5 Important Questions Before Starting Your Own Project
The idea of ​​owning a business is an enticing and freeing one. The idea of ​​liberating from a job to start a private business is a brave and ambitious idea, but it is a difficult and big step that must be carefully studied.
Of course, not every individual is fit to be a trader or owner of a project, but if you are one of those whose ambition exceeds the job, and you possess the spirit of adventure and are ready to make all the effort and sacrifices that your dream deserves, and you see in yourself that you have all the ingredients
What is the first question you ask yourself before starting any project? Here are 5 key questions you should answer before starting your project:
1- Why would I choose this project?
You must set clear goals for your project before you start working on it, because you may face what frustrates you, and you may wait a long time before making a profit, so you can remind yourself of the goals of the project in the face of various pressures, which will motivate you to continue until success is achieved.
2- Will I enjoy working on this project?
When you work on your project, you become your own manager, which is attractive, of course, but you also become responsible for the success of the project, which may require working extra hours and staying up sometimes to meet delivery dates, answering e-mails, coordinating with customers and suppliers, and other tasks, and the consequent fatigue. And the inability to attend some friends’ meetings due to your preoccupation, and you may not get a quick financial return because you may need to invest the profits you have earned in improving the project.
These are great sacrifices that must be taken into account, but these sacrifices become possible if you work in a field that you love and enjoy working in and feel important, as your passion for the field in which you work will be a motive for your success, and on the other hand, if you feel that your work is influential and that it adds value For your community, this will also be an important motivation to make the effort that will achieve the desired success for you.
3- How will I provide the necessary funds for the project?
Lack of funds is the first obstacle to the success of any start-up project, and projects rarely reap profits once they start, so you need to make sure that you have enough savings or another source of income to face this stage.
In the event that the necessary funds are not available to finance the project from the beginning, you must first calculate exactly what you will need, and then you can consider the possibility of resorting to:
Loans: Loans are an option available to you, but you must provide adequate studies on your project to present your idea and the elements of its success.
Grants and competitions: They are announced throughout the year and international development institutions grant funding to promising projects in various fields, so you have to choose the grant or competition that suits your project.
Presence of partners: Working with partners has advantages, foremost of which is providing the necessary funds to finance the project, but all aspects of the project must be clarified in order to avoid any disputes in the future.
Business incubators: These are entities interested in developing emerging projects that have the ingredients for success by providing the necessary funding to start them, or resources and technical support.
Accelerators: These are entities that focus on early-stage projects and provide training and a small amount of funding.
Investors: They are people who have funds and are interested in developing and supporting emerging projects.
Crowdfunding campaigns: You can present your project idea in a short video or one of the other means of presentation on a crowdfunding site so that citizens can participate in financing your project if they are convinced of its importance. Crowdfunding platforms act as a link between the public wishing to support projects and those looking for funding.
Capital owners: These are companies that invest in the development of projects, so they are more careful when choosing the project that they will support.
4- Do my partners / team have the ingredients for success as a team?
Working within a team is a positive thing in general, because it will allow the distribution of tasks and the completion of a greater amount of work, and to ensure that there are different points of view when making decisions, and the presence of more people means that there are more skills for the success of the project, but you have to make sure that there is harmony between your partners Your team and the existence of a common vision for the project, because an inharmonious team would weaken the project, and vice versa when you work with a cooperative team with a clear vision, the work becomes easier and more fun.
5- Do I have enough skills to make the project a success?
You must determine the skills necessary for the success of the project, by defining the skills you possess, the skills that you must work to improve, the things that require the use of other experts and how much it will cost you, and you can seek expert help by resorting to business incubators and accelerators.
Finally, you must ask yourself these questions early and before starting implementation. If you find your answer to one of these questions negative, do not let fear possess you and discourage you from your dream of becoming a business owner and a private project. Rather, work on your weaknesses and strengthen them as much as possible so that after a short period you will be ready. And ready to move forward towards the implementation of the project.
Of course, there are many other details that you must take into account, so it is advised to study everything related to your project carefully… Starting your own project involves great risks, but your belief in the idea of ​​your project, your study of all its aspects, and your keenness to develop it, will make the risk a motive for your success.