How to Quit Your Job to Start a Business

Five Things To Know This Week:

1) Is it Time to Rebrand Your Small Business?
2) How to Quit Your Job to Start a Business
3) Are You Happy?
4) Fighting Inflation
5) Resource of the Week:

Dear Fellow Business Owners,

We are officially five months into 2022. It’s been a bumpy ride so far, but we will prevail.

Don’t try to navigate the future alone. Talk to other business owners, to advisors, and your customers. They will see and hear things from different areas of your business and can help you figure out the best path going forward.

In this week’s newsletter, we talk about inflation, rebranding your business, helping Veteran business owners, and navigating every segment of supply chains. More importantly, we discuss being happy. The key to success in life is learning to enjoy the ride.

Happy Tuesday! I hope you have a great day today.

Brian

Is it Time to Rebrand Your Small Business?

Your brand may have been the perfect representation of your business—once. But does it still reflect your business today? As businesses grow, says Andrea Mocherman writing in PR Daily, “it’s common for them to outgrow their branding. To stay relevant, businesses should consider periodically refreshing their brands to reset their corporate identity and brand promise in a way that reflects the company’s evolution and vision for the future.”

Mocherman, who recently rebranded her company, shares the five lessons she learned that could help you avoid common rebrand pitfalls.

Read more about how to rebrand your small business.

How to Quit Your Job to Start a Business

If you’re not yet a business owner but want to be, you may be wondering what the smartest way to start a business is—especially if you’re currently working. Should you just quit your job and join the millions of Americans currently starting new companies, or do you need to develop a plan first?

While the specifics are different for everyone, this article offers a good overview of what you need to think about before you quit your job and shares “13 untold tips” to help you launch a successful startup.

Read more about the best way to quit your job to launch a startup.

Are You Happy?

Remember the kid’s song that goes, “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands?” When I was a kid (one of 7 children in my family) there was a lot of hand-clapping going on.

Happiness is the key to so much in life. In this TEDx talk, psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, the director of a 75-year-old study on adult development, shares three vital life lessons culled from the research and adds his own insights on building a fulfilling long life.

Learn more (you can listen to the TEDx talk or read the transcript) about how to be happy.

Fighting Inflation

Nearly 63% of small business owners say higher expenses and other inflationary pressures have resulted in declining sales and lower profits in the past six months, in SCORE’s spring Megaphone of Main Street report.

In addition, they’re experiencing:

• Higher costs: their vendors and suppliers are charging them 65.7% more than they did six months ago
• And more than half (53.5%) are paying more for their utilities and gas

Those aren’t their only challenges:

• 33% have increased their own compensation due to higher personal expenses
• 22.7% say current employees want salary hikes
• 23.4% say customers are demanding lower prices
• 35.9% are struggling with cash flow issues

But small business owners are fighting back. Betsy Dougert, SCORE’s Vice President of External Relations, says many small businesses “have taken active measures to combat the difficulties they’re experiencing …, such as seeking more profitable clients, adjusting their product mix, or improving technology, but most are raising prices.”

They’ve also taken other measures, including targeting more profitable clients and customers and changing their product mix.

Learn more about what business owners think in the spring Megaphone of Main Street.

Small Business Resource: Helping our Veterans – OVBD

The Office of Veterans Business Development’s (OVBD) mission is to maximize the availability, applicability, and usability of small business programs for Veterans, Service-Disabled Veterans, Reserve Component Members, and their dependents or survivors. OVBD is the SBA’s liaison with the veterans’ business community; provides policy analysis and reporting; and is as an Ombudsman for veteran entrepreneurs. OVBD has programs and services to assist aspiring and existing veteran entrepreneurs such as training, counseling and mentorship, and oversight of Federal procurement programs for Veteran-Owned and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses.

For more information on resources available to Veteran small business owners, click here.