Be an entrepreneur

STEP 1: How good is your idea? Just because you really like Jäger bombs and hate having a boss doesn’t mean you should open a bar. Elizabeth Ingrassia, director of the Entrepreneurship Center at the Fordham Institute for Family & Private Enterprise, says to first determine if you’re cut out for the new venture. “Are you able to work well in situations of uncertainty and little structure?” she asks. Then Ingrassia suggests utilizing her ABC system, “(A) Is there an abundant need? (B) Is it a better mousetrap—is it better than the competitors’ product? (C) Is it competitively positioned in the market?” Kris Reed, director of the Initiative for Competitive Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation (BEDC), encourages new entrepreneurs “to do some basic Internet research about their market.” In other words, waste your current employer’s time by messing around on Google. Try entering your business type and location with search terms like market research, trends, demand, sales growth and risks.

STEP 2: Write a business plan. Besides forcing you to really think your concept through, putting it on paper will help you identify potential obstacles and find ways to overcome them. “A business plan explains your product and shows how you are going to grow the business,” says Reed. “It’s the blueprint, and it’s your proof to an investor or lender.” Ira Davidson, director of the Pace University Small Business Development Center, says that your business model “should be written as a narrative, almost like a short story. If your plan isn’t going to be read, it isn’t going to get funded.” So make it interesting. Go to the website of Score (scorenyc.org), a nonprofit “dedicated to educating entrepreneurs,” for specific advice.

STEP 3: Find a backer. Since funding options depend heavily on personal situations, credit worthiness, experience levels and the business type, your best bet is to contact a small-business counselor (like those at Score or Pace) and let them point you in the right direction. In addition, U.S. Small Business Administration regional administrator Michael Pappas suggests researching financing and applying for an SBA-guaranteed loan (sba.gov). Pappas also encourages shopping around to compare interest rates and loan programs.

STEP 4: Get feedback. After you’ve written your plan, take it to an adviser for critical review. The Pace Small Business Development Center is funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration, and offers free reviews and counseling (212-618-6655, manhattan.nyssbdc.org). “We add value by massaging the plan,” says Davidson, “and we also know what banks will give it a reasonable chance.” According to Reed, “Profitability depends on how expensive your product is, how willing people are to pay for it and how labor-intensive it is to produce. If you can only do three a month, you’re never going to get rich on that.”

STEP 5: Make some moolah. “Maybe your vision is great, but the bank will want to know about the dollars and cents,” says Deb Weiner, entrepreneur and co-owner of the LES bakery Sugar Sweet Sunshine. “We turned a profit right away by keeping our overhead very low—for the first year and a half it was just me and [co-owner] Peg. Since we had a bank loan, we weren’t under the gun; as long as we were making payments, we were okay.” Obviously every venture is different, but Ingrassia says it all comes down to “developing your idea, validating it with the key constituents—customers, suppliers, buyers, distributors, investors—and then pursuing it with a passion.”

—Jaime Jordan

Employment in numbers

23,900 new jobs
The total number of employment opportunities in NYC has risen 0.6 percent over the past year. So where are all those new gigs? We break it down by industry on the pages ahead.