The success of a new business is often a process of navigating a series of challenges. The greatest ideas can land in a ditch for unforeseen reasons. In fact it?s often not a bad concept that causes a new business to fail, but a lack of staying power. Starting a business should be thought of as a long term plan and not as a get-rich-quick scheme.
Motivational author and speaker Robert Ringer provided a user-friendly re-definition of the concept of positive thinking. He referred to it instead as positive thinking through assumption of a negative result. That doesn’t mean that you assume failure, but rather that you anticipate problems and prepare for them.
There’s a constructive difference between true optimism and blind optimism. True optimism is based on solid planning. It springs from preparation and planning. The more common blind version rests on vague concepts, like an idea that?s “too good to fail”. Or the self-hype of “I?ll succeed because I?m me, and I believe in me”. That kind of self-hypnosis can quickly evaporate in the face of an empty bank account or a failed business deal.
So what kind of strategies will improve the success of a new business venture and generate a sense of true optimism?
1. Pick a Business You Know
If you start a business in a field unrelated to your experience and skills, you?re basically throwing a dart hoping it lands in the right place. The more closely a proposed business matches the work that you?re doing right now, the greater the chance of success.
What if a business interests you but you have no related experience or skills? Begin the business as a sideline or work for someone else in the business as a part time employee. Either will enable you to get the needed understanding, experience, skill set and contacts. This is also a good way to gradually convert a hobby into a business.
This is the exact approach I took in launching OutOfYourRut.com and getting into freelance blog writing. Both started as side ventures, in a kind of earn-and-learn program. I think this is the best course for most would-be entrepreneurs.
2. Know Your Competition
Knowing your product is critical but you also need to know what your competition is offering. I?ve worked in sales jobs where management did a solid dog-and-pony show on their own products. But they did their level best to ignore the competition as if it were irrelevant. No matter how confident you are, competitors are never irrelevant and they can?t be ignored. Chances are any prospect you?re courting is also entertaining bids from your competition. You’ll absolutely need to know what they?re offering.
Knowing your competitors? weaknesses is equally important. It can enable you to raise doubts in the prospect’s mind about what?s being offered, or to play your strengths against those weaknesses. Just as important, knowing your products and those of the competition can position you as an industry expert. That can be reassuring to customers who are uncertain and looking for a confident voice.
One of the best ways to understand your competitors is to contact them posing as a customer. You can do this if you?re new in the field and unknown. This is usually a better way of learning about them than reading product or marketing information. It can also provide insight on the give-and-take you can expect to experience with your own customers.
3. Get Ready to Sell
Many people recoil at the idea of working in “sales”. But if you start a business, that?s exactly what you?ll be doing. You have to be good at pitching your product or service to a skeptical prospect. You must be fully prepared to hear NO again and again, and to be ready to get back up and sell to the next prospect after the last one shot you down. That?s sales no matter how it?s labeled. And it’s a necessary part of achieving success in a new business.
Many years ago I did contract work for a very successful CPA. He was expanding his business in the middle of a deep recession, when other accountants were losing clients. What was his “secret”? He always said “I?m a salesman first and an accountant second”.
That?s the reality of self-employment, no matter what field you?re in.
If you don?t have a sales background, take a sales course, get sales CDs and DVDs, watch YouTube videos, and prepare to develop (or improve) your sales persona.
4. The Key to the Success of a New Business – The Magic of Marketing
Though “marketing” and “sales” are often used interchangeably or in conjunction with one another, they?re very different functions:
- Think of marketing as the process of getting customers to call, visit or email your business, and
- sales as closing the deal.
A customer who calls or emails you is a lot easier to sell to than one you have to call first. The very fact that they are calling indicates they’re already interested, and will be an easier sale. That’s the purpose of marketing – to get the prospect to contact you first.
Find out what successful competitors are doing to market their businesses in your field, keeping in mind that you probably won?t have the cash flow to maintain a comparable marketing program. You?ll need to be creative to do what they?re doing for less money.
As a start up, the best approach will be to look for marketing methods that will cost little or no money at all.
Marketing efforts must be consistent and sustainable so stretching your dollars will be crucial. The key isn?t so much how much money is spent on marketing, but rather how many people you can reach with your message, again and again.
