You Must Understand These Five Things Before You Start A Business

Becoming self-sufficient, earning a living on your own terms, working when and where you want by making money doing something you’re good at is no doubt alluring.

After all, isn’t that “the dream?”

For those of us fortunate enough to live in societies that reward entrepreneurship, breaking the mold and carving your own path is not only celebrated and encouraged, but also well within reach.

But before you venture out into the frontier on your own, you must take the time to plan, and plan accordingly, if you want to ensure yourself the greatest chance of success.

There are some common pitfalls first-time business owners fall into.

You won’t hear about these, because the media tends to focus less on the business failures (unless they are EPIC LEVEL, i.e. Theranos, WeWork, etc.) and more on the business success stories. But having done this a few times myself, I’m hopeful that my hard-learned lessons can help you skip ahead a couple of steps in the process.

I started my first business at the age of 35, after years of making other people a lot of money (and taking a small bit for myself.) While my…