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Are you ready to start your own business?  A lot of people feel they are, but they haven't considered what running their own business will really entail.  They are interested in setting their own work hours, not having a boss and having unlimited income potential.  These items are the rose-colored glasses of owning your own business.

I'm going to share with you the five reality check questions I ask my fledgling entrepreneur clients.

Moolah 
The first question is about money.  Yes, it is kind of true that you need to have money to make money, but you don't need millions.  Do you have six months or more of living expenses in a liquid account?  Or do you not need your wages to contribute to the household income? 

If you answered, "Yes", congratulations.  If you answered no, how long would it take for you to accumulate that reserve?

One thing to consider is your current lifestyle.  Are there expenses you could eliminate or scale back on which would allow you to save additional money, plus, if you've eliminated the expense, it means you'll need less to live on in the future.

Tick Tock
The second question is about time.  Do you have a minimum of 30 uninterrupted hours per week to devote to your business?  By uninterrupted, I mean time that you aren't watching a child, doing laundry, running errands or telecommuting to a job.

A lot of people quickly answer yes to this question without really thinking about it, so I recommend that you take a calendar and map out an average week.  Be sure to put in everyday things you might take for granted, such as picking up the kids from school, doing household chores and exercising. 

These items take up physical space instead of mental space because they're repetitious and so they give you the perception that you have more time than you actually do.  Now, how many hours of uninterrupted time do you have?

When does that time fall?  If it's between 9 pm and 1 am, you could start an Internet business, but if you're offering a service to people or companies, they will want to do business during standard business hours.

If you find that you have less than 30 hours per week, it might not be the right time for you to start a business.  A new venture takes a lot of upfront time and energy and it will take longer to build a solid client base if you don't have the time to devote to it.
 
On the flipside of that, if you're transitioning out of a full time job or know that you will soon have more than 30 hours, set yourself up for success by expecting your business to get started and grow at much slower than the average pace.

La La Land
The third question often surprises people.  Does your personal life run relatively smoothly?  You are the center of your business.  If you are also the center of emotional mayhem in your personal life, it's going to show in your ability to start and run your business.  If you're in the middle of a nasty divorce, adopting your first child, moving to another country or have some other intensely emotional taxing event happening in your life, adding the stress of starting a new business could send you straight to the funny farm, and if not there, to business failure.