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The Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started a Business

I started a biotech company in July of 2006. The company has been my greatest career accomplishment, yet it has also been the biggest roller coaster I have ever been on. One day I am doing cutting edge research and the next I am worried about how to pay the bills. Being a business owner you will find your self doing the mundane stuff and the fun stuff. You have to be a Renaissance person. You will find yourself learning about law, accounting, people management and your field of interest. Here are few things that I wish someone would have told me when I started my business:

1. Starting is hardreally hard for some, but once you start your path will become clear. When I first started my company with my business partner, we had no idea what to do first. We stared by looking for a place for our business. Then, we started doing market research and writing a business plan. Next, we started doing scientific research. You see it all eventually became clear. The farther along you go, the farther ahead you can see. It is like putting on a hard hat with a little tiny light as you enter an unknown cave; as you travel farther along in a cave, you will find better hard hats with bigger lights to see with and more fancy tools to help you along your journey.
2. Your business plan will change a million times. You will spend a lot of time writing a business plan and doing the research for it, but you will find that in a few months that your current plan hardly resembles your original plan. Our original plan was highly scientific and relied on grants to fund our business, but now our plan relies on contracts and angel money to fund our business. Each time you rewrite your plan it will become more precise and focused.
3. Raising capital is hardreal hard. One person will love your idea, but think that the market potential is not there. Another person will think that the market is great and think that your business has a lot of potential, but they will not invest because they can not make enough money off of your idea. Someone may offer you capital, but you may find that the terms are not beneficial to you. Finding the right kind of capital is like finding a life partner, it takes time, patience and whole lot of trial and error. Don't take any money until you are ready to enter a long term relationship with the funding source otherwise it could ultimately lead to the demise of your company.

Starting a business takes a lot of strength, perseverance and guts. Starting a business allows you to be free. Free to make something materialize into to something great or free to fall flat on your face only to have to pick yourself up again.

Learn more about this author, Erin Worthy.
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