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:

📖  The ultimate sales and marketing manual is here! Get a copy

📆  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:

  1. 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. 
  2. 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. 
  3. 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

No alt text provided for this image

Great stuff from around the web

Similar Posts