Issue #51 Everything you need to know to start a business
Last time I talked about our collective education gap: most of us never learned how to start a business.
This leads to some questions… Well, what is a business anyway?
It is one of those deep questions that feels a bit like what is the meaning of life.
Except that there is an answer.
First, some updates:
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📆 Are you creating busyness or business? Read more.
🎚 How levels of market awareness relate to niche marketing. Read more.
What a business is not.
A business is not “work.” It is not “effort.” It should not be you running around like crazy trying to do everything from sales to invoicing.
That is self-employment. And it is miserable.
I once worked with a consultant who was constantly stuck in the self-employment trap. He had been doing it for years and worked 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. He took his laptop to his daughter’s swim meet. A vacation was a weekend of not working.
He wasn’t running a business. He was working.
Everything you need to start a business is in the definition.
People start businesses to solve problems for other people. The business is a repeatable set of actions that solve the problem.
So, what is a business? Easy:
- A defined customer. This is the person for whom you solve a problem. I know we keep harping on about this. We will continue to harp on about this. It is that important. Define your customer.
- A defined solution. A job requires work. A business requires a defined solution, either physical or a service-based product, that delivers predictable results that solve a specific problem. I know it is a mouthful, but this is essential.
- A process that delivers repeatable results. Because you do it over and over again. The same thing every day, every week until you decide to do something different. A profitable business requires monotony, and you must master the monotony to run a profitable business.
Don’t believe me? Think of some of the biggest companies around:
- Coca-Cola grew its business on, well, Coca-Cola.
- Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard built their business around an audio oscillator.
- Tesla started by building a roadster.
- Wozniak and Jobs built the Apple Computer.
- Microsoft only had an operating system.
- Facebook was an obnoxious hot or not website built in a dorm room.
And on and on and on. Most of the other companies in the world stay small because they don’t focus.
So ask yourself this: do you want to run a business or work an independent job, if you do want to run a business, do you know your customer, solution, and process?
Trying to figure out your customer, solution, and process?
Well, how about joining a team of business owners dedicated to helping each other figure it all out? Start here.
Check out our Irresistible Sales and Marketing Masterclass
Great stuff from around the web
- 🪟 Want to relive the glory days? Check out this “Windows 98” simulator… complete with minesweeper. Unmistakable confirmation that some people have too much time on their hands.
- 🍟 Did you know that McDonald’s has an ice cream problem? Now there is also a huge kerfuffle over the app a couple of MSP owners created to fix the problem, and Jack in the Box is trying to cash in.
- 🧐 The latest in the Blockbuster saga: Free Blockbuster… Take a movie, leave a movie, coming to a street corner near you.
