How To Start A Business
Step 1: Determine If You Have A Profitable Business Idea
A business idea isn't a good idea, unless it's a profitable business idea.
The only way your business idea will be profitable is if it solves a problem that enough people care about enough to pay you for your solution.
If you create a $10 solution to a problem that is so minor that people would rate it as a $1 problem, you're not going to make any sales, so you do not have a profitable business idea.
If you create a $10 solution to a $100 problem, you have a profitable business idea that you can build a successful business with.
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Pain Points and Ambitions
What pain does your idea eliminate?
Or what ambition does it help someone achieve?
Those are two simple questions to start with when it comes to evaluating your business idea.
A really simple and effective tool for determining whether or not you have a profitable business idea is called the Business Model Canvas.
Running your idea through the Business Model Canvas is a great place to start.
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Step 2: Assemble The Business Resources You'll Need
"But what if I don't have any money?"
You're not going to build a business for $0.
That's a truth that you will do well to embrace from the outset.
Too many people have a misguided notion that they're going to somehow build a business that allows them to live the life of their dreams and they're not going to pay for any software or equipment or services from professionals in the process of building that business.
Good luck with that.
For those who understand that to generate a return, you have to first make an investment, the videos below will show you where to invest to get the maximum return and give yourself the greatest opportunity to succeed.
There's a lot of information in the two videos above. A lot of books and a lot of action items.
You don't need more information. You need to take action with the information you already have.
Go through those videos again and create a set of action items for yourself.
Start With This ONE Thing
I'll make it easy for you. Start with reading The ONE Thing. After you've read that book, you'll know what to do next.
Until you read that book, looking for "more information" is a waste of time and energy because you haven't done anything with the information you've already been given.
It may not seem like that book is going to help you get where you want to go, so you decide you're not going to bother reading it.
The thing is you don't know what you don't know. And when it comes to running a business, there's so much you don't know until you've been doing it for years.
That's why it's important to seek advice from experienced business owners and it's even more important that you actually follow it.
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I'm recommending that you make your first action to read The ONE Thing as soon as possible and your second action to review the two videos above again after you've read the book and then you'll know what your step three should be.
The easiest way to get where you're trying to go is to get directions from someone who's farther down the road than you are because they can tell you what turns to take and what wrong turns to avoid.
You just have to decide if you're going to take the advice...or do things the hard and expensive way.
