如何经营个体私营生意(三)

（13）Another important consideration is your personal financial resources. Make sure you have a considerable amount of capital set aside, especially because in a sole proprietorship you assume personal liability for all activities of that business. If you borrow money and can’t repay it, your personal assets are at stake.
（14）It’s also smart to play to your strengths. “The best thing you can do is to make sure that you’re getting into something that suits you and what you want to do,” Lonier says. “It should be something that uses your unique capabilities and experience to allow you to position yourself uniquely in the marketplace.”
（15）Indeed, drawing upon your previous professional experiences can really get the ball rolling for your new solo venture. “It took me seven years working at a big company to build a clientele,” says Michael Nunziato, a now independent hair stylist in St. Charles, Illinois.
（16）So remember: just because you spent a lot of time in coffee shops while peddling insurance doesn’t mean you’re ready to open that espresso bar.
（17）At the beginning, it’s really up to you to determine how the business functions, so be prepared for a migraine or two. “There’s a lot of scrambling,” Lonier says. “It’s like a lot of ducks paddling underneath the water line.””
（18）Running a One-Person Business: Stay Focused on What’s Important
（19）Time is a soloist’s most valuable asset, Lonier says. A hawk-like focus on your most important functions as a business owner is essential. Don’t get bogged down on administrative work when you should be focused on marketing your business and driving sales.
（20）As a one-person show, that might prove to be especially difficult. More than one-third of sole proprietors said that their biggest challenge is finding the time and resources to generate new business, according to a recent survey conducted by Visa USA and SCORE, a nonprofit group that counsels entrepreneurs.
（21）And if you aren’t bringing in business to your company, who is?
（22）“The hardest thing for me was leaving the security blanket behind,” Nunziato says. “Having a big name behind you really helps bring people in the door.”
（23）If you’re trying to build a marketing strategy from the ground up, you need to be clear on who your customers are, because you don’t have any time to waste on marketing to those who aren’t. “That’s really the biggest challenge, determining who exactly your customers are,” Lonier says. “Many times [business owners] think they understand who they are, but you need to be willing to interview and test potential customers, particularly in the early days of a company, in order to be able to build those relationships.”
（24）One way to make marketing easier is through joint-venture marketing, Tabaka says. When she owned a coffeehouse in Naperville, Illinois, she realized that her company and a major drugstore in the same shopping center could work together and support each other’s marketing goals. 
（25）Another important and relatively easy way to get your name out into the market is building your web presence through social media like Twitter and Facebook. Be sure you familiarize yourself with and utilize Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to make it easier for people to find your website.
（26）Running a One-Person Business: Be Disciplined
（27）Solopreneurship isn’t for the easily distracted. To manage your limited amount of time effectively, you have to be disciplined.
（28）Jordan devotes specific tasks to specific days of the week. “One day of the week I really focus on doing a lot of sales calls and business development,” he says. “Another day is for the business planning and the numbers side. Another day is heavily focused on customer service issues.”
（29）Your clients are the lifeblood of your business, but they can also put a serious dent in your rigid time management schedule.
（30）“So often people can monopolize your time, which is the most valuable thing you have,” Jordan says. “[Business owners] make the mistake that you have to drop everything to answer the phone for a client, even if you’re working on something totally different. You have to be in charge of your own schedule.”
（31）One of Jordan’s tricks to sticking to that schedule is limiting all phone conversations to 30 minutes. “I can be in a great conversation, but when we start creeping up on that 30-minute point, I’m aware of it and ready to go onto the next thing,” he says. “It’s something I’ve ingrained in my head.”
（32）Running a One-Person Business: Delegate, Delegate, Delegate
（33）Just because you’re the only employee of your business doesn’t mean you have to do everything on your own. In fact, you should delegate any task that can be outsourced, particularly if you’re not that experienced – or good – at something. This will allow you to focus on your most important responsibility: driving sales.
（34）Tabaka says she’s a huge fun of virtual assistants. According to the International Virtual Assistants Association, virtual assistants are independent contractors who remotely provide administrative, creative, and technical services for multiple clients. One of the biggest concerns among solopreneurs, however, is that they won’t be able to afford virtual assistants, whose services typically cost around $40 or $50 an hour.
（35）“Solopreneurs often don’t see their own time as having a dollar value,” Tabaka says. “It does. It might take you 20 hours a week to do web design because you’ve got a huge learning curve. That’s 20 hours you could put toward marketing and bringing in new clients.”
（36）Hiring freelancers or independent contractors is another option. Dick Clark, owner of Atlantic Training, hires independent contractors to help reduce the burden of managing the management consulting firm based in his home outside of Los Angeles.
（37）“I try to farm out everything I can,” he says. He prefers to do that with independent contractors rather than full-time employees due to the constantly changing nature of his business. “If I have people working for me, I’m responsible for paying their salary. With contractors, I pay them when I have an income, and I don’t hire them otherwise.”
（38）Technology can also be a major time-saver. Here are a few tools to get you started:
QuickBooks – a business accounting program for small business
Quicken Home Office – personal and business finance software 

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