How do you start your first business?
I've taken classes and read plenty of books and articles about what it takes to actually start a company, and I'm positive that I'm capable of executing everything I've learned about.
Why, then, do I still feel like there's a huge gap between my knowledge and my readiness to actually start something? If you started your own business, how did you close this gap?
Personal experiences are very welcome.
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Oct 7, 2013
Hi Ryan,
Start your own startup from the geecko. You already started your business! When you have read entrepreneurship. You have change your mindset Use it! Use Udemy, Coursera, Degreed, Mentormob (my playlists) and youtubes.
Starting researching about Entrepreneurship
Michael Gerber
Eric Reis
Start using the cloud tools
Lean Canvas
Business Canvas
Start looking everything with eye what is their impossible and business models.
Zuora nine steps for business model
Board Of innovation
Get cashflow as soon as possible.
Study RichDad
RealEstate, Stocks, Small Business and working.
You have time for 30 projects in 6 months. Use your time smart. Research all the impossible companies! Put it on Evernote. Find business partners, leverage and learn from them.
I am building a platform to help you out with this problem. And i love your way of solution, without mindset, infomation and knownlegde you will be making so much mistakes and reinventing the light daily. Don't! If you want email me, i will send you the evernote lists. saidismeenk@gmail.com
Aug 30, 2013
Short answer: grit and moxie, Ryan!
My first Q to you, and one I don't think has been addressed so far, is: do you want to start a business in a field you already know, or something brand new and thus outside your realm of experience? The latter, while certainly actionable, will probably require more support and resources while you get up to speed on both the nature of the business itself as well as being an entrepreneur.
When I decided to launch my marketing communications venture, I had already been doing this type of work in increasingly responsible corporate positions for close to a decade, so I felt I knew the nuts and bolts of the field. I kept my regular job while I prepared to go solo, and kept my plans under wraps. Folders began mushrooming on my dining room table. I chose a business name, secured a dba/business license, got stationary and business cards printed. I created an office in a corner of my living room (all of this in a one-bedroom city apartment!) with file drawers, computer, printer, fax (this was in prehistoric times :-)
In the midst of it all, I landed my first account, which was a plane ride away, so I was virtual before virtual was "normal".
Was I scared? Sort of. I transmuted fear to excitement (they're the identical energy in the body). I knew I would make it; I had an inner knowing that this was the ripe moment for me. I also had money in the bank (always a good idea when you start a business). The first few weeks were quite a challenge ~ at one point my first and only account, a startup itself, looked like it had lost its funding, and I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach. But that situation resolved, I soon landed other accounts, and the business took off.
When I started my coaching practice years later, I felt a similar uncertainty at the outset. I remember coaching my first few clients with all my texts open on the table in front of me, since clients couldn't see me over the phone, lol! I soon grew confident enough in my knowledge base and in myself to trust that what I needed to know would be there for me in the moment ~ and it was.
You will learn an amazing amount every day once you begin, Ryan. I congratulate you on your soon-to-be-thriving new venture! Feel free to connect directly for more feedback/support.
Blessings,
Amara
Aug 30, 2013
Here's my take Ryan: You feel like there's a gap because you can't reconcile the unknown with the known. You know you don't know everything and you rationally accept that you can't know everything. Still, if you're going to start a business it's likely fuelled by a passion, and the fear of some unknown torpedo waiting to sink something close to your heart is causing you to stutter.
I think some of the posts here imply but aren't saying it directly: accept failure before you start. Accept it not as inevitable, but as likely. Your job as a new entrepreneur is not to be successful - you just can't control all the variable to ensure that (market trends, economic backlashes, introductions and handshakes, etc.).
Rather, your job is to go peddle-to-the-metal all out. Give it everything you have and accept that everything you have may not be enough. That's okay. If you really are an entrepreneur you'll give it a go a few times (regardless of how successful you are - just look at Elon Musk).
So - your readiness isn't so much about knowledge, it's about committing to the reality of "doing". It's all on you - and that can be a scary thing. There's no one else to blame, no one else to bail you out (as one person pointed out, no amount of seed money will make a bad business model profitable).
And this is a strategy I always recommend: if you want to start a business [on your own/with a team] then start it [alone/with your team]. You need to find the "you" in your business before you're ready for a consultant or advisor to come with help. When you're in the thick of it, and you can start to identify the threats by name and/or sight, and you have a sense of what help you exactly need, that's when you're ready to reach out for help.
Aug 30, 2013
Gah. I hate it, but you're very correct - your insight is really valuable to me. I'm definitely learning from responses like this, and I didn't think I would. Thank you!
Sep 4, 2013
Happy to help. It's what I try to make a living doing, but it's also why I joined this community!
Aug 30, 2013
I just went for it after leaving my public service 9-5 job and here I am, not looking back - it's now or never "... an opportunist that sees the gap, fills it, and does it with class and creativity."
GO FOR IT!
Aug 29, 2013
Go to www.legalzoom.com to make the process a little easier. Other than that, everyone else pretty much hit the nail on the head. Formal education will give you a textbook foundation, however, the best knowledge will come from self-education and personal experience.
