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What is running a business like?

I am asking this because I intend to major in business and hopefully own one one day. #business-management

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Bart’s Answer

Hi Drew. To run a business you need to understand who your customer is and why your business and its service/products are of better value than your competitors. Understanding your customer is super important. What are their buying habits, needs/wants, what are they willing to spend and how many of those types of customers reside in the area where your business is at? This will help you get a basic understanding of your opportunity and forecast accordingly. Then you need to understand your competitors who provide like services/products and their pricing as well as share of the market. This again will help you dial in your opportunity but also help you to understand where you can price like services or products. Customer needs and wants are always changing so your competitors value props are always evolvong to align. This means you need to have a consistent view of your customor base, prospects and competitors value props.

Along with these items you need to understand the overhead costs of the business. Real Estate, marketing, construction, employee, insurance, product, utilities and other costs you will incur. Creating a balance sheet of your forecasted operating costs then bumping it against your forecasted sales earned will provide some quick insight into the viability of the business. Then updating this as you continue with the business will all you to drive profitability and address margins so you can compete.

I would recommend researching like businesses that are already up and running today. Learn about each employees responsibilities and what their value is to the customer. Then use that info as a foundation for the businesses you plan to run or construct.
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Hector’s Answer

You need a money reserve to survive 2-3 years, as usually new businesses got little or no profit during that time depending on the economy, just losses. Make sure you assign yourself a salary and stick to it, Have a very good control of the finances, keep an eye on inventory, when to reorder, and also employees' salaried and items like insurance, etc.
Be very careful with your utilities, how much do they cost, and be very detail oriented in all the expenses of the business. That is th ebest way to determine if you get any profit
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Marie-France’s Answer

I used to manage a Nine West shoe store for 8 years. It was pretty much owning my own business since I was in charge of all aspects of the business. In addition to this life experience, I obtained my MBA about 4 years ago. I learnt that owning your own business is not easy BUT if that is what you want to do, it can be enjoyable and positve challenge. I would definitely recommend pursuing an MBA. The MBA will open doors for you.

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