5. Have a Cash Flow from the Start
Cash flow is the single most important element to the success of a business. Without it there is no business. The sooner you develop it, the better the prospects for success.
There are at least three ways to have a cash flow when starting a new business:
- Continue working at a full time job, running the business as a side venture,
- Run the business full time, but supplement income from unrelated sources (i.e., part time or contract work), or
- Buy a business that already has an established clientele and cash flow.
Pick one, keeping in mind that the third requires capital. This comes with the risk of the loss of that capital should the business fail. As well, the cost to acquire a business is generally commensurate with the volume of the cash flow you?re buying. The amount of capital you have to invest will determine just how much – or how little – cash flow you can afford to purchase.
6. Have a Savings Cushion
Having several months of living expenses tucked away to carry you through the first few months of operations raises the prospect of success a few notches.
Financial planners recommend three to six months savings for most people. If you?re going to start a business you?ll want to be at the higher end of that range at a minimum. This isn?t for business capital, but for living expenses until the venture becomes self sustaining.
If you don?t have a cushion, you may be able to build one relatively fast. It would be time well invested to delay the start of your business until this is accomplished.
7. Keep your Parachute in Good Working Order
This may seem like the ultimate counter motivation, but having a Plan B – in case the venture does fail – may provide the confidence needed to pull through lean times. A sense of doom over potential failure will not be a constructive traveling companion. Customers can often sense fear and might take their business elsewhere.
You?ve undoubtedly heard the saying “never burn your bridges”. This is fundamentally more important if you?re trying your hand at entrepreneurship. Returning to a previous job can be a welcome port in a storm should the worst happen. Never bad mouth previous employers ? you never know when you might need a job or a reference! Otherwise, stay active in your business networks and keep an ear to the ground for possible parallel opportunities.
Having a ready parachute is much like the analogy of owning a gun: it?s better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. Confidence is a big part of success, and just knowing you have other options can eliminate the fear of failure.
If you?re starting a new business, you?ll need to be optimistic in order to even make the effort. But make sure your optimism is based not on hope alone, but on tangible strategies that will increase your chance of success in very real ways.
I would have to call these a Super 7. Great tips man.
Ken-I don’t know about Super 7, but I’d like to think they’re a good place to start!
What if the very reason that you are starting a business of your own is to get away from the things you know? That’s me for sure.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Lucy
Paul, in that case doing it as a side business is probably the way to go. That’s one of the great things about self-employment, it’s a chance to self actualize, which I think we all need to do.
But working on it part time until we know the ropes, and can eventually do it full time is definately a way to lower the risk.
Kevin – another great post.
From my experience as a financial planner helping biz owners and entrepreneurs and (before that) as a retail business owner and small business consultant … there is one other element that really needs to be addressed: Long Range Cash Reserves.
Folks always expect their business to flourish from the get-go (or at worst, after only a couple of months), but it almost always takes years (3-5). You touched on it with your “Cash Flow” and “Savings Cushion” points, but the mindset really needs to be longer range.
Can you survive for years without taking anything out of your fledgling business? In the early going, every dollar in profit needs to be put back into the business. Otherwise you’ll wind up like that 96% of American small businesses that fail.
Great tips thanks! Having cash flow is important for any startup.
Great article, I agree with Number 5, 6 as well as with John. A lot of people just think about the starting capital, but they forget that they also need the cash flow for everyday business operations. That’s when the problem starts, if you don’t have the cash you need to run the daily operations, all efforts will go down the drain. Every business will take years before it will actually earns what you want it to earn. It doesn’t just happen overnight.
Wow some really interesting stuff on this site! Keep up the good work…
All your tips are good, but number 3 (Get Ready to Sell) is a standout. I’ve seen hardworking people with great ideas and a sound business plan fall flat on their faces because they were afraid of selling.
Thanks Wayne. I think some people believe that being self employed is almost magic, as if you’ll get business coming to your door just by hanging a shingle. If only that were true! There are even solicitations for entrepreneurial ventures that will say “No Selling!”–who are they kidding???
One factor though that can work in your favor even if you aren’t a sales person by nature…if it’s your business, you’ll probably find it much easier to sell. Maybe this is just a personal opinion, but I think most people can sell when it’s the right product, and if it’s you or your products you probably can sell it. But you have to bring a willingness to sell to the table in order for that to happen.