Life as a new business owner is much the same as a steamy and passionate embrace between you and your new lover as your car disengages from park and rolls over the edge of Lookout Mountain. It's an odd blend of the excitement of exploring new and unfamiliar territory mixed with the feelings of utter and complete dread that you set into motion something which may ultimately result in your demise. Wait, perhaps I'm being a bit melodramatic... naaaah.
If you think about it for a minute, new businesses are being created every second of every hour of every day. Most people would likely tell you that at one time or another they have considered becoming a business owner. But for each of the millions of potential entrepreneurs who have had an innovative idea, very few actually took the next step and realized their dream. I would gather the largest reason for this is fear. Common knowledge tells us most businesses fail and because of this most folks articulate some reason why they can't do it such as "I'm too old", "I have a family", or "I don't have the money".
So if I sound like I'm being a bit dramatic, it is only because starting a business IS dramatic. I'm doing something that only a small percentage of the population is willing to try, and I'm doing it using the equity in my house along with my retirement, and I'm doing it with the knowledge that most people that try it..., FAIL.
Basically this feeling of potential doom is what our two lovers are experiencing as their car begins to descend over the cliff.
But what of our lover's Passionate Embrace? This one is not so obvious at first. Starting a new business in principle is relatively simple. Register your business name with the local Secretary of State, pay a minimal fee, and BAM - you're a company. In reality, it's a lot harder than that.??Take for instance the name of your company. I wanted a name that had not been used locally, that had not been trademarked nationally, and hardest of all, that had not been taken as a "dot com". A "dot com" you may ask? I'm talking about the website name for the company. I wanted a ".com" and not a ".us" or a ".net" or a ".anything-else". If you've ever looked for a website name, you already know that there are thousands of sleazy individuals out there who purchase a multitude of these ".com" names. These individuals then sit on the names and offer them for sale. So instead of paying $20 for your website name, you are forced to pay thousands to some meat-head who only paid $20 himself (He's only a sleazy meat-head because I didn't think of it first). What I'm saying by all this is that after creating a list of perhaps 100 names, I ended up with maybe three from which to choose.
And if a name weren't bad enough, try creating a logo. Start reading literature on what colors your logo should include and you'll know the meaning of stress. Red is supposed to be the most favored color, and if you start driving around town you'll notice most logo's and signs are red to include those of many national chains. While reading about the various colors, I found that each color seemed to have benefits as well as drawbacks. For example, certain colors might be stimulating to a certain sex, but might also have a drawback such as causing seizures in passing motorists. I'm not a "go with the flow" kind of guy, so red was out. I settled on yellow and blue. Yellow was supposed to be a "happy" color, but now that I have a giant yellow logo on my car I have learned that people don't use yellow because it attracts lots of bees. It's OK though, as long as I drive over 40 they can't keep up.
What I'm saying is that creating a business involves what seems like thousands of hours of preparation that no one ever sees. They just see the new business on the corner and don't think about what it really took to put it there. Now it may sound like I'm still talking about the lover's driving over the cliff, but in reality, I'm talking about creation. And much like a mother gazes with pride at her newborn while forgetting the months she spent retching over the toilet bowl, a new business owner does the same as they proudly open their doors. Both mother and business owner revel in what they have created, and eagerly await to see what the future holds. In addition to becoming the proud parent of a business, one also gets the satisfaction of being their own boss, it's awesome. Best of all, even if the venture fails, one can look back with pride and know they gave it their best shot! It's something that no one can ever take away.
So as I sit here helplessly in the back seat of my car, arms wrapped around my lover, watching the car move toward the edge of the cliff... I'm happy. For some odd reason I know the car won't burst into flames. Something is telling me that my lover and I might get banged up, might get some bruises or even a broken bone, but we'll be OK. I may have to buy a new car when this is all done, and certainly a smaller house, but it was worth it because I created a business! And if it doesn't work, next time I'm gonna start smaller - perhaps with a lemonade stand at the end of my driveway.
