Hey everyone,

Currently, I’m 23, in full cycle enterprise tech sales, enjoying the job and also stashing away some capital for my eventual jump into entrepreneurship. I enjoy the sales gig, but my goal is to work for myself. The concept of facing challenges head-on, having the freedom to call the shots, and steering my destiny is what I really want to achieve, and I’m willing to slug through the downsides.

I’ve got some knowledge and skills in tech, AI, sales, fitness, and MMA among other things. However, I’m kind of at a crossroads. There’s a buffet of business ideas out there, but zeroing in on that one venture that resonates with me is proving to be a task I’m probably making more complicated than needed.

So I’m reaching out to the community here:

  1. Any recommendations on books, courses, or other resources that could help cultivate my entrepreneurial mindset and knowledge as I keep saving up?
  2. What’s a solid amount of savings to aim for before launching into the entrepreneurial waters? I understand it varies, but a ballpark figure would be helpful.
  3. And here’s the biggie - how did you guys nail down what business venture was the right fit for you? Any tips or exercises to help sift through the noise and find that golden idea?

I’m all ears and super appreciative of any insights you guys have to share. Thanks a ton in advance!

Cheers

  • marcelDanz@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago
    1. I can warmly recommend Essentialism by Craig McKeown and 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss for reading material. I’m a strong believer in autodidactic learning, but you can also try to find someone in your network who already did what you want to do and ask them if they can coach you.
    2. On the savings part. Take your monthly total expenses, plus a small sum that your business will cost each month to run, and multiply it by the months that you think you need to build something that generates enough revenue to sustain your expenses. So if you need 1500 EUR / month, and 200 EUR for running your business (software, domain, website, etc.), I want to need this buffer for 6 months. Then I need to save 10,200 EUR.
    3. I personally, align my business vision with my personal vision. So I first know what life I want to live and then I figure out what would support this lifestyle. If you do it the other way around, you will end up building a business that dictates your life but doesn’t give you the freedom that you want. When it comes to the specific niche to go into. Search for a problem that you have, that you’re passionate about. Figure out if others have this problem too. Then build an MVP solution for it and release it to see if it works. Fail faster. The faster you fail the faster you can retry and find something that works. You can also try out the ikigai method to find a niche that fits your specific skills and passions.

    As it happens I just started my own course on making your dream life come true as a business leader (sorry for the shameless self-plug). :D

    That being said, you can learn anything and everything on your own. As I said above I’m a strong believer in autodidactic learning. Courses can be a fast lane and an investment in yourself though.

  • OsumXy@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    As an entrepreneur myself working in ecommerce for 4 years, I advice you to read a lot. During your free time, before you go to bed, every opportunity you see, read. It helped me a lot as a young entrepreneur, though I still believe that experience is the best teacher. I found an article and I highly recommend to give it a read. It’s very helpful. https://www.cuppa.so/post/turning-your-big-idea-into-a-reality

  • Whole-Spiritual@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I was in b2b tech sales for a while then later left to buy as business and after that started others.

    IMO:

    1/ I would spend more time talking to people. Have calls, meetings, ask people their pain points. Network a bit but have something you’re bringing of interest to get this legwork going. People will say read 0-1, which I have, meh. I think it was more realizing you can actually do it. That’s the life hack.

    2/ How much to save to do it? Too hard to say, depends. I out $700K into one thing that was a zero. Then I also stated something that cash flowed immediately and required no cash bc it collected all the $ first before paying out cost of sales. The business model itself created float… $0 and it is worth more than anything I’ve created.

    3/ One way is knowing what is not good for you. For me, I am not strong in B2C, but I’ve consistently done really well either revenue-oriented or where “sales is key” B2B businesses. For me I thrive most when I like it and I’m good at it, duh, but when you’re in it it’s easy to not take that view.

    Never a good time to start, now is almost always the best time, second to yesterday.