After six years in the hustle, our business finally thrives - but only following years of entrepreneurial challenges, including a near collapse on three separate occasions. We now pass on what we've learned to emerging entrepreneurs with a caveat: business is not for the weary. What brings entrepreneurs from the brink of such disaster is resilience: great founders bounce back and build businesses that aren't just resistant, but antifragile.
The moments at the beginning an entrepreneurial journey are rich with opportunity and experience, offering both the best and worst of times. Preparation, skill, and a bit of luck, along with these four key points, will help get your business past the worst times.
Have More Than A Good Idea
From Sam Altman to Seth Godin, any luminary can tell you that ideas are a dime a dozen, and that execution is a thousand times harder than ideation. Pitching your idea, then, can also become a futile endeavor: you'll may get support for "your exciting new project" from those who would never use your service, or you have potential users listing out all the features you'd need to build before they touch the product. In this new economy you need an idea, perseverance and strategy if you want to create a successful business. Ideas come and go but strategy will give you the edge.
Be honest with yourself. So many entrepreneurs are living in a fantasy. While we admire entrepreneurs like Richard Branson and Elon Musk, we have to be honest with ourselves about our strengths and weaknesses. You increase your odds of success when you focus on your strengths. Do not go with the thing that excites you. Instead, focus your energy on the thing at which you can become an expert. Becoming an expert or thought leader is a great way to set your business up for success.
For example, if you know you are terrible at math then the world of finance would not be a good option for you. My business mentor Gary Vaynerchuk emphasizes the importance of using your strengths to your advantage. In his best-selling book Crush It, he shows you how to profit from your passion and how to turn your ideas into income: if you want to dominate a market then you should develop yourself and your company in such a way that you can reach a place of mastery. Assess your skills and then leverage them to build a profitable business. You cannot produce sales without skills.
Your idea doesn't need to be original, but it must be profitable and defensible. Everybody thinks they have a money making idea - but novelty alone is not valuable. More likely than not, the market is filled with replacement for most services or products that claim to be a novel idea. Yet many companies have produced profit from enhancing an existing idea - like food and beverage, in the cases of McDonald's or Burger King, or Pepsi and Coke. Every time a new category is created in a market, competitors immediately emerge to capitalize on the moment of discovery. Since you already have this knowledge, your best advantage is to focus on how you can improve upon an idea in your industry.
When you find a deficiency then you should develop a product or service around it and then you can become a dominant player in your industry. Forbes reports that 80% of new businesses will fail. How will you make your business stand out in a noisy market? What unique value can you provide? I strongly suggest that you study your industry, learn everything you can about your competitors and get great coaches and mentors. Your business cannot live off of adrenaline. Assessment and continual learning will determine your success. Do not idolize ideas that cannot generate real income. If you cannot convert your idea into sales then you may need to rethink your business strategy.
Know when to let go. While this can be very difficult for new entrepreneurs, know when you should save your time and money for the next venture. You have to come to a point where you realize that an idea is ineffective. According to Fast Company, perseverance is a very important skill for entrepreneurs. However, I know from personal experience that perseverance without profits will leave you feeling defeated.
Building something great takes time. I believe you just know instinctively when it is time to let go of an idea. Do not allow this to produce defeat in your life. Use it as a tool to develop your resolve as an entrepreneur. The market changes all the time and you have to be perceptive so that you can discern major shifts.