Tips for the Entrepreneur

Let's say you have a great idea, with or without the help of some of your buddies/colleagues. You confidently believe there is money to be made from the venture and that others haven't seen or don't believe in your vision. While you don't want to lose your day job, at some point in your life, your instincts tell you, you need to take your shot. But, how do you make that happen?

Here are some steps to consider before you quit your seemingly secure paying job and start cutting your own, or worse yet, your wife/significant other’s golden locks.

 

Step 1-Write it down. There are obvious reasons to perform this exercise of preparing an initial draft of the business plan, but it appears to be something that people are averse to doing unless subject to undue torture. You must understand that in order to realize your goal, you'll have to articulate what it is at some point in time to someone NOT in front of you. It only makes sense to take the time to gather your thoughts and put pen to paper. The Internet is filled with various examples, but I find it best to start with the following:

Start with the table of contents. Summarize what your service or product is and what is the market demand for it. Assuming you've not had the chance to choose a name for your venture for now, (an issue to be discussed at some later point), the summary gives the reader an opportunity to know exactly what you are trying to do. Keep the summary to no more than four sentences. You'll also include information about the company, professionally written resumes or CVs of yourself and your management cohorts, industry and market overview and analysis, financial and operational plans, sales projection and of course, the all-important exit strategy. Expect to revise the summary a number of times as your idea becomes more robust, reflecting the input of others and new thinking of your own. You now have the basis to speak to others about your new endeavor.

 

Step 2-Do not under estimate the risks that you're about to undertake. The likelihood of failure is high for all new ventures, which is a fact to be understood, as opposed to be feared. You have to be fearless to be successful entrepreneur. Most of the time you're going to fail, whether it's not getting the necessary capital to implement your plan or your inability to foresee your foreign counterpart's prompt response to market demand. While it's always better to be lucky than smart, unfortunately, you can't arrange that. You can, however, come to an understanding with yourself, your family and friends and others that support you, that there is a high probability of risk to your startup. Under these circumstances, honesty is the best policy but your passion should assuage certain of their fears.

Step 3-Identify and talk to professional advisers. This is generally very difficult for many folks to accomplish since not everybody has a lawyer or an accountant on-call, or if they do, your business isn't probably within their area of expertise. One of the most efficient and effective ways to choose your advisers wisely is through networking and doing some research on the net. It is important that your counsel and accountant be familiar with the issues relating to starting a new venture. In this day of specialization, you'll not likely have difficulty identifying candidates to serve in these capacities. However, because changing professionals later on is costly and potentially harmful to your existence, it is important for you to spend some time ascertaining their professional competence through their experiences and their personal style since you'll likely be spending a fair amount of time with them as you grow your opportunity

Step 4- How much money can you afford to lose via this investment? Opinions vary in this area and of course to personal circumstances, but the more money in hard dollars that you have invested the more credibility you possess to your audience. Not everyone is expecting you to have millions of dollars to invest, but most investors want to know that you have made a significant commitment of your available capital to the venture. It doesn't necessarily mean selling your house, or taking a second mortgage or raiding the kids' college fund, but it has to be a meaningful amount from your perspective. You can structure your investment as a loan, paying yourself back at some point, so it may be best to look at such monies as an advance against future profits. Taking that point of view will likely be more palatable to you and your dependents.

Step 5-Protect your intellectual property, through a combination of patents, copyrights and trademarks. Too often the inexperienced entrepreneur unknowingly discloses his idea or service, only to learn later that he/she could have protected its value from others seeking to steal it for profit from it in some other manner. The value of looking at your intellectual property as an asset unique to yourself is fundamentally important to your success. If you do not understand the value yet of the asset adequately, you'll need to go to a professional who specializes in this most important area. To not do so is to proceed at your own risk.

 

The rewards of an entrepreneur are quite real-the chance to build a great product and company, the ability to achieve great success and recognition and best of all, the attainment of financial freedom, enabling you to give back to the world community.