I know nothing is ever a sure thing. I keep coming up with ideas and then finding reasons not to start. Whether it is timing, oversaturated market, money, etc. I can never land on an idea and go with it.
I guess I am just wondering what is on your checklist for when it is right to pull the trigger and go for it when it comes to a business?
My constant suggestion is this will always happen as long as you stay fixated on supply. Study demand. Experiment. Test.
If you put up a landing page with the idea with a Buy Now button, then 32,584 people click, any true entrepreneur will start. What’s more, code monkeys and launch monkeys will fight each other for one share of equity to join up.
However, nobody does that. They are so terrified of customers and the market the default is always Build It And They Will Come. They’ll fool themselves about having a business when they don’t, sure. They will throw their voice to have it appear to come from a customer, certainly.
The whole point of all the bullshit here was a different way from the past. Used to be your checklist was something like “Ready, Aim, Fire.” Then came the genius of “Ready, Fire, Aim” or Lean Startup.
Idiots thought to do better, so their checklist is a lot like, “Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire …click, click, click.” That’s a fail.
My philosophy is skillsets before business ideas. What good is an idea if you can’t execute it? I heard in a podcast or something, Mark Cuban said a year in door to door sales is the equivalent to 4 year degree in communications. I’ve made six figures since 21 doing sales, met multiple mentors, and am currently bootstrapping my second startup from sales commissions. Sales and effective communication has taken me a long way. My first real start up made a lot of profit, but I got out of the industry due to a misunderstanding of the reality of it. I learned lots about marketing, interpersonal relationships in business, networking, organic marking, positioning, and influence. Every step of the journey will require you to learn to skills, and you will fail a lot. Failure is just steps towards success, so don’t worry too much about your first idea. Just get to executing and building your fundamental skillsets, these will go with you in any context moving forward.
It’s more important THAT you decide, than WHAT you decide.
Do what you can today. Keep a positive attitude through any failures and focus on enjoying the journey. You only need to be right once.
Something that is going to make you happy or a lot of money. Don’t buy or start a job.
I’m big on just doing something and being around the right people. I started as a freelance project manager in marketing. Worked in a co-working space around a Tech Community. Now building a startup community business. I still run projects, as the core service grows, that keeps cashflow in the business but eventually we will flip. I notice that a lot of the successful software companies I work with employ a similar model. At heart, they are building products, but their teams still offer contract dev work to keep cashflow while they build. This also has the added benefit of meaning they can bootstrap rather than raise to fund growth.
One that I enjoy doing and that will make me enough money.