Where Do I Begin?

(We borrowed this and made slight modifications, with permission, from a commercial website. It seemed to exactly suit the mission of the OSA.)

This is probably our most asked question, and not to be "smart" about it, let me quote Charles Dodgeson from his very popular book, Alice in Wonderland:

"Begin at the beginning... then go on till you come to the end then stop."

There's more truth than magic in that simple statement. The king (in Alice in Wonderland) knew a great deal about the nature of things when he said those words to the white rabbit. The simple truth is you must always start at the beginning. Not surprisingly, the hard part is knowing where the beginning actually is. In fact, before you begin any journey, whether in the real or virtual worlds, you must know where your starting point is or, more precisely, where you are now.

Think about it. If you drove into a new town and wanted to go to the library you could stop at a pay phone and look up the address in the phone book. But that wouldn't really help you very much if you didn't know the streets in the town. So, you could call the library and ask someone to tell you how to get there. The first thing they are likely to ask you is, "Where are you now?"

When dealing with your business the same holds true. You need to know where you are now before anyone can suggest the right path to follow to get to where you want to be. That's not silly words. That's the truth!

So, before we (or anyone, really) can answer the question "Where do I begin?" they must understand where you are now. In order for you to tell us that simple fact you must understand it yourself. You might not believe this but most people we talk to have little idea where they really are in their business right now. They may think they do. And they may think they know where they want to go. Usually, though, they need a little help with both of those things.

This is why it is a good idea to talk to someone who really can help you.