When you are looking at starting a business, you need to know what you want out of it. This may seem like an obvious question, but it really is a little different for everyone. I had always thought that the only reason a person would open a business was to make money. The first time I realized that this was not the case was in my early twenties when my mom was reflecting on her first business.

Her first business was a preschool center. My mom had been a special ed teacher and had a masters degree in special education. When I was around 5 and my little sisters were 1 and 3 she decided to leave her teaching job and open a preschool. I had never really understood why until one day she explained that at the time the preschool allowed her to spend time with us while growing up and save money on daycare costs. She said even though the preschool was successful and she eventually opened an additional center that there was not a lot of money to made in the preschools. It was purely a means to an end. She was able to continue her career, while spending time with her family. Eventually she turned the centers over to a non-profit and continued on to get her Doctorate and become a national consultant in the education field.

So understand why you are starting your new business. It may very well be to make a lot of money, but look at the other reasons when assessing your success down the road. Are you able to spend more time with your family, are you able to do something you love, are you able to have the schedule you want, are you able to help others? Once you know what you are basing your success on it will be easier to evaluate how your business is doing down the road.