"I have a great business idea." This is the phrase that my wife hears about once per month. I can't tell if she wants to roll her eyes at me or not. I've told her this plenty of times without anything ever actually happening. Sometimes I feel like a failur because I've never actually completed one of these projects. I even question whether or not to tell her because of this lack of past results. However, she is always supportive and gives me some great feedback. I'm not sure if this is actual interested or just an easy way to please me. It's usually not hard to please most males anyway.
But all this has changed now. I've started my first business with a friend of mine. Photo booth rental for weddings. It has been progressing much slower than I anticipated, and I even feel guilty about not getting it jump started faster. But it is progressing slowly at the very least. What was important is not so much the success of this first business, but hte fact tha tI've finally went through with an idea.
Now I'm working on brilliant idea number 569 and determined to start and continue this business with even more determination than my first start up. What has changed since idea 565? What was stopping me from completing my goal of starting a business? (Notice how I didn't even require that the business needs to be successful, and it still took me this long)
Everyone that I've talked to would love to own his or her own business. So, what is stopping you! What was stopping me?! The problem was that I'm too smart for my own good. I knew too much about what it takes to start and run a business. I was getting paralysis from all this gosh darn analysis.
I would look around and see all these people that I considered not the sharpest knives in the drawer starting and running businesses. Because I went to school for entrepreneurship and help run someone else's business as my 9 to 5 (more like 7 to 5 in my case), I knew every aspect of running a brick and mortar business. There is a lot involved with running a business between all the requirements for the state and federal government, accounting, marketing, human resources, management, and on and on. Are you an expert in all these areas? If not, how are you going to compensate for your lack of knowledge. I was using my knowledge of how complicated it can be to start and run a business as an excuse not to start. There are a bunch of idiots out there willing to start a business out of ignorance. Those same idiots are learning as they go and making a living for themselves. Now this just pisses me off. What am I not more successful than an idiot? Or should I say why am I not willing to take that jump than an idiot is willing to take? That makes me an idiot.
Another problem is this stupid business plan everyone is telling me to write. That is what I learned in my entrepreneur classes in college, so it must be the right thing to do. Hogwash! The business plan is full of assumptions that won't happen. It's a great excuse for not actually doing antying to start the business. (But look Mom, my business plan is 76 pages long. Aren't you proud of me?) In my own case, I love coming up with new ideas and get bored with an idea by the time I get the plan done. Once that happens, the business plan sits on a shelf for the rest of eternity. I'm not saying that you do not think ahead and plan for your business. There has to be a balancing act of actually getting something done to start the business and planning for the business.
The idea is that you can take a few key steps to test the feasibility of your business. If you start seeing some sales from these steps then you can adjust, do more planning, and learn as you go. Why waste months of writing a business plan if you can realize in two weeks of whether or not your product will sell. Then you can spend time on the business plan.
Here are the steps:
1. Find the niche market
2 Determin the product for that market
3 Find vendors and get pricing
4 Set up a website to take orders
5 Drive traffic to your website
6 Determine if it was successful
Notice that there are no steps for creating bogus sales forecasts, personal financial statements, organization and management, executive summary, and other reports that don't matter at this point. Nothing matters unless people buy what you are selling.
If you are using a business plan to receive financing from a bank, you will need a complete business plan. However, it doesn't take a business plan to test the idea. By the way, testing up front will give you a better chance at financing anyway. "Hi Mr. Banker, I've already sold this product to 100 customers. I need more cash to expand."
In conclusion, stop getting bogged down with details and just go out and test the idea. The time for doing this is NOW! Now stop reading and get something done in the next half hour that brings your business closer to a reality instead of just the next great idea you bring up to your wife.
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