Entrepreneurship requires dozens of small steps. At every stage, there are many decisions that need to be made, often leading to a sense of anxiety or paralysis.
Nevertheless, thousands of people throughout the country—and millions more throughout the world—make it work. It’s not always the smartest or most naturally talented people who rise to the top. It’s the hard-working, decisive leaders who commit through grit, momentum, and maybe a halfway decent idea.
Business success is very possible, but to achieve it, you need to follow through. In this article, we take a look at how to build a business from the ground up using decision-making processes that actually work.
Beginnings
Begin with a clear idea and an understanding of how to make it happen. This is actually the step where most aspiring entrepreneurs drop off.
Maybe they have a project they’re passionate about—a bookstore, a café with a cause, a friendly bar where everyone knows your name.
But as they begin to see just how expensive it is to bring their idea into existence, they lose their nerve. It’s very reasonable, and also a good thing to know before you get too far into the weeds.
In order for anything else to happen, you first need to have a very clear idea of what your business is and how it would make money.
Some people call this a business plan, an admittedly abstract concept for those who have not gotten a degree in business.
You don’t necessarily need to work off a formal template, but you should be able to clearly state what your product or service is, how much revenue it can hypothetically produce, and what it will cost you to produce said good or service. You can figure all of this out through market research.
You should also have a good idea of branding, competitors, financing options, and so on. You can find good business plan templates online, download one, and begin doing extensive, regionally focused research on businesses that are similar to yours. You don’t need everything to be perfect.
This isn’t a college thesis. You just want a very reasonable idea of your business’s potential and risk.
Do note, however, that this document will be important if you require funding from a lender or an investor. In that case, you should formalize the document more to satisfy all of their questions and communicate that your business idea is credit-worthy.
Develop a Well-Defined List of Goals
Okay, let’s say you’ve proven your concept with research. You’ve decided whether or not you need to apply for a loan and so on.
There are still loads of small steps that you need to take, any one of which can feel paralyzing to someone who’s never done it before. For example:
- Organize as an LLC- It’s easy to skip this step because it comes with a filing fee of $150 or more in most counties. But it’s actually an important piece of armor that shields your personal assets from your business’s liability. If you do not organize as an LLC and someone sues your business, they can literally take your home. On the other hand, if you are organized as an LLC, only the business assets are impacted by a liability issue.
- Set up a business bank account- This is a little more complicated than setting up a personal account. It’s worth the investment of time because it makes expenses easier to track, and it’s also essentially mandatory for compliance with LLC regulations. In other words, if you organize as an LLC but don’t separate your personal and business finances, the liability protection that your business is supposed to provide might be nullified.
- Get insurance- You understand why you need insurance, right?
- Design a website- No matter what your business is, you need an online presence. Fortunately, web design is easier than ever, especially at the entry level. Most builders like Wix, WordPress, and Shopify have ready-made templates that you can set up in a matter of minutes.
What do all of these steps have in common? They sound a lot more difficult than they actually are. You could probably knock out this entire checklist in a total of five hours. You just need to set aside the time to do it.
Make weekly to-do lists for your business and cross items off one by one. Many people think that success in entrepreneurship involves working your face off.
It is one route to go, but if you’re already working another job or you have family responsibilities, it’s probably not something you can do. You can take small, continuous steps every day that will accumulate into something big eventually.
Do You Need a Business Degree to Become an Entrepreneur?
Obviously, one of the most attractive things about entrepreneurship is that all you need is an idea and enough courage to follow through with it. That’s kind of the romantic appeal that leads people to business ownership in the first place.
That said, there is merit to considering a business education for several reasons. The first thing is that it will give you a comprehensive understanding of what your LLC will require of you and how to make it successful.
It also provides you with a bankable set of skills you can use to find employment in the future should the need arise. There are a few undesirable components that also bear consideration. For example:
- It postpones idea execution by a factor of four years. Yes, you’ll learn lots about business in that time, but you could also spend those 48 months learning through action, and by the end of that time frame, you’ll most likely have a business that’s producing revenue, possibly supporting your lifestyle.
- It costs a lot of money. As a business owner, you need to think very hard about the efficiency of your loans. Is getting a degree the best way you could spend $60,000? The answer could be yes, but it’s also possibly true that the money would be better put toward marketing, product development, etc.
There are lots of business owners who have relevant degrees, and there are plenty more who don’t. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. You just need to find the option that works the best for you.
Conclusion
There’s an old saying, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is today. Businesses are very similar. It takes a while for them to mature. The exact amount of time is going to vary pretty wildly based on the industry, but at a minimum, you’re looking at one to three years of limited profitability and growing pains.
It’s very hard to stare that timeline in the face on the front end, but the fastest way out is through. Be decisive, take action, follow through on the steps that it takes to get your business going. If you make regular to-do lists and complete the steps every single week, your business will grow, change, and improve. It takes time, it takes money, it will involve stress, but you will get there eventually.
Successful business owners are not the smartest people in the room, at least not all the time.
Often they’re just people who weathered the storm and eventually got out the other end with a profitable business that provides them with personal freedom, financial comfort, and genuine enjoyment from their work. It’s the American dream, right?
You can have that, but you need to start today. Develop your idea, figure out what it takes to make it happen, and start doing it.
