Most people open a business because they have a passion or talent for something. Maybe you’ve always loved clothing and so you open a boutique. Or maybe you’re a great hair stylist and you decide to work for yourself. There are definitely people who open businesses not out of a love for the specific field, but because they enjoy entrepreneurship. No matter what your reasons for opening a business, chances are you did not open a store, salon, restaurant, or even hang your own shingle as a doctor or consultant because you were interested in subjects such as bankruptcy rates, tax codes, and employment law (unless of course, you’re an accountant or lawyer).
Over my years of working with small business owners as a content marketing consultant, I’ve spent a lot of time explaining why business owners need to know about marketing, social media, and emails. But recently, through some research I was doing for clients, I discovered that owning your own business requires a surprising amount of information about a variety of fields that may not seem to have a direct impact on your business. Here are the five things I was most surprised by.
1. Bankruptcy Rates
One of my current clients is a commercial collection agency. Before working with them, I never knew that business owners need to pay attention not just to laws about bankruptcy and debt repayment, but also to how bankruptcy rates are reported. I’ve learned from a recent study my client wrote, that business bankruptcy rates are often reported in a less-than-helpful way, meaning small business owners could be entering in to a business with inaccurate regional information.
2. Energy Costs
Recently I was doing some research on the best states in which to open a business. I was surprised to find information about the types of energy available, and the costs of energy listed on most state’s websites. When I read the information, it made sense, energy costs can be a large part of operating expenses, but it had never occurred to me before. I sort of doubt whether or not a state has access to nuclear energy enters most people’s minds before they open that ice cream shop.
3. State Funding for Education
Seriously! In doing my research about various states I came across a very in-depth article about the state of business in Oregon. One of the factors that business owners in Oregon complained about the most was the lack of state funding spent on education. Business owners of all sizes felt that Oregon’s education system meant they had a hard time finding qualified workers, and an even harder time recruiting workers from out of state. Who knew you had to look in to things like this?
4. Weather Patterns
OK, obviously, if you’re opening a kayaking business, you need to know how many days out of the year people can realistically get on the water in your area, but what if you’re opening a restaurant? It turns out that yes, restaurants are somewhat dependent on weather. Weather affects not only what food you can get when, but also how likely people are to come out to eat on any given night.
5. Yourself
OK, this one is kind of obvious, and wasn’t really a surprise to me, but it took me a while to realize it. One of the most important things to understand before you open a business is yourself. Are you cut out to be a business owner? Are you cut out to be someone’s boss? Do you work well on your own? Are you interested in factoids like how many business bankruptcies are in your area? You can love an industry and have a talent for it without going in to business yourself.
Do you own your own business? What surprised you the most when you first started out?