Look, Ma, I'm Proactive

Last night I attended the class in starting a business that was canceled in December.

For those just tuning in, The Center for Women & Enterprise runs a class on steps to starting a business as part of their program for aspiring future entrepeneurs. It was a two-hour overview of things to keep in mind - how to figure out what kind of a business you want to run, financial things you're going to have to look at, a brief look at putting together a business plan, networking, things like that.

One thing I took from the class, which was kind of a nice realization, is that I'm probably further along in the process than I had given myself credit for. Not that I've come even close to being financially ready to do it, or that I have the best sense of what needs to be done, but that I do know what I want to do, and have a fairly realistic outlook on how to get there.

There were probably eight of us in the class, and only three of us seemed to have a solid idea of what kind of business we were interested in starting. The others had kind of nebulous goals - wanting to work for themselves, maybe an idea of what industry they wanted to go into. One woman seemed reluctant to actually state what it was she wanted to do. I couldn't tell if it was because there was a man in the room (all she would say was her idea had something to do with women), or whether she was afraid someone might steal her idea.

The instructor gave us a few things to consider "homework" - questions to ask ourselves before taking the leap. I know the first set of them is probably geared towards helping people figure out what they would like to do if they haven't yet decided, but it could also help me figure out things specific to running a bookstore. She suggested that after we answer them for ourselves, we ask other people to answer them about us, too. Friends might spot things that we weren't aware of, or discounted as not-terribly-relevant, but maybe those things might be worth looking at. That will go up in the next few days.

A couple of things I hadn't really considered, but are good suggestions:

--Having business cards made. It doesn't need anything more than my name and my contact info, but I'm going to get some made up. You never do know when you're going to meet someone that might be a good contact. (I realize one of my answers for the "What are your weaknesses" questions on the homework is my shyness. It's something I need to overcome, because as much as "networking" sounds so... jargony, it is a fact of life.)

--Reading the Wall Street Journal and business sections of local papers. I'm loathe to sign up for the physical paper. We used to have the Sunday Boston Globe delivered, and I never read it. Such a waste. But I'm afraid with the online versions of the newspapers, I'll be inclined to get distracted and click away. For now, I'm going to try bookmarking them and get into the habit of checking them out.

All in all, a good overview class. I'm not going to take the second class in the series, Visioning, because from the description it really is for people who are still figuring out what they want to do. So, the next step is the financial planning class that begins in March. Until then, though...homework.