Many people dream of setting up their own business and starting a company during their studies or training. And why not, own business promises time and financial freedom and is the only way to get off the 9-5 monotonous work routine. Of course, strategic hard work plays a key role in making a business besides study or job, a true success. And the journey becomes more exciting, if you love what you are doing and helps other people.

Best tips for running business alongside your study or job:

Do you feel the same way?

Biggest problem with most people planning to become self-employed is not knowing what they really want. They self talk – I would like to go into business for myself, but I just don’t know what to do with it”. They keep on piling up innovative ideas, but don’t really get excited about any of them. Or they are constantly face their self belief or don’t take necessary action.

You go to the supermarket, or at the hairdresser or use an app and suddenly you notice how this could be made much better and easier?

Congratulations! You have just discovered a new niche! The best business ideas are those that someone has brought to life because they could not find product or service in the market. After all, you can assume that there are a lot of other people who are also looking – often desperately – for a similar solution to their problem.

Some questions you should ask yourself:

•  Which product or service will create an impact?
•  Will I spend money on, if such product does not exist?
•  What do you think is good, but much in need of improvement?

Use a piece of paper and pen to find answers to these questions. In this way you will not only find ingenious business ideas, but at the same time create a valuable differentiation from the competition.

Three fundamental criteria to consider when thinking about starting a business

Of course, there are many aspects to starting a business that need to be considered, three particularly important aspects are:

1. Is there a demand?

Your product or service can turnout to be fruitless, if nobody buys it or if nobody is willing to spend money on it. That is, you will hardly be successful. So before rushing to start a business, first analyze and understand the market demand/potential. The sharper you can define the target group that will later become your consumer, the more valuable the outcome of the analysis will be!

2. Which problem your product/service will solve?

In addition, your product or service must solve a problem. Only then it will generate value for the prospective customers. The bigger and more omnipresent the problem your product or service will solve, greater will be the added value for consumers and the more promising and profitable your business idea.

3. Can you do it differently or better?

Having a niche of its own is a valuable distinguishing criterion. If you succeed in connecting a brand with the solution your business offers, the battle is half won!

Lack of brand development is one of the most frequent reasons why younger founders and entrepreneurs fail. They hardly attach importance to it. On one hand, this is understandable, because you supposedly have better things to do. On the other hand, however, especially in the medium and long term it can turn out to be absolutely catastrophic.

So right from the beginning focus on building the brand and winning the true customers. True customers are brand advocates and are willing to buy from you because they are hardly price-sensitive and will consume really everything you offer.

Tip: Write in 3 sentences exactly what your business does and what makes it unique. The sharper the description, the easier it will be to set up and sell!

Ignore what others say!

Sceptics are everywhere and are filled with poisonous venom. There are examples where individuals did not believed in the vision initially but later the product/service turned out to be successful. And then the same people approach for advice and even want to collaborate or put money in it. Perfect example is Elon Musk and his successful companies – X.com, Tesla and SpaceX.

The only thing that really counts is – don’t doubt yourself or your idea!

Be always sure that your product will create value and that it would also achieve great financial success in the medium to long term.

Believe in yourself and you can do anything!

Lose cheaply!

Many founders aim to start a business by offering cheap products or services. But this makes the business difficult to survive in the long run!

Be the expensive option in the market!

What does that mean? The more expensive product or service you offer, the less buyers you need to make profits. After all, you operate with significantly higher margins (profit / sale).

What do you think is easier?

It is much easier to sell a few products at a high price than many products at a low price. After all, you are moving with more expensive products/services in a less competitive field.

Focus

One mistake many individuals make is that they want to do too many things at once. This especially happens in the initial stages when there is great uncertainty about the success of the business model. And that’s when they decide to do several other things at the same time. With this strategy, however, you will lose in the long run.

Robert Kiyosaki has shared an excellent approach to this problem, which he abbreviates as FOCUS. FOCUS stands for “Follow One Course Until Successful”

This means instead of diversifying as widely as possible, it is important to concentrate on as little as possible when starting up a business. And that’s when your company and it’s products/services can do particularly well! Ultimately, this strategy is not only sustaining the business in the long-term, but also promises significantly higher profits.

So before you add new things or more people, you should always ask yourself – what can you actually reduce or even eliminate. This will not only make your processes and solutions more efficient, but also improve their quality considerably!

Last but not least

Now that you are happy and motivated and tell yourself “Great, now I can start!”

Start and gain experience!

Experience is the only thing in life you can’t learn but gain. And the earlier you start, the steeper your learning curve will be! This is the only way to build important momentum, progress and self-confidence.

Furthermore, a business doesn’t have to be expensive, especially when it’s online. You can get started with just a few dollars a month and grow organically.

Do you have questions, suggestions or feedback? Then please leave us a comment so that others can also share your thoughts.

Hi, I am Nikesh Mehta, owner and writer of this site. I’m an analytics professional and also love writing on finance and related industry. I’ve done online course in Financial Markets and Investment Strategy from Indian School of Business. I can be reached at nikeshmehta@allonmoney.com.