Aug 29, 2013
Suggestion: Try to find another small business that's presently in or close to the category or market you're thinking of entering -- and get a job with them, doing anything, or even volunteer part time if you have to. The idea is to learn the business and the market from the inside, in real life -- on someone else's nickel! Analyze carefully what works and what doesn't for them. Learn from their mistakes and successes, and all the while be thinking how you could do it better, smarter. You can also get invaluable insider information on business operations, suppliers, and everything else that you'll need to know. In 6-12 months you'll have learned ten times more than all the books have taught you to date.
Perhaps the most important thing you'll learn is, you're probably smarter and harder working and more innovative than your employer -- so you CAN do this thing! Then dive in and don't look back!
Then when you're ready for some strong marketing for your new venture, come see me! :-)
Al Shultz
http://www.alshultz.com/
Aug 29, 2013
You start with research, the more the better, about your target market and your competition. How big is your market, how different is your product from what is currently available and how much capital do you have to commit to the product? In essence you need to walk through all of the steps of creating a business plan. I've started up two companies and that is what I recommend for budding entrepreneurs.
Aug 29, 2013
Ryan,
I assume you're in the US. That's where I am, anyway. There IS a huge gap between what you may have learned in class and what it's actually like. The good news is that this can be said for pretty much everyone.
The short answer to your question is that you have to "fake it until you make it."
I have a Bachelor's degree in business, but I use my technical skills a lot more than what I learned in business school. That is not to say that it's not handy to have a solid grounding in business concepts.
My story: I had a lot of technical acumen from my nine years in the Navy - I was a technician and an instructor. After finishing my degree, I got out of the service and went to work in the corporate training sector, selling Interactive Videodisc training programs. It was at that job that I learned how to write a solid proposal, manage a project, and otherwise conduct business, but I was doing it for someone else.
I became a freelance writer and training developer and did pretty well with that, but a couple of friends (who were also freelancers) and I decided to incorporate. It was really a lot more about staying employed in a shaky economy than anything. We wanted to be sure that we were able to manage our own destinies. We kept our day-jobs, but started to look for work under our own banner, and ultimately, we quit our jobs, made the company our sole source of income, and became employers. Believe me, it felt like play-acting for at least a year, but over time, the organization legitimized, we started making a lot more money, and had a blast. We also took on a lot more headaches (sidebar - choose your partners carefully, there is a 50-50 shot that you will find reasons to part company. For me and one of my former partners, it meant the end of a friendship).
Over time, I bought out all of my partners, ran the company by myself with some key employees, and then merged with a consulting firm. Now, I have partners again, but I can't really remember what it's like to work for someone else. There's great freedom in that, but I always answer my phone - even on vacation, and generally, I'm on call anytime, anywhere for emergencies that pop up. They do pop up.
So, target what you want to do, and if you have to, make small steps toward it, but MAKE STEPS. Figure out the rest as you go along - you'll be fine if you have a good accountant, and sometimes, a good lawyer.
If you need more help, you might try SCORE for a mentor, and look at your local economic development entities who are all pretty much oriented to fostering start-ups. I see you're on LinkedIn from your picture. Connect with me, and ask me any follow on questions you might have.
I believe it was Charles Schwab who said "Nothing is impossible for which you have infinite enthusiasm."
Best of luck. Starting a business is an exciting thing, and if it catches on, its very fulfilling.
Dale Canning
President
Raland Technologies LLC
Aug 29, 2013
Hey Dale,
I will connect with you - thanks very much for sharing your experience. Your response (a personal account of what actually happened between wanting to and actually starting your business) is exactly what I was hoping to get out of this question! I appreciate it.
-Ryan
Aug 29, 2013
Hello Ryan
I have successfully started several businesses. Now I am serving as a mentor at SCORE. The Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) is a nationwide volunteer organization sponsored by the Small Business Administration (SBA) that helps entrepreneurs start their own business. In 2012, we help start over 32,000 new businesses. For you to get started, please go to the score.org website to download a free 32-page workbook that takes you through the process step-by-step: http://www.score.org/resources/how-really-start-your-own-business The score web site will provide you with the contact information for your local SCORE office to call for questions or to schedule a one-on-one mentoring session free of charge. What have you got to lose? Give it a try.
Aug 29, 2013
Ryan, the conventional wisdom is that most business fail due to insufficient capital, but the root cause of the failure is an ineffective business model. There are many well capitalized companies that fail every year because perfecting a business model is a costly process of trial and error - one that a lot of companies will not survive. With adequate capital, good planning, a lot of hard work and a little luck it can be done, but for a first business I recommend buying a proven business model from someone else i.e., a Biz op, distributorship or a franchise. This will teach you how to run a business, develop the skills you need and give you much better odds of survival. Then you can take what you have built and parlay that up to the next level. Most business owners are working their way up the food chain, so your first business doesn't have to be your last - it is just your proving ground so to speak. You can check out my website for more on this if you like (www.dearbornwest.com) Hope this helps, Dan
Thanks, Amara, for sharing your experience!
To answer your question: sort of. I have strong interests in many industries worthy of building a business on, and I think part of my problem is that I feel torn about which one(s) to pursue, which splits my confidence in starting any of them. This is something I'm working on, because it's ultimately not helpful or productive to me at this point. Regardless, I'm inspired by everyone's shared feeling of uncertainty and subsequent success.
I'll send over a LinkedIn connection - please feel free to follow up if you have any other insight! I really appreciate it.