So many entrepreneurs are stuck before they begin. They don’t know where to start, they don’t know what to do. They know what a growing and successful business looks like because they see them everywhere, but what about one in its infancy? They’re not short of motivation; they simply don’t know how to apply it.
Your 4 first moves when starting a business
I asked entrepreneurs to tell me what they would do first, if they were starting from scratch. Their responses fell into four categories: decide on your business idea, get ultra familiar with their target audience, set up for success and then enlist the help of a mentor. Here are the details.
Decide on your business idea
First thing’s first, know what your business will be. Without a defined business idea it’s easy to be in a continual journey of research. Daniel Priestley, founder of Dent Global, knows exactly what he’d do. “I’d get a four person team together for a brainstorming session. We would come up with 5-10 ideas and create landing pages for each. We would then test the popularity of each idea with real customers and schedule a launch event for the winner.” A solid team, a tested idea and a deadline for starting: simple. Kriss Britton of Kaybe Mega Marketing also focused on the launch, which he said should happen, “as quickly as possible.” He added, “Too much time is lost on development of ideas or perfecting everything. Start quickly, fail fast. Learn, move forward and iterate. Make a rough draft move.”
Validation and product market fit are the first pieces in the puzzle, and there are multiple ways of finding them. Keir Spoon is a coach starting from scratch who shared what he’s doing right now. “I’m talking to as many business owners as I can. Testing my message and offer with a live webinar. Writing my learnings into blogs on Medium.” Seeking validation of a service with actual customers and documenting the journey alongside is a solid move in those early days.
When the practical steps of your idea start to make sense, don’t forget about passion and purpose, say these entrepreneurs. “Make sure you have a true passion for the idea,” said Bharati Manchanda of Embellish Truth, “it will keep you going through the ups and downs.” Business mentor Emma Hine wants you to, “know your purpose, including why you are starting the business and what you want your life to look like. Then build a strategy that has that right at the core.” Taking it one step further, financial planning coach Adrian Kidd said, “do something that will improve the world or other people’s lives in some way.” He believes this makes “everything else fall into place” and means you show up more authentically.
Graphic designer Ollie Booth would ask himself a simple question, “do I love it enough to spend weekends and evenings working on it for the next two years?” He believes keeping revenue up during that period is the hardest part.
Do your customer research
Without any customers you don’t have a business, so it makes sense that step number two focuses on them. Forget the product and “focus on the market,” said Loud Llama PR founder Paris Collingbourne. “You can come up with the most revolutionary idea in the world, but you won’t get anywhere if there isn’t a market for it.”
Ed tech entrepreneur Matt Jones starts with a chat. “I would find and talk to some potential customers, to validate the need.” He would ascertain if he “could fix a pain point for them” and go from there. The Biz Coach UK founder Rohit Nanda would work out what makes his business different and then, “focus on how it addresses the hot buttons of my prospective clients.” He said that everyone has a “problem that they have that they don’t want” and that your solution could be one they aren’t aware they need. “With that, craft your messaging,” he added.
While it might be tempting to win clients however possible at this early stage, publicist entrepreneur Crystal Richard wants you to, “vet new clients and be more selective.” Especially when starting a service business, rushing to sign clients, “can lead to working with anyone to fill your pipeline, including clients that are not a good fit.”
Author of The Design Sheppard Stacey Steppard thinks step two should be your very first move. “Start building a community around your new business idea before it even exists.” She advised that you, “get your brand messaging sorted and share it with your community on social media and through email and content marketing.” She believes that the secret to getting people engaged in you and your new business is to, “share the journey from day one.”
Your 4 first moves when starting a business
Set up for success
So what is next? Set up for success. Once your idea is finalised, proven, and in-demand, set your foundations in place and your ducks in a row to turn it into reality. Welcome to the execution phase, where your role is to build traction and get the momentum going.
Blogger Tom Bourlet would, “build a solid business plan, with a gap analysis, competitor analysis, financial information and budgets.” He would include a “marketing strategy, content plan and recruitment strategy” and believes that, “the biggest mistake is failing to prepare.”
Business owner Viva Andrada O’Flynn is all about the SWOT analysis during the set up of her business, with an internal and external approach. “I’d take stock of my experiences, what I like to do and who I am as a person. I’d explore what’s going on with the market, location and world.” She’d turn this into her unique selling point, to figure out “what I could do better than the people in the field and what I could do to add value to prospective customers.”
Entrepreneur and author Lucy Werner said you should, “check the intellectual property of your brand name and buy a domain name. Build the brand and take your audience on the journey.” Marketing and PR consultant Sam Martin adds to, “secure your social media handles and make sure they are all uniform.” From experience, he knows this can sting brands too late when they, “are surprised to discover the name they think is theirs is already gone.”
Immortal Monkey founder Estelle Keeber would keep it simpler, honing in on maximising social media and having a solid plan for that. “It’s a great first move and your biggest free marketing resource,” she said.
While some advice so far has been to set up cheap and fail fast, PR freelancer Kelly Chin says don’t scrimp on your site. She would, “spend money working with a reputable developer to create a functioning, fabulous website instead of doing it on the cheap and having to spend more in the long run to fix it,” which she said can also, “delay the launch date.” Kelly The Poet would also invest, but “in social media marketing courses to learn how to share my story from day one.”
Find a mentor
You have your idea, you know your customer and you know what to do to sign them up. There’s one more crucial step that current entrepreneurs recommend to aspiring ones. “Surround yourself with the right people,” said founder of Count On Us Recruitment Fiona O’Neill. “Join business groups, ask them questions, learn from them. Learn from their mistakes and their achievements.” Hardly anyone made huge waves without fellow sailors and O’Neill agrees. “Starting a business requires a certain mindset. Being around others with that same mindset is key.”
Activist and business owner Tony Robinson OBE would take a more shotgun approach. “Ask an existing business owner, who really understands how to sell to your prospective customers, how you can go about test trading at minimal cost.” Learn and mimic someone with existing success in your field.
Digital media entrepreneur Euan Cameron says to find several of these people, by “assembling a board of experienced advisors.” He believes “the board is essential in the early days for keeping you accountable, focused and on the right track. It also opens up doors that are often closed to startups with no track record.”
Also keeping you on the hook might be a business coach. After twelve years in business including multiple companies, entrepreneur Sian Lenegan would get hers secured. “My first move would be to put in place the accountability,” she said.
Starting can be the hardest part, but once you find momentum your business starts to grow. Setting the wheels in motion, sharpening the knife before cutting, preparing to pounce; all are essential for the success you seek. Come up with your amazing idea, plan your first actions, get well and truly inside the heads of your customers and learn from others slightly ahead on the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship.
