Fill a Gap
Successful businesses don’t reach multi-million dollar sales and revenues each year because they bring something completely new and unprecedented. Successful entrepreneurs, like Hamptons millionaire Michael Loeb, are able to thrive in their respective industries because they provide a service or product that competitors cannot fulfill or fulfill in an unsatisfactory manner. Finding a gap, however, is becoming increasingly difficult, with hundreds of thousands of businesses being launched per year. The competition is fierce and distinguishing yourself from competitors is almost impossible.
Seek Validation
Ask yourself if the business idea you have is worth something to other people. The first people you can approach for feedback is, of course, your family, friends, children, and coworkers. Your circle of people tends to be more comfortable with dishing out brutally honest feedback if that is what’s merited about your business proposal. If it is received positively, then carry on with developing an MVP. If not, jot down why your family, children, and friends didn’t like it. They may raise concerns that you failed to identify.
Develop an MVP
A minimum viable product is often used in the tech scene, but it can easily refer to any product stripped down to its bare essentials. An MVP is your core product without the frills. For instance, your business idea may be an investment firm and startup incubator much like what successful entrepreneur, Michael Loeb, built. An MVP of that particular business idea could be your asset allocation plan, growth rate per fixed timeline, and data to back up the proposed approach. An MVP is great for shipping your business to market as fast as possible.
Apply For Funding
Whether it’s through traditional bank loans or early-stage seed funding rounds, you’ll need money to shift your business into second gear. Your MVP can only really get you so far until you eventually need to produce it at a much larger scale. Applying for funding is easier when you have a validated market and audience as well as a business plan, particularly a customer acquisition plan. This will detail how you plan to find and keep your customers every month. If applying for a traditional loan from a bank or credit union, you need to present good credit scores to prove your creditworthiness.
Find People
The old adage, “no man is an island”, may not have been coined with entrepreneurship in mind, but it does apply. Having a good co-founder to help tackle major problems and share the workload with is imperative to business success. It gives you another perspective on how to approach product development, marketing, and sales. In addition to a co-founder, you should start looking for your first set of employees. This is a tricky process since, unlike large corporations that have a bigger budget for hiring more people, you only have a limited amount of cash to allocate to payroll. You’ll need to make it count by hiring only professionals who are vital to the day-to-day operations.
Establish a Base
If you’re a storefront business, picking a location that is exposed to foot traffic and is easily accessible by public transportation is key to maximizing brand exposure. For instance, if you are a retail business, setting up camp in the bustling streets of Manhattan makes more strategic sense as opposed to setting up your one camp in the Hamptons. For an eCommerce business, you can do without a physical location, but you do need a good web host to keep your site visible round the clock.
Start Marketing
Your target market doesn’t know who you are or that you even exist. You’ll need to market aggressively to get your name out there. Marketing channels that you should prioritize include social media, a dedicated blog site for your business, and word of mouth. These are all free to use but very powerful in reaching a broad audience. As your business takes off, you can start buying leads and exploring other channels including affiliate marketing and email marketing.
Most people only have one shot at building the next million dollar business. Make it count by following the tips above and starting the right way.
