The ONLY Four Things You Need to Start a Profitable Business (that you love).
When we hand a child a violin for the first time, we don’t expect them to map out their worldwide concert tour.
We don’t hand a kid their first pair of ice skates and start talking about preparing for the next Olympic games.
Yet that’s what we often expect of new business owners.
Business coaches and groups start talking about “scaling,” “systems,” and “brands”—world tours or Olympic competitions—before a new business owner has even made the first sale.
Or even figure out what they are going to sell.
How do you think that makes most new or aspiring business owners feel?
Overwhelmed.
Exhausted.
Intimidated.
And worst? They feel like failures before they even start.
Do you think most kids scratching their way through Twinkle Twinkle Little Star would feel pumped up or frightened to be told they must be ready to play Carnegie Hall in a few months?
Do you think the kid still wobbling around the rink would be terrified of the pressure to medal in the Olympics by the winter?
Yet that’s what we keep doing to new or potential business owners.
Coaches and gurus, so in love with showing off their expertise, sometimes make people who want to start a business feel like their aspirations are out of reach – or worse – that they are not dreaming big enough, so why bother?
I am not against big dreams. Not at all.
Do you dream of founding a multi-million dollar empire? Have at it. But most new business owners are so defeated by all the steps, checklists, and things to do that they often won’t even start.
I am not against checklists, case studies, or endless to-do lists.
I am against giving new business owners too much.
Solve a single problem in front of you. Just that one thing.
Then move on to the next thing. Solve that. Clear steps.
We don’t expect the average Kindergarten student to get tossed into Calculus IV (don’t comment about child genius—they are the Sara Blakely or Jeff Bezos of the business world).
Yet we expect the average Kindergartener or beginning business owner to figure out their sales funnels (along with upsells and landing pages).
We don’t expect violinists who have had three lessons to solo at the Met, yet we expect new business owners to set up “systems to scale”.
Please.
Can we get a little reality check here?
New business owners need support around just FOUR things:
- Figure out what you are good at and what you like (or better LOVE) to do.
- Figure out the intersection between what you want to sell and what your customers want to buy.
- Figure out who can (and will) buy it. And why they should buy from YOU.
- Figure out how to make a profit.
That’s it. Full stop.
The branding, the websites, and the email lists. All that comes later.
After the sales start coming in.
Because your business will change based on what you learn from those first few customers.
Your idea for custom cakes might evolve into business catering because you like it, and it’s more profitable and predictable.
Or your business catering idea might evolve into high-end chocolate making because you found a (profitable) need and can fill it.
You just don’t know until you get out there and start testing the market.
Supplying to customers.
Meeting customers.
Listening to their wants and needs.
You might uncover an untapped market or discover that your idea is not very appealing.
At this point, that’s okay. You are still in your exploratory phase.
And the best news?
You will now pivot if you have not spent months and thousands of dollars on “systems” and “scaling” for a business.
If you *have* jumped in and done the branding, website, and fancy logo before you have your business nailed down, it makes it much harder to do the pivot your market is asking for.
And then what happens?
Business owners try to make a go of that original idea – because they are already so far down the road.
They struggle and fight, and when they give up, they blame themselves.
When the blame is squarely on the shoulders of all the gurus and experts they listened to.
And I can tell you that the struggle is real.
I have worked with clients who have spent months (and months and years) trying to test the colors on logos, getting websites built for businesses without customers, and setting up sales funnels when they don’t have a tested product or service.
This is all because these new business owners kept reading advice about how they needed to build a foundation to scale their businesses.
It’s all BS. Lies.
Worse.
It’s emotional blackmail.
The feeling is that if you don’t “start right,” you may as well not start at all because you are destined to fail.
You have to have the right plan to run this giant company rather than the help you need to get started.
There is a better way.
A kinder, gentler way that lets you chart the course that’s right for you.
Without the fear of “doing things wrong.”
Without the blackmail of “just” wanting a small business that supports you and your family and not some “scaled-up conglomerate.”
Without the overwhelming task of planning your Olympic championship while still trying not to fall down on the ice,
As a new business owner, I am telling you to focus on the basics.
- What do you sell?
- Can you realistically make a profit doing this?
- Who can and will buy this?
- How do you let them know that you are in business?
I consider a new business owner anyone who is still thinking about their business, from anyone who is making a few sales a month, to anyone who is already making a few sales.
Let’s get back to basics. Forget all the other nonsense.
It will matter someday. Just not right now.
Not until you have enough sales to understand the following:
- Exactly what it is that your customers are actually buying. Not what you think they’ll buy…actually dollars in your bank account from actual sales.
- Exactly who is your customer? Provide details. Drill down to determine their common characteristics. How did you get on their radar? Have they bought from you before?
- Exactly why your customers buy from you: location, needs, speed, Convenience, and reputation. Why do they pick you over someone else?
And do you know how you find this information?
You ask your customers.
Because even gold medal winners start somewhere.
