Usually the beginning of an Entrepreneurial journey is the conception of the idea. It is what follows after that determines how successful your business will become however. Every business is unique in its goals and so the ingredients it needs to achieve them might differ, but there are certain things every Entrepreneur must include in his/her to do list before starting the business.

• Research and understand your competition

• Make sure you are a Game Changer

• Put together a sustainable team with quality

• Do surveys and get Feedback

• Find a Mentor

• Find your market and learn how you will penetrate it

Research and Understand your competition: A lot of people rush blindly into a business because they believe they have come up with an idea that will change the world. They believe they are the only ones to do it because they are yet to see anything like it. Big mistake! It is absolutely vital that you take a few weeks to look for people who’ve done something similar, understand how they work, how long they’ve been around, their revenue, their market e.t.c. The truth is that every business/start-up has some competition (side note: if a VC or Angel Investor asks you how you intend to handle your competitors, please never say you have none. It oozes laziness and lackluster research.) Make sure you do your homework to know what you are up against so you can effectively plan to counter and do better than them.

Make sure you are a Game Changer: You don’t have to come up with a completely new idea or business plan in order to be successful but you must know how to set yourself apart from others in the same field. To every line of business in the world today, there are inefficiencies and inadequacies. How about stepping up to the plate and addressing some of these problems? Over time the customers’ needs start to change and you must be aware of these changes if you are a good entrepreneur. No one ever really believed that  young people will be so interested in having a website help them manage their funds, even the investors  that were presented with the business plan asked the same questions several times: “how are you going to convince 20-30 year olds to submit their bank information to you? What makes you think these people are even interested in finance at this young age?” But Aaron Patzer, founder of Mint had seen something. He had noticed that more and more college graduates were interested in learning how to manage their funds so they could pay off loans, start planning 401k e.t.c. He spotted a chance to change the game and he did just that.

Put together a Sustainable team with quality: I have talked about the importance of having a strong team to a start-up. The value is immense and must not be overlooked. For new start-ups, here is a good post I came across that can give you more insight into how to pick a good team.

A good team not only improves the quality of the product or service the business renders, It also increases your chance of getting funded. I have been told by some VCs in the past that many times, they start out reviewing a business plan by looking at the team involved in the business. They want to gain an understanding of what the team members have done before, do they have a successful record? Do they have good recommendations? The truth is that many Investors/VCs are Entrepreneurs themselves, so they know the value of a good team from their past experiences. They take it very seriously and so must you.

Do surveys and get feedback: Another thing people fail to do is to find out what people think of your idea. Will they be willing to use your service or buy your product? You might think the idea is appealing but then again it was your idea, you don’t want to be the only one patronizing your business, do you? So how about  starting a survey, randomly walking to people and asking if they will use your product and getting their feedback. This way, you will know if your start-up has a chance or not, you will know who likes your product and who doesn’t.

In Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek, there was an example of a guy who was interested in starting an online business where he would be selling some rare shirts he had discovered on his trip to France. While in France he thought there might be people in the states who would like the shirt as well, so he decided to do a market/demand test. He took pictures of the shirt and posted it on e-bay for sale. Few minutes before the bid closed, he realized a lot of people had bid for the shirt and what they were willing to pay was substantially more than the cost price. It was then he knew he had a solid business idea. He opened an online store and started doing business. The point of that story is that he took time to find out if people would like the shirt and would pay for it before jumping into business. Everyone gets excited at the chance of starting a business, but always slow down and take time to do some research.

Find a Mentor: I recently wrote an entire post about the importance of a good mentor. The advantages are numerous. Look for someone in your line of business who has been involved with startups in the past. This person will add value both in front and behind the scenes. They will act as guardian angels to show you how to deal with difficult situations based on their experience and will connect you to other people that could be of help: investors, employees, other mentors e.t.c.

Find your market and learn how you will penetrate it: Before you start doing business you must have a marketing strategy. This includes knowing the demographic that would be interested in your product/service and how you will reach them. Good marketing will always bring a business tremendous levels of success and sales, ask Tony Hsieh of Zappos. You can build an in-house Marketing team or outsource it, either way you do it, make sure you have people with quality who can explore every avenue to win fans and customers.

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