The 3 Things You Must Do, Before Starting Anything New

 

Nobody is a bigger proponent of getting underway than me.
I thinking planning in general–and business plans in particular–are extremely over-rated. You want to get out into the marketplace as quickly as can and let your customers–and potential customers–decide if you are on to something.
That said,  I still think there are three things you must do before starting anything new. Neglecting them will make your life far more difficult than it has to be.
1. Make sure you have the requiste desire.  And by requisite I mean a lot. Starting anything new requires overwhelming amounts of passion to get over and through all the inevitable obstacles you are going to face. If this new idea is not something you really want to do, you are not going to give it your proverbial all–and that is going to substantially decrease your chances of success.
2.  Focus on an area where you strong, This is directly related to the first point.  At some point during the process of getting underway things are not going to go well.  It is at exactly those momemts you have to draw on everything you know to get over the hurdles. Obviously, the better you feel about your skills, the more confidentially you can attack the problems.

3. There appears to be a market need. We have talked about this before, but I don’t think it can stressed enough. You don’t want to start with an idea for something new. You must begin with a market need.
The problem with beginning with an idea is twofold.  One, ideas are too easy.  I bet you can come up with a list of 25 ideas for a new product or service in the next 10 minutes if you had to. And the problem with that is the list may not help you very much.  For one thing, the ideas may not be practical.  (Commuting to work by giant Pogo stick; dishes that get themselves into the dishwasher by themselves.)
But much more troubling is the fact that if you start with the idea, you then have to go out and see if there is a market for it. (Wanted: People who truly want to commute via giant Pogo stick.)
If you begin with a market need, you know you have potential customers.  They are the people who told you that they need what you plan to sell.   That makes it far easier to get underway.
So, before getting starting: Make sure this is something you want to do; you feel it plays to your strengths and there is a clear market need.
Once all three of those things are present, start asking potential customers if you are onto something.