Many of us have been there, your walking through the mall or laying in bed at night when BANG an idea hits you for a new business. You spend the next day or night thinking on the idea and how you can make millions from it. The problem is that many of us fail to take action on our business idea either through fear, self-doubt or a lack of knowledge, if you have had one of those light-bulb moments then read on as we talk about how to develop your idea and get your business up and running.
Research the Market
Before you start any area of your business is vital that you have a firm understanding of the market that you are about to enter into. You need to understand your competition, who else is doing what you want to do? You must understand your customer, what time of people should you be targeting? And you need to know who else in the market is doing what you plan to do, how they do it and how you can make your business better than theirs. 90% of start-up business fail in the first 6-12 months and this is largely through a lack of market understanding, research everything that you possibly can.
Make Friends and Ask Questions
The online world gives you plenty of opportunities to read advice and success stories from other businesses, many websites are dedicated to this end and you can learn a great deal from them. Don’t be afraid to email people regardless of how high up in an industry that they are, in fact we would encourage it. Email them all fro advice you will be stunned with who wants to help you out, whether it’s Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or the owner of successful website, take all the advice you can and maintain contacts for the future.
Take the Risk
One of the biggest reason for failing to develop an idea is fear, fear of failure, fear of debt or sometimes fear of handling success. The business world is a cutthroat industry and you are going to need some thick skin, from the beginning. If you need to take out a business loan to get things started, then make sure that once you’ve done the math and deemed it necessary, take the plunge and make it work, don’t be scared about future debt. If you’re scared about paying for production resources or staff take the same approach, if they are necessary, then they are necessary. Risks are a natural part of new business and it’s time start taking them, don’t be reckless however and make sure that the risks you take are calculated.
Be Creative
Unless you have a unique idea that the World hasn’t thought of yet, then it is more than likely that there are other businesses out there just like yours. Competition is good, it forces you to think differently in order to take customers from you competitor. If you are entering into a highly competitive industry then you simply have to think outside of the box. What will be important for you in the early stages is to get your name out there. You want be able to afford a PR company in the beginning but in this world of social media there is no reason you can’t drum up your own PR online. Remember to be creative and make sure people know your name, even before they know your business.