Would be entrepreneurs often fret over, “is this the right time to start my business?” Maybe the real question gets ignore in the process. In this Tough Things First podcast, Ray Zinn explains the bigger question you must ask yourself and why “when” is hardly what matters most.
Rob Artigo: Would-be entrepreneurs can often find themselves stuck before they even get started. They might say to themselves, “Hey, it’s just not the right time to start my business.” And Ray, we always seem to be in a state of flux, and lately we’ve been mentioning a lot of politics because we had a presidential election, we had a change of presidents. So looking at this, we’ve always been in this state of flux economically, politically as well as in other areas. So how do entrepreneurs know when the right time to start a business is?
Ray Zinn: Your first question is, is that, “Am I the right person to start the business?” And so again, you don’t want to go into a business if you don’t have the financial wherewithal or the experience or even the passion. And so defining when the right time is, is looking at yourself. “Am I the right person to do this particular undertaking?” And I think that’s the key, and that’s a lot of soul-searching, talking to your friends, your significant other, whoever, your family, just say, “Am I the right person to do this?”
Now remember this though, when you are communicating with others about, “Am I the right person or is this the right time?” They’re looking for a negative. In other words, they’re most likely going to give you negative feedback because that’s what they think you want. You’re looking for pros, and they’re going to give you the cons. You just have to realize that just because they’re throwing all the negative at you, it doesn’t mean this is not the right time. It’s more of, “Who am I? Am I the right person?” As opposed to, “Is this the right time?”
Rob Artigo: I think it’s worth mentioning that you wrote a book called The Essential Leader, which is ten skills, attributes, and fundamentals that make up the essential leader and soul-searching self-assessment like that is a key part of becoming the essential leader. It’s like you have to be honest. You do want to take the negative with the positive, and you have to decide, be able to discern, “Hey, if you’re going to be the leader, you’re going to have to make some decisions like that. What stuff is okay, I understand that, but I’m still going to do it. Okay, I understand that. Maybe I’m not going to do it exactly the way that I had originally planned.” But you’ve got to be willing to pivot a little bit when you get that feedback. Right?
Ray Zinn: Well, it’s that self-assessment thing. Rob, I know that the subject you’re wanting to talk about today, is this the right time? And I’m saying it’s more important to say, “Am I the right individual? Do I have the right skills? Do I have the right attributes?” The right time is not as important as am I the right person.
So in this podcast, what we want the listener to really understand and do that self-assessment is, “Am I the right person? Do I have what it takes to do it?” And that’s to have an honest assessment that right from your gut, and then you can talk to your family, your friends, your associates, and you can ask them if you’re the right, is this the right timing? If you are the right person to take on this particular opportunity? And then that to me is the key that we want the listener to take away from this podcast is the self-assessment about, “Am I the right person?”
Rob Artigo: I remember you telling me a story once, and we talked about it on the podcast, I believe. Somebody that you had met who had opened McDonald’s franchises. Part of this was in his, he had business acumen, he was a smart guy but didn’t know anything about running McDonald’s. It turned out his wife did because she worked her whole career there. And then he took the time to say, “All right, what are my weaknesses?” Again, like I said, you’d mentioned this guy, he’s being a talented business guy, and he did this. He looked at what his weaknesses might be in that area, and he went through all the schooling before he got involved with it. I mean, I guess they have a McDonald’s franchise college or something that you go through to get training, but that’s the kind of thing you’re talking about there is doing the hard work because you could get ready to start a business, do the self-evaluation you were just talking about, and realize that you don’t have the tools. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get the tools. It just means that you have to do the work first.
Ray Zinn: Exactly. Another interesting point is I have a friend who’s a pediatric dentist and then another one is an adult dentist, and one, more of a general practice as you would. A pediatric dentist requires a different skill set than a regular dentist even though they both go to dental school and both learn the techniques and aspects of doing dental work, but your patient is different. In other words, if you’re doing children versus the adults, that requires a different skill set even though you’re basically still doing dental work as you would. So again, you have to really look at who’s the recipient? Who’s my patient? Who’s my audience? Who’s my customer? And that defines what extra level of knowledge you have to have to perform your particular occupation.
Rob Artigo: Yeah, I think it’s worth reiterating that we started out talking about is this the right time to start a business or how do you know when it’s the right time to start a business? The answer is that the right time to start a business is when you are ready to do it because are you the right person? If not, maybe you can become the right person for it, and that’s how, but it’s a non-starter if you’re not the right person to start the business.
Ray Zinn: Exactly, and that’s the key is defining who you are and what are your skills, what is your interest? And obviously if you don’t like working with children, don’t become a pediatric dentist, and if you don’t like working with adults, don’t become an adult dentist as you would, or whether you’re a barber or if you’re selling toys or something, you got to be more of a kid person than an adult. So again, look at, “Am I the right person? Do I have the right mentality? Do I have the right skill set to address the market that I want to penetrate?”
Rob Artigo: Great, Ray. As always, you can reach out to Ray Zinn with your questions at toughthingsfirst.com. Continue your education in the conversation with all of the podcasts, blogs, and links to information about Ray’s books, Tough Things First, and the Zen of Zinn Series 1, 2, and 3, and also now on sale, The Essential Leader: Ten Skills, Attributes, and Fundamentals that Make Up the Essential Leader.
