Launch! Twelve Tips for Starting Your Own Business Now

Posted by Matt on October 29, 2008 under Advice, Featured Articles |

The entrepreneur is born with a unique drive and ambition. Starting something and carrying it through to completion becomes a lifelong passion for those born with this entrepreneurial spirit. To do anything but start a business will lead to frustration, and starting a business from scratch and seeing it through to success will fuel our passion.

As a kid, I always knew I wanted to start and run my own business. This intense desire for the entrepreneurial challenge may have been provided by a series of early experiences. At age 9, I took a paper route and was thrilled the first time I purchased something with my own hard-earned money. When it was time for our scout troop’s popcorn drive, I was tenacious about out-performing my friends in popcorn sales. I also watched my father’s career end early and in personal tragedy as a result of a careless and unrepentant Fortune 500 company to which he had devoted his life. In any case, I knew that SOMEDAY I would start a business and chart my own path.

The problem for me was that SOMEDAY simply did not come. While in college, it seemed like I was the target of every get-rich-quick scheme. Thankfully, I never took the bait. In my twenties, I spent lots of time researching what seemed like several perfectly viable ideas, but I kept waiting for one of those “home run” ideas where talk turns to action. So I kept working at a job that I didn’t particularly enjoy but I knew that SOMEDAY things would be different.

What I realize now is that there are not that many “home run” business ideas. Most companies that are wildly successful today (Google, Microsoft, Wal-Mart) started very small and grew over time with many years of hard work. The founders of these companies took an idea and invested their lives to realize the often distant target of success.

I’ve learned some secrets along the way to successful entrepreneurship, and it would be unfair of me not to share them with the world.

1. Find a skill or talent you already possess.

2. Form an idea from your talent that you’ll love to pursue.

3. Cultivate your passion – good ideas don’t change the world without passion.

4. Ask yourself, “If I were independently wealthy and didn’t have to do anything, how would I spend my day?” Develop your business concept around the answer and you’ll be that much more committed to it.

5. Do your research and gather facts. Educate yourself as fully as possible.

6. Form friendships and find mentors that will help support the successful execution of your idea.

7. Realize that not every good idea is a winning idea.

8. Also realize that perfect opportunities do not exist.

9. Calculate the risks involved, but don’t be crippled by fear.

10. Find something that you can start part-time, while you keep your bill-paying job and when the part-time income exceeds the full-time, make the switch to your new entrepreneurial career.

11. LAUNCH! Start this process today.

12. Give back. Share your experiences and invest in others.

You can’t complete what you won’t begin. Take the leap with courage and pursue your passion, and start today!

photo credit: Erik Charlton