I have made a couple of posts here previously. I have built and sold 2 businesses, the last one for mid 7 figures. I am now working on my third one which will hopefully be as successful as the last.
I have been contemplating a lot the last months about what the most difficult part of starting a business is.
At least for me, it’s not coming up with the idea. Neither is it to keep scaling the business if it gets traction.
The hardest part is evaluating whether an idea is good, and then working hard towards testing it, without knowing if it will work.
This is where I see most people (including myself many times) giving up.
I summarized 3 ingredients that has helped me tremendously to overcome the difficult initial phase of starting a new business.
- Find an idea that you can support with as much data as possible. Don’t get stuck in your own emotions.
This is the first mistakes I’ve done, and many others with me. We build up ideas on our head and dream about what an amazing business it’ll be and how people will love our product and throw money at us.
This is how I used to do it. I got over-excited without having any evidence that the idea might work.
Nowadays, I barely get excited about ideas anymore. I get excited if I see an idea with a lot of supporting data that the idea can work.
Supporting data can be everything from search volumes on Google, people requesting the product in forums, or competitors who are doing super well with inferior products.
The more supporting data you have and the higher quality that data is, the more likely it’ll be that you might succeed.
In addition to the supporting data, it’s also important to be critical. You also have to note down potential data which may indicate that your idea might not work out.
- Figure out what the minimal requirements is to test your idea.
Now that your have an idea, it’s time to plan how to test it. This can go wrong both ways.
Some people over plan before launching their business. They are so scared of failing that they spend years of perfecting every little detail. Then when it’s time to launch they realize they no one cares about their product.
On the other side, some people do too little effort which never gives their idea a real chance.
You have to figure out what is minimally required for you to test your idea. If you e.g. start an e-commerce business you might decide that you need a fairly good looking website with some quality content and branding.
To then test if people actually want to go to your site and make a purchase you decide to spend at least 500 USD on Facebook marketing with some high quality ads that you have created.
This is an example of how you make a plan to test your idea.
- Once you have decided the idea you want to pursue and how to test it, set a fixed amount of time to work on it and take small steps every day.
This is according to me the hardest part of entrepreneurship. You have an idea, your initial dopamine is finished, and now you have to work for a long time, every day without getting any indication that the idea might work.
It feels overwhelming. It often feels tiring. You start to doubt yourself. Shiny object syndrome shows up. Any indication or even comment at this stage might make push you to abandon the project.
This is where you have to stick to your idea and remind yourself of the data you’ve found. You have evidence that this might work out.
Set a timeline (e.g. 10 months) when you go all in to work on the project. Promise yourself that you are not allowed under any circumstances to abandon the project during this time.
Work to move forward every day, even if it’s just something small. Concentrate on making this small steps forward daily.
Final thoughts I believe the initial starting phase is by far the hardest in entrepreneurship. But following the steps above have helped me tremendously.
If a project fails, it’s OK because you followed the plan, which meant that you most likely learned a lot. Then you take these learning and restart again, until you find something that takes off.
Would love to hear your thoughts, on this, and what your struggles are in the initial phase of building a business.