ADVICE FOR STARTUP ENTREPRENEURS

It is a bad idea for you to leave your full-time job without a plan, in order to concentrate on your entrepreneurship venture full time.


Doing Your Market Research Ahead of Time

Advice to entrepreneurs just starting out and looking to quit their day jobs is very solid: Leaving your stable job without doing your market research is a big no-no. You should never do it.

Lining up prospective customers is a good idea. It enables you to learn what exactly it is that people want and are willing to pay for. You can then determine whether your product is worth selling as it is or if it needs more fine tuning.

If you can collect a list of people willing to pay money for what you have to offer, then you reduce the risk and stress associated with starting a new business from scratch. This is something that worked well and can work for you too.

When it Doesn’t Work, Halt Operations and Refine Your Product

I started my business when i was just finishing school. i had big dreams and launched my business with a bang. What i didn’t have, however, was the experience required to run a business or any idea of what my target customers really wanted.

In the beginning, ithe company was meant to provide creative tools for business owners. However, the going got tough when I soon found out that it was “pretty rare” to find people who wanted to deal with the hassles of keeping their ideas and file their own personal returns. After all, people tend to take the path of least resistance.

It took me some years to understand that, things needed to change. After that, i worked hard to completely re-calibrate my business model and turn my product into one that would provide more comprehensive services for my business clients.

And while the new version of the business costs more than it did in the past, i say that i “actually have a business now.”

That goes to show you that if you take the time to find what resonates with your target customers, and your product is good, a higher price tag is not going to deter them from buying from you. So, it definitely pays to halt your business operations and redefine your product when your current model doesn’t work.

You Should Take Time Off to Rest and Make Long-Term Business Plans

After you have been running your business for a few years, you may end up getting stuck in a rut. That’s something that you should be wary of as an entrepreneur.

In an interview, I talk about how i love taking a week off, to “go somewhere else, to get the busy out of the business.” i go on to say that taking the time to rest from my business has been beneficial to me in many ways:

• my holiday allows employees to prove themselves and thrive without my interference.
• The downtime has enabled me to get creative and come up with plenty of ideas on growing my business.
• Having time off to myself has provided me with the space i need to come up with longer-term business plans to implement in the future.

There is so much that business owners can learn from me since i have experienced both the ups and downs of launching and growing my startup. It does take work to be successful beyond the first five years of business.