Entrepreneurship Golden Rules

So, you are starting a business, planning to… or just would like to, but in the future:

You don’t know if your idea or business intention would be profitable, if it worth quitting your job or whether you should quit. You still have told no one about it because you are afraid of being “stolen” and sometimes, just thinking about starting your own business with all the difficulty implied, makes you love more your current job.

Maybe you don’t feel represented in these statements, but trust us: there is no problem about being worried when thinking about launching a new project. In fact, it would be even worse not to be worried.

* If you are thinking about starting your own Business but don’t know exactly where to start or even which business would suit you best, we suggest you visiting the “Start your own business” page, within this same section.

** Moreover, we have a whole section called “Business Ideas” where we analyze lots of Business Ideas in order to find out whether they could be realistic Income options or not, and what you would need in order to make $1.000 a month with those Businesses.

First of all, forget about having an amazing idea and create the new Microsoft or Facebook.

It does not work in that way: both Bill gates and Mark Zukerberg (among other superstar entrepreneurs) were two young and intelligent guys that were doing what they loved in the perfect moment in the right place, in the right country, at the perfect time.

We don’t want to discredit of course their amazing job (I wish I could be in their position and be half intelligent as they are) but there is always an important component of luck around these super-millionaire geniuses, not being then statistically representative.

Who would be the reference, then?

Any successful lawyer firm founder, any usual-business owner, some nowadays artists, writers… Unless they inherited their companies, they surely have hard worked in a field they love for many years, and they have reached the success in a medium-large period of time.

Most common histories of success: working for several years, initially earning nothing at all, then earning a low salary, then re-orienting the business to focus on the most profitable niche… and finally, after several years, turning your head behind realizing that you have reached the top of the mountain.

Being said that, we’ll now propose 3 “Golden Rules” any entrepreneur should follow if he/she wants to success:

1. Do what you love.
2. Think about the fall.
3. Ensure economical relaxation.

After years analyzing, buying, restructuring and selling different kinds of companies, we have observed how, by following these 3 factors, the chances to “survive” increase exponentially, especially in young businesses.

Let’s explain these rules in detail:

Think about being several years really hard working on something that would give you no money at all: what would you do?

The only realistic and honest answer is:

• “I only could be in that situation if all this time, hours, efforts… had been in something I really love”.

Developing a business is full of difficult moments, with doubts, lack of confidence and sometimes temptations for quitting.

• Thinking that you could hold that situation doing something you don’t really like is just pure fantasy.

When you are developing a business, (and even more in an internet-based business) you are competing against everybody in that sector.

If you are enthusiastic about that sector; reading everything you find about it, looking for future trends, for success stories… then you have got a chance.

• Maybe you just give a new perspective nobody has, or re-orientate a whole market niche making it profitable.

If you choose a sector just because its profitability, then you won’t be able to compete against other people that find it absolutely fascinating.

More than thinking about the fall, think about where would you like to fall.

This is the main reason why we encourage you to have a lifetime entrepreneur as reference: because when the founder of a solid lawyer firm (for example) goes through a bad situation, he does not fall to the ground from a 500 meters building.

• He falls from a 100 meters building but on a 80 meter pillow.

He surely has created interesting business contacts, he now knows how does a law firm work, he now knows the average rent for an office, he knows the costs of paying the employees, which clients are more profitable, which dynamic is more successful…

And he will probably be able to change the “course of the ship” in time, not tripping twice on the same stone.

You must think about the path you are walking, what you will learn and what your worst possible scenario would be like.

In case you fall, try to fall on a pillow, not on bedrock.

Imagine you are a “design master”.

In the past you customized some T-Shirts and your friends freaked out, so you thought: “I love designing, it seems that everybody loves my designs, and I currently hate my job… let’s try it!”.

You have two options (actually you would have more, of course):

First Scenario:

The next day you quit your job (exactly like in the movies) and buy 1.000 white T-Shirts on-line for 1.500 dollars.

Then you phone the owner of a commercial low you saw in your city’s favorite street and find out that after the T-Shirt purchase you can afford just 3 months.

“Ok, no problem”, you think, “the second month, at least I can make 2.000 dollars by selling the T-Shirts after buying the new ones, so there would be no problem”.

So now you already have your own shop, a nice product you love designing… It’s all you ever wanted!

Second Scenario:

You listen to your “inside voice” and think: “Ok, maybe I am not the next Karl Lagerfeld, so I will keep my job in case I fail”.

The next day you buy 100 T-Shirts and plan to give each 10 of them, a different design approach to take the “market temperature” and see which one sells better or worse.

You then establish a plan: for the 3 groups most sold you would double the amount of T-Shirts bought the next purchase…

After realizing the huge amount of work and time it requires, you decide to start analyzing the price: “Either I can sell this for this price, employing this amount of time, or it doesn’t worth it” – you think.

Then, when you find out, the market response is positive, establish a full-time plan scenario: “When I reach these sales, in 12 consecutive months, I will quit my job”.

Finally, one year later, you open your new shop with solid Internet sales in different regions and plan to use the shop for approaching the local customer and selling exclusive products.

Which scenario would you choose?

In both of them, you end up with one shop in the same street, paying the same rent and price per T-Shirt.

In the First Scenario, the fall is from 500 meters direct to the hole and in case you success, you would not earn more money than in the second scenario.

• More risk doesn’t always mean higher profitability.

In the Second Scenario, as you solidly build your project, you are placing “pillows” in case you fall.

Finally, the third golden rule: try to have a relaxed environment.

Obviously, when we say “relaxed” we don’t mean to buy ambient lights and start meditating lessons… We mean economically relaxed.

Among business success stories, you would find hard working people, not thinking about their monthly debts, how would they pay the car’s fuel next week…

They were completely focused on their projects, with all the basic essential living expenses covered.

Maybe they were not rich, but at least, lived in a humble way, not spending more money than they had.

In the T-Shirt example you can find this factor:

• In the first scenario, a bad sales week would mean worries, hurries for selling at low prices, family discussions about if it had been a nice idea…
• In the second scenario, you would not find that many worries, so you would be happily designing (remember, it is your passion) and checking which design sells better. In that mood, you can make the right choices.

So, if you can’t afford quitting your job, don’t quit. Try a part time job with lot of flexibility; try saving as much as you can for the period of time you would need…

But the last thing you must do is “jumping without a parachute”.

We can not guarantee that by just following these 3 rules, you’ll be the next “Elon Musk”, but we can guarantee for sure that:

• If you don’t love what you do.
• If you don’t think about different worst-case scenarios.
• If you have economic problems when starting your Business.

You will fail miserably sooner than later.

If you want to become a successful entrepreneur, you must:

• 1. Love what you do: in other case, you will be easily “crushed” by everybody, and finally you will quit.

• 2. Build a solid business: that in case you don’t success, you would have gained knowledge, professional contact/ status… and also would have enough strength to try again.

• 3. Ensure economical relaxation: good decisions are taken in cold minds.