Power User Spotlight: Starting a Business Takes Hard Work and Dedication

Joseph Lizio is

the CEO of www.businessmoneytoday.com, based in Texas. He regularly blogs and writes

articles related to financing small businesses. Prior to starting his own

business, he worked at the Concho Valley Center

for Entrepreneurial Development, Wells Fargo,

and Intel. He holds a MBA in Finance from the University of Oregon.

While managing his

online business full time, Mr. Lizio (also known as phanio) has

been an active member of Business.gov's community since its launch, sharing

business finance information. He currently has the greatest number of replies

and one of the highest kudos counts of all members.

We recently asked Mr. Lizio

to share some more about his experiences as a small business owner.

How did you start your small business?

What was the deciding factor that made you ready to take the leap?

When I worked as an executive director of a business incubator

in Texas, I

realized that one of the greatest challenges that business owners face was

raising capital for their company. Many business owners believe that the bank

is their only source of funding, while in reality there are so many other

financial options.

After I retired, I had some time in my hands, so I combined my

hobby - learning about websites, HTML, PHP, etc. - with my passion for finance.

Now, I run an online business that focuses on educating small business owners

about their financing options. It has been online for 2 years and is doing

great.

What is the biggest challenge you faced in your experience as a small

business owner? How did you meet that

challenge? What were some of the lessons you've learned that you can share with

other business owners?

The biggest challenge I faced was involving myself in every

aspect of my small business. Since I had no experience with websites before, I

had to learn everything from the ground up and teach myself all the languages

needed to build a website. While I have a degree in finance, a lot of what I

know dealt with corporations so I had to learn more about small businesses.

I would say that dedication and hard work are essential to

starting and running a small business. It is also through dedication and hard

work that I was able to meet this challenge.

What are the biggest benefits of being a small business owner? What's the biggest thing you would miss if

you ended up working for someone else?

The biggest benefit is the freedom to decide the vision of my

small business. I am the person that

makes sure that it is my vision that

will be realized. If I wanted to make a change to my business, I can do it when

I want to and the way I want to.

On the other hand, I would need to go up the command chain of

the company to make a small change. There is so much less bureaucracy if you

are a small business owner.

Why did you choose to start an online business?

An online business is like any other business in many respects.

You have to define a need in a particular market, market your product and

service, and sell it. However, the big difference lies in the way you go about

marketing your product. If you own a retail store, you would probably put an ad

in your local paper to advertise your product. If you run an online business,

you would advertise through back links and SEO.

If you were to give a person who wants to start a business one piece of

advice, what would it be?

Starting and running a business takes hard work and dedication.

You cannot expect to have a successful business if you are not willing to put

the time and effort into it. Christmas is coming up and everyone has plans to

take a vacation. I will be here working on and running my small business.

You have been very active on Business.gov, answering questions and

providing suggestions. What keeps you coming back?

I have a desire to help and educate small business owners about

finance options and Business.gov is a great platform to do so. Members ask

great questions and I enjoy answering them. My favorites are questions that

delve in depth about the specifics of loans and finance.

Quick

Facts

Username: phanio

Date registered: 3/18/09

Total messages posted: 324

Total kudos received: 238

As of January

15, 2010

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