Considering a home business? Ongoing economic issues and technological advances have created an ideal environment for new entrepreneurs. Some notable recent start ups have experienced tremendous success: Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Pinterest are examples. Each company is a household name and a dominant in its market niche. Each also started in a small apartment or college dorm room, not in a huge office space with lots of resources.
The founders of these companies were young – several were college students – inexperienced, and not especially wealthy. Their success is partially a timing and location issue. But much more contributed to the incredible accomplishment of Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google), Jack Dorsey (Twitter), and Ben Silbermann (Pinterest). These entrepreneurs along with millions of other business success stories share some common characteristics while avoiding major mistakes. Here are 5 key tips to get you to think like an entrepreneur:
1) Identify a target market. This is a key first step early in the business planning process. Think about the demographic you want to target: ages, gender, ethnicity, and profession are examples. You may not hit the target when starting out, but thinking this way will help you focus your product or service offering to a narrow group of consumers.
2) Pleasing People. Yes, making customers happy is important, but so is getting feedback about what clients don’t like. Think intermediate and long-term here, not short term goals. Each and every bit of information – good or bad – you gather is a plus and helps for the long term. As the well known quote states: you can please all people some of the time and some people all of the time…
3) Location, location, location. A pizza place in the middle of farm fields probably won’t get many customers, but a Chicago-style pizza place in Miami may be a big hit. A boat store in the middle of Nevada? Maybe not, but located on either coast could be lucrative.
4) Budget. New entrepreneurs don’t realize how quickly money is spent. It is very tempting to buy the best technology, new offices in high rent buildings, and give out bonuses. We suggest tempering enthusiasm with practical spending. Save money by working out of your house for starters, use existing or low-end computers, and save the bonus for special occasions. Create a budget and stick to it. You wouldn’t live beyond your means, your business should follow the same rule.
5) Consider the launch date. Launching a business too soon can mean a product is not complete and may turn off customers. Launching too late costs money in development, provides no income, and may miss a hot trend.
There are many other factors to consider when considering a business, but the above 5 are potentially make or break. Plan carefully and do the research needed to assure as smooth a start as possible.
By Dion D. Shaw
Dion D. Shaw is the founder and owner of Homepreneurs.
Homepreneurs. New Day. New Opportunity.
Disclaimer
Homepreneurs does not endorse nor have any relationships with any of the services listed. Homepreneurs receives no compensation or consideration for its suggestions. Homepreneurs strongly urges all interested parties to conduct research and accepts no responsibility for any losses incurred.
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