Money, money, money

A great many people start their own businesses. Many of those individuals are clients of Sareen and Associates, so there is no one that’s a bigger booster and cheerleader for entrepreneurs than our firm.Still, only about 6% of the U.S. population is self-employed. Contrast this with recent survey results by TNS Customer Research that show that a whopping 51% of the adult population of the United States stated that they rather be self-employed. And 44% state that they think it’s possible to go into business for themselves within the next five years.

So, what happens between the 6% actualization and the 51% “wishing and hoping” to work for themselves? That is a huge chasm. The difference between 6% and the 44% who think they can do something in the next 60 months is also massive – what happens that so many people actively consider starting their own business, and then abandon the idea?

Well, people fear going bankrupt, or, having wild swings in income and not being able to meet their obligations. We hear it all the time from our clients.

Which is a bit of a paradox, because it’s very rare you ever hear a small business owner say they started their own company so they could make a lot of money and get rich. The reasons are always that they either want to be their own boss, or, they want to do something for a living that they love to do, or, a combination of both those reasons. Now, some people do end up rich because they work for themselves, but most do not. Most successful small business owners make a solid living and their payoff is being their own boss or doing what they like as a job. But, they’re not wealthy people.

We understand that you don’t want to go bankrupt. Who does? And we understand you have obligations to meet. When we have potential clients come to us and say, “I want to start a business, and here is my business plan”, we are brutally honest with those entrepreneurs and tell them that everything will cost twice as much as they think to get started and take 50% longer to build, and sales may not be as high as even the worst-case projections. We don’t want anyone to be shocked by how hard it is in the beginning. But we’re proud to say that we’ve helped many, many small businesses get started over the years, and once started, we’ve then helped them manage their accounting, their marketing, etc. so that they’ve been able to expand on the foothold they achieved in the market.

We love entrepreneurs. But we make sure to help them drive down the odds of going bankrupt before they even get started. It’s much easier to get started right than to have to fix mistakes later.

We want to help you achieve your dream of being your own boss. And we’re happy to be your guardian angel in business, your resource to bounce things off of, your financial watchdog, and more, so that you don’t have nightmares about going broke.