Even if you love the job you currently have, the idea of starting your own business and being able to work on your own schedule is something that may be appealing to you as it is to many people who do it on a daily basis, so if you’re currently looking into this idea, but have no clue where you would even start with it, then what we’re going to share with you in this post will hopefully help you with some of the steps needed in order to make it happen.
Have an idea:
Every business starts with an idea, and the great thing about this is it doesn’t even need to be an over the top fancy idea, it can just be something quite simple and that no one has really considered trying before or they’ve tried it in a way that you can see didn’t work.
So, although you may even have lots of ideas and aren’t sure which one you should go with, the truth is, there’s no right or wrong, but the main things you should be looking for are: what’s going to work (as in, make you money), what has long term potential, and is something that you’ll actually enjoy doing, because when you get to the stage of just doing something for the sake of making money, then it really doesn’t mean any more than it would if you were just working for another company doing the same job that you don’t like for years.
Once you’ve found something from your list of ideas that meets all three of these criteria, then it’s time to move on to the next steps and look at how you’re going to bring all of this together.
Test the market:
A crucial mistake that so many business owners make, and could actually be listed as one of the reasons that so many start ups fail within their first 5 years is that they simply take their idea and just put it out there without actually ever asking the question “do people want this?”
You have to remember that just because you think something is a wonderful idea, doesn’t mean that other people are going to agree with you, and one thing that all major brands do when launching a new product or business is that they make sure it’s something people really want before they go ahead and spend money, time and energy on launching it.
So, how do you find out if people want something? Well, there are different ways you can go about it, and also some of it depends on if you already have some kind of an audience online or not. You could even look into getting hold of some kind of user research guide to help you through the process of figuring out what kinds of questions to ask when wanting to know if people actually want something or not.
You can use social media as one way of finding out; groups especially are great sources of information because people are constantly asking questions that contain information about their needs and wants right now, so you could either ask them outright or just compile a list of questions you see about this all of the time.
You could use surveys, and you could even run a beta test of a product or service to see if that’s what people will actually pay for.
Determine your business model:
If you’ve been able to determine that people are willing to buy what you’re going to be offering, then it’s now time to decide on the kind of business model you’re going to have, and again this is something that really isn’t about finding the right or wrong way because a business model is simply the way in which you deliver your product or service to the end user and many companies who offer pretty much the same thing have very different business models.
For example, you could be a coach who works with people on marketing for their business, but instead of working with them in a more traditional one-to-one setting, you decided that you only want to offer things like group programs or courses.
Or you could decide that you want to offer a combination of the two; there’s really no perfect business model that you have to abide by, but there’s just the model that works best for you.
Look at your offers:
The way that you’re going to make money in your business is by having offers that people can buy from you. Now, this doesn’t mean you have to have hundreds of offers, you can have as many or as few as you like, but they simply have to be ones that have been tested and that you know people will actually want to buy from you.
Again, assuming you’re a coach, maybe you can have a 6-month group program and then maybe a lower cost membership program. Or maybe you have a 1:1 program and a group program as well as a membership offer.
Set your pricing:
Setting pricing is often a struggle for business owners, but it really doesn’t need to be, so if you’re finding it difficult to determine what to charge for your products and services, then you simply need to sit down and determine things like how much you need to earn in a year or month to make sure your basic expenses and bills are taken care of, and then add extra on for things like taxes and insurance, as well as be able to live the kind of lifestyle you want and have cash left over. You should also be looking at having money left each month to invest back into your business.
Make a plan:
Now that you have all of this in place, it’s time to make a plan for your next steps and how you’re going to build this business, and although this can seem overwhelming, it really doesn’t need to be complicated. It’s simply about taking the time to get clear on how you want your business to look and how you want to market it.
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- Just starting out? CLICK HERE
- Been working in your business for two years or more? CLICK HERE
We’re here to help you to take action just like we’ve helped thousands of other entrepreneurs, business owers and creative professionals all around the globe.
Now is the time to let your passion SHINE.
Now is the time to Make Tomorrow Today!
To your success,
Vinh Van Lam & Stuart Horrex
