change your mind once you see the possibilities out there.

good luck
James Poirier

Hi James,
Thanks for the encouragements and inspirations.

Well, I'm also passionate on web/online/internet firm/business. But sometimes I can't overcome the fear inside of me. But now, on my young age I decided to rather try different things and trying to handle and mange risk than working hard as an employee forever.
Sometimes, I'm really desperate on the worth of my efforts and hardworks on my current work now but I consider it as my stepping stone.

Right now, I'm considering web applications business and I tried doing some business plan on it. I do hope that everything will smoothly be done.

Thanks for this list, this will help a lot:



Thank you again!

You have more guts than I ever had if you left a paying job before you had your small business ducks in a row. Life and business takes planning.

Take action smoothly , THEN get to starting your own business is really interesting! Although I'm not a big proponent of fear, I do tend to agree that there's nothing like fear to get us moving. It's when that fear becomes overwhelming that the incentive fails.

One thing to hold onto firmly is that you take things One Step At A Time!

Ask yourself on a regular basis, "What can I do in the next 20 minutes that will solve this thing that's got me tied up in a twist?" If you can't do a single thing within those 20 minutes, let it go for now.

Secondly, I'm a big fan of lists. :-) To-Do lists, shopping lists, and other planning lists.

you've done a lot of research, and you're at the moment overwhelmed. I'd start with a list: "What do I need to know, all of which is making me nuts?"

Write down the jist of what you've been researching. Don't try to evaluate it, just put down a sentence (no more than two), and describe what you found in that research. Make a list of what you think you're supposed to be doing to start a business.

For example, you likely found out you need a business plan. you found out you need accounting tools. you found out about Web sites, developing a product, finding a niche, getting advice, meeting people, networking, joining this or that, paying something else, buying whatever, and spending lots of money and time.

Okay. Write each of the things that's in your mind on paper. It's an odd fact of human minds that we can store between 5-7 "things" in our attention at one time. Add to that and we push one thing out into our long-term memory or we forget it. If we don't push it out, it "falls out" of our head.

When you write these down, you're using something like an external drive to supplement your short-term memory, before you put something into long-term memory. (It takes about a week for something to process from Now into long-term memory.)

By writing all these thoughts down, you'll free up your general attention span. you then can look at the list, decide how to prioritize it, and spend your energies putting numbers in front of each thing. What will you do first, second, and third. Leave the rest for later.

One thing more,

You have to find your passion, your big WHy in order to establish a business. There are many affiliate programs you can join for free to get your feet wet, but you will still have to learn about marketing and advertising, so you are not loosing money. Your aim is to be cashflow positive, not bankrupt in 6 months. Belief me, I have seen many people come and go in the Network marketing Industry and about 95% fail without a doubt. But then you owe it to yourself to get started.

Whether in a traditional business, or online is not relevant. What is, is your WHY as this will give you fuel to stay motivated when the going gets tough and your freinds, family nag at you. Keep a vision, maybe design a vision board of things you like doing, and it will soon filter out what would be suitable and what not.

Just remember "Success comes to those who deserve it". Ask yourself, what would I do, if fear and money is not an option and then go and get them

To your Success!

Risky business leaving your job. The idea of standing alone terrifies me and has therefore never appealed. But I suppose if you don't take the plunge at some point theres a possibility that you'll end up regretting it. So although I can't offer any words of wisdom I can say, whole-heartedly, good luck!

All kind of business have its own risk, so the best thing to do is to know and expertise how to manage risk, in that way you we be able to reduce your fears and become brave to face whatever risk or the ups and down of your business.
In short, knowledge in managing risk is important in the world and game of business.

Have you seen movies of the Wright brothers first flight. They didn't push their aircraft off a cliff to test it. Their first test was in a situation where failure would not likely have been fatal. However it did prove the concept was viable.

Starting a business is much the same. Try to minimize the consequences of any single mistake, while at the same time learning a valuable lesson or proving the concept. See the bootstrapping thread for a lively discussion on that concept. Doing something as simple as buying something undervalued at a local garage sale (negotiating down from the asking price) and reselling it on eBay is a good first step. You'll learn the skill of negotiating, properly account for the expenses and revenue (go ahead and use inexpensive small business software, overkill, but another lesson learned). Some people actually make a living doing that.

Do what you must to take the pressure off and still move in the desired direction. You talk about your last job like it's the only one around. Find one that affords the time to think, plan and begin your business while still supporting yourself.

I'm not trying to discourage you from starting your business. It's just that I'd much rather see you soaring on your new found wings, than lying in a pile of wreckage at the bottom of a cliff.


Moreover,one of the most tricky little suckers to define is that word Comfort! I went through a number of years with a bad definition, having thought I'd arrived at the right one. (Dictionaries aren't any help at all with words like this.)

Comfort is a zero point on a scale of both positive and negative "numbers." These metaphorical numbers are values we assign, for the most part almost unconsciously, to experience. To clarify, I'll use a money metaphor.

If you spend money and owe people future money, you're in the negative numbers. You're in debt. Then you get money and start paying debt. At some point you've paid off all your debt. At that point, no, you don't have money! You're broke! You have zero money, BUT you also have zero debt.

If you continue to gain money, you can spend at the same rate as you earn, holding to a zero balance, but having all your bills paid and your daily needs met. However, you can earn more than you spend, choose not to waste it, then put some of the extra into a savings account. Only then do you have money. ("Have" in the sense that it's not going out the door in the next day or so.)

To break apart the metaphor, "debt" is on the way to death, moving down through irritation, annoyance, nervousness, stress, anxiety, worry, fear, panic, numbness, depression, and suicide. It's a pain function, not a pleasure function.

'Savings" is at the positive polarity of the scale, moving toward joy. Happiness is a transient event, as you reach milestones and goals. So if you're in massive debt, then pay off your debt, you can be happy, but that's not the same "kind" of happiness as a windfall profit from an investment. Joy is static, and momentary, but speaks to experiencing the ideal. So there's living, then there's the Joy of life.

In the middle, right at the zero point we have Comfort. It's very closely related to Apathy. Comfort is where you're not experiencing any pain or painful life events, but neither are you experiencing any pleasure events. It's a cessation of pain, before the introduction of pleasure. (Apathy is where you don't care whether you're experiencing pain or pleasure.)

A recent experiment with rats, I can't remember the source but could look it up, demonstrated that when rats had a comfortable life, they died earlier than those that had stresses and incentives in life. The logical conclusion, borne out by history, is that being too comfortable leads to being fat and lazy, bored and "content" but not happy.

If you're in a discomfort or uncomfortable situation, it's only that you've gotten tired of sitting at the zero point. The remaining and more important question is what you consider to be the "purpose of life."