Starting out in a
new business is kind of like opening a jar of pickles. The first pickle is hard to get, but the rest
come easy.
This comparison
might make you hungry – not so much for pickles as for your first
customer/client/patient (depending on what you decide to call them). However, always remember to call them
something flattering, and never what
you might be thinking about them at the time!
You’ve heard the
saying, “The customer is always right!”
Never has that been truer than today, when the proliferation of
businesses doing exactly what you do, and the wonder of the Internet, combine
to make competition in today’s marketplace fiercer, tougher, dirtier and more
frustrating than ever before. Ten years ago we never even heard of Search Engine Optimization. Today, everybody and his brother-in-law is
providing something called “SEO” that is guaranteed to be better than anybody else’s.
Kind of reminds me
of the dawn of the automotive age, when there were well over a hundred makes of
cars out there, all promising you the “best ride” of your life. Where are they now? I guess the ride wasn’t all that smooth.
So, starting a
business takes a few things:
1. MONEY: It almost always takes some degree of
capital which may be sitting in your piggy bank, languishing in your savings
account (right!), loafing in rich Uncle Roger’s little pocket purse, or waiting
for you at a Governmental or Private Business Capital Fund. Without #2 below, you will have a hard time
getting money from just about anyone, except, perhaps, your mom, who loves you
and thinks you’re perfect anyhow and can do NO wrong!
2. BUSINESS PLAN:
If you were leaving on an auto trip from London, England to Paris,
France, you’d probably do much better with a road map. The same principle applies to starting a
business. If you haven’t figured out how
to get from where you are today to where you want to be in 1, 5, 10 or 20
years, you are headed toward a dead end!
And, do you rally thing investors – besides Mom – would really take you
seriously without some idea of where their money is going? Don’t be in a hurry to ask for financing
unless you have a clear and definitive road map for your business!
3. USP – This is not the United States Post
Office. It means a “Unique Selling
Proposition”. It may be that you’ve
invented a new and improved way to skin a cat (not that I recommend that line
of thought), a better delivery time method, a totally new concept that no one
has ever thought of before (a good bet!), a great service that is unduplicated
elsewhere, or any other aspect of your business that makes YOUR company unique
and of interest to both investors and future customers/clients/patients –
whatever!
4. PATIENCE:
One of the most important, yet underrated aspects of your whole venture
is not only having the patience to both develop the product/service/concept
until it operates flawlessly, but to pre-test it in Beta version in order to
get out any remaining bugs, quirks or shortfalls. One way to do this is to pay a group of
people to attend a Focus Group, professionally run by marketing experts,
wherein you can find out just what people are REALLY thinking about your
brainchild. You sit behind a one-way
mirror, so they don’t even know who you are or that someone is watching and
listening. With no holds barred, you may
discover some things you weren’t even aware of, and save yourself time, money
and aggravation before a local, nationwide
or worldwide release.
5. There are a few other items you may want to
consider: Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Liability Insurance, Marketing,
Press Releases directed at your key audience, location(s), rent, shipping,
employees needed, and other concerns that will come up sooner or later.
This is just a
superficial look at starting a business.
There are professionals out there in Law, Accounting, Insurance,
Marketing, Manufacturing, Logistics, Material Handling, and more, all depending
on the nature of your product and/or service.
Take advantage of any free advice they may offer, and pay for what they
don’t give away free.
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