5 Steps To Consider Before You Start Your Own Business

Tue Feb 9, 2010, 4:34 am | Leave Comment

It’s hard to start a new business of your own in this lousy economy. But there are folks who still do it and do it successfully. If you have lost your job and cannot get into the work force right away, or probably you have a job and want to start your own business, there are certain things you must consider before you embark on this journey.

Starting a company is challenging. But the huge mortality rate of business start-up is linked to a lack of clarity, planning, and preparation. In launching a business, planning and preparation are extremely important. They separate potential success from potential failure.

1. Focus

   Your focus must be on a product or service that your potential customers have the need for. Don’t focus on something that you want.

2. Market

   Do research and some more to find out how big the market is for your service or product.

3. Customers

   Don’t neglect to talk to your potential customers or users. Find out what they want in your service or product.

4. Expert Advice

   Don’t be too secretive about your idea of service or product. Don’t be shy to get expert advice of how to go about marketing it.

5. Validate

   Test out and validate any of your key assumptions in the market.

Starting a new business is always a risk, but make it a calculated risk. That’s what entrepreneurship is all about. The cost of failure for a startup business can be high. You will invest both time and money into your business and, if your business fails, you will have wasted all of it.

Most entrepreneurs are so excited about their business idea that they skip the above 5 essentials and are devastated when their business fails, both in terms of money and time.

In a Nutshell
Granted some folks are lucky, anything they touch turns into gold. But for the overwhelming majority, marketing research is required of you before you start a business. The more you do the research, the better. Once you know the market and the folks you want to target, you might want to think twice to take the first step or perhaps just stop.

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