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Every aspiring business founder I know has a dream, but unfortunately many never get beyond that stage, despite their passion. They don’t realize that they are seeking to join and compete for attention with an elite group of over five million peers in the U.S. alone this year. The market is now clearly global, and getting more complex, so I always recommend practicing self-discipline.
By self-discipline, I simply mean committing to a few simple steps to do the homework required to validate your idea as a solution addressing a real need in the marketplace, and following through with the right action steps to succeed despite customer confusion and world-wide competitors. Only then can you enjoy the satisfaction, legacy, and impact you already envision in your dream:
1. Network to find friends to support and share your dream. To keep you inspired and attract peers that can mentor you, you need to join relevant industry groups or community activities that may appreciate and share your dream. Every university and local government has access to resources you may need, including investors and vendors.
2. Set specific goals for your dream business. Perhaps your real passion is helping the disadvantaged or establishing a legacy for your family. You need specifics in order to set financial targets, milestones, and measure progress. Recognizing these will also force you to evaluate the potential of your objectives, in light of current market conditions.
3. Sketch out a timetable with specific milestones. Starting a business is a complex task, requiring interactions with many people, which can be very discouraging unless you have a way to see progress and measure results. For major milestones, it helps to break them into smaller increments, so you can show interim results at least every month.
4. Put your objectives in a simple business plan. Things that are not written down can drift or be delayed indefinitely by outside factors or your own whims. I have also found that writing even a short plan forces me to think more concretely about the real requirements of starting and running a business, and strengthens my commitment to it.
5. Build a summary of the skills and assets you need. Perhaps you are an inventor, but need business skills or a business partner to make your dream invention into a business. This takes time and needs to be factored into your plan. Also you may need to acquire assets, build a prototype, or get an investor before you can proceed to full rollout.
6. Prioritize and factor your needs by time and effort. Some things, like taking a business course, can happen in parallel with other tasks. Others, like building a detailed business plan, need to happen before you can even approach an investor. In fact, your business plan must be a working document that embodies all these elements and status.
7. Commit yourself to daily progress on your plan. Get started immediately, and don’t allow procrastination to creep in. Be prepared for some setbacks but celebrate every small element of progress along the way. It helps to reserve a specific time every day, such as early morning or late evening, for assessing progress and planning the next step.
8. Get feedback from test clients and pivot as required. Whether your dream solution is a service or product, you need to test it on selected real customers before officially launching your business. Otherwise, you can wind up with disgruntled customers, or worse, no customers at all. Make required changes and retest until satisfied with results.
Even after all these steps, be aware that the average failure rate based on history in the first few years is as high as fifty percent, so one of the key components of all efforts is a mindset of never giving up, and learning from initial setbacks, rather than abandoning the dream.
Despite the challenges and discipline required, studies from many sources show that new business founders on average are healthier and happier than most professional business employees. Why not start now, and have some fun along the way to your dream?