Suppose you’re a brand-new entrepreneur and you have a new (or maybe not-so-new) idea for a product or a service. You brainstorm, research, talk with friends and family, and execute your due diligence.
Now what?
If you’re like most new entrepreneurs, you’ll continue to drag out this first stage for as long as you can, and you won’t even realize you’re doing it. The “work” you’ll focus on – making business cards, designing a logo, doing research, creating spreadsheets and estimates, doing even more research – is a stall tactic, not actual movement.
The simplest advice I can give to any new entrepreneur is to ask yourself:
Am I working on making a sale?
If the answer is “no”, then stop what you’re doing and focus on making a sale today.
I get it. It’s fun to take those first steps towards owning your very own business. It’s exciting and it feels like you’re making progress. But the very work that most people avoid is the only one that makes a difference: selling.
It doesn’t matter how slick your logo is, it doesn’t matter how much money you spent on a beautiful website. What matters is will people buy your product?
Can you get someone to buy? If not, you don’t have a business. You have a hobby.
So drop whatever it is you’re doing and sell today. Get out and get in front of your target audience. Tell them about your product. Talk to them about how you think it will help them. And ask them to buy it.
You’ll will hear “No”, “No thanks”, and “You’re kidding, right?” until you want to puke. It’s ok. Because you’ll learn what’s wrong with your idea, and you can use that knowledge to create something even better. But if you’re not selling, you’re wasting your time.
Check Out – A Nomad Family Slows Down
Now the ambitious folks out there might be thinking, But what if I want to do something amazing that won’t be profitable right away? What if I want to build something huge? Steve Jobs didn’t focus on selling. Elon Musk isn’t worried about being profitable tomorrow, hell, his companies may not be profitable for years.
You are not Elon. You are not Jobs. You are new at this, so keep your degree of difficulty low. Focus on the one thing that is the lifeblood, the core of any business: sales.
Once you have one, two, or half a dozen businesses under your belt, go for it. Clamber out on a treacherous and exciting limb the way that Jobs did and Musk does.
Now, though, you must sell. Because your business depends on you learning how to do so, and until you do, everything else is a waste of time.