Plans for 2026 - Starting a new business?

This year I’m planning more frequent posts from your Uncle Ralph, including revision and updates of some of the most popular articles among the hundreds of the past twenty years.

It seemed appropriate to begin with a reminder of the important issues to consider before starting a new business venture.

Look before you leap

I’ve often said, "Starting your own business is a lot like sky-diving – it seems like

an exciting idea, but you’re not likely to do it until you’re pushed out the door.”

In my own case, I had literally been pushed out the door of an early Canadian  technology company, called AES Data, that was winding down when my number came up. Not a surprise, since I had spent the previous nine months closing facilities and letting people go, but it was a painful experience, nonetheless.

I quickly had two other corporate job offers in Montreal from Nortel and Rolls Royce, both with similar job descriptions and compensation packages, but I decided it was time to take care of my own career plan and not let someone else decide whether I had a job, what I was doing next, and whether I was doing it well enough. With an MBA and lots of management experience, I was confident that I was at least as good a manager and businessman as the people I had been working for and I was ready to prove it. So I incorporated a business as an independent management consultant and started to explore new business opportunities.

That’s when I met the owners of TTX who were looking for a distributor of their computer peripheral products in Eastern Canada. That business appealed to me because it matched my interests in technology and I had good credentials in managing the distribution side of a business. So I joined them to open a joint venture in Montreal, put in some cash and agreed to start with no salary until we could afford it. (First important principle: Family and shareholders get paid last.)

It was a great experience from the first day. It was only much later that I learned other important principles of building and sustaining a successful business venture and developed these two important checklists to consider before you launch your business.

The Characteristics of a Successful Entrepreneur

1. Strong, confident personality

2. Energetic, competitive, independent

3. Confident, curious, knowledgeable and experienced

4. Action-oriented, decisive, analytical, rational risk taker

5. Passionate, patient and persistent

6. Effective and persuasive communicator

If you are not all of those, then you better include a partner in your plans and hire a very capable management team. Don’t quit your day job yet!

And before you leap into the unknowns of entrepreneurship, you need to go through another checklist, starting with your Basic Defensive Interval. (Meaning: How long can you last without income?)

The Before you Launch Checklist

These are what you require before making the Go-No Go decision:

• Skills, knowledge, experience, and contacts relevant to your business plan.

• Expectations and preferences for the entrepreneurial lifestyle – work routine and environment, prestige and compensation, work/life balance.

• Personal strengths that will help, not hurt, the business.

• A healthy foundation – family, physical and financial. Solid not shaky.

• Strategic resources in place – partners, suppliers, facilities, key customers and employees.

• Financing for start-up – accept your Basic Defensive Interval and the first few months of negative cash flow.

  
  

If you can’t put a checkmark with confidence beside every item, then you better try harder – recognize the deficiencies and fill in the gaps. Maybe you require more time to develop your skills and get more relevant experience or to beef up your foundation and strategic resources before launching.

Be better. Do Better. Be an Enlightened Entrepreneur.

Your Uncle Ralph,

Del Chatterson