entrepreneur

Side Hustle Nation – Take the Leap!

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In our program the Business Success Network, we love working with Side Hustlers – people who are working their dream gig on the side while holding down a full-time gig that they greatly dislike. (Trying to avoid words like Hate – they just don’t serve me)

If you are SERIOUS about making your Side Hustle the Full Time Hustle – then here are the steps we take our clients through.  I need to them to know the following:

  1. Be crystal clear on your WHY. What is your purpose – personally, and does it align with your business model.  If the side hustle is just a way to make a buck and you aren’t passionate about it – your business will never be truly successful. You will get burned and give up when the going gets tough – and it will, get tough that is.
  2. Ensure you have a viable business. Just because it’s a great idea, does not mean it’s a viable business model.  Perhaps your market is too small or too saturated, you can’t differentiate yourself enough from the competition or you have a time sensitive thing whose time is almost up.  You need to crunch the numbers and do some market research.
  3. That you need to be a risk taker. I don’t know one business owner who is risk adverse.
  4. That you need to have a success mindset. You must focus on the long haul and not get hung up on the bumps in the road.  You have to BELIEVE you will be successful.
  5. You have capital enough to survive without a paycheck for a while – because most of your $$ has to go back into the company – typically.
  6. You need to deeply understand your customer and their journey – how they will get to you, what you will do once they find you and how you will nurture them. What will their customer experience be like?
  7. Chief Cook & Bottle washer – If you don’t have the capital to pay for help, do you have the talent, will and drive to do it all?
  8. Are you open to coaching and learning? If you have a know it all attitude – you are setting yourself up for failure. Trust me – I’ve been there and it wasn’t pretty.
  9. Are you willing to fail – but more importantly, do you have the mindset that failure is simply an opportunity to learn and grow.
  10. That you need to spend just as much time working on your business in the beginning as in it.
  11. You need to be able to sell or have a process that sells your product for you – i.e. online platforms etc.
  12. Progress NOT Perfection. You need the minimum viable product to launch – it doesn’t need to be perfect, you can always adjust, fix and change as you go. Besides you need feedback from real life buyers!

 Side Hustlers, you can make the transition, and the time is really up to you. If you are focused on the end game, that transition will be far less painful than if you look at ALL you need to do and it will go a lot quicker.

Side Hustle Nation – Take the Leap! Read More »

Ready to be an entrepreneur? Only if you can answer these questions

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You’re a wide-eyed entrepreneur, dreaming of the next big idea and how it’s going to change the world. And you could be right — Perhaps you’ve got the genesis of the next Facebook, Apple, or Tesla in the back of your mind. Don’t be fooled though, being an entrepreneur is tough — It’s not just about the ideas, it’s about the flawless execution, the product, the hustle, the market, and more than just a little bit of luck.

It’s also about asking, and answering the right questions. So much of being an entrepreneur is about making the right decisions, and that comes from asking deep, penetrating questions of yourself, your business, your industry, and your customers.

Here are some of those questions you should be asking — Think about each of these deeply, see how they spin off into other questions, and answer them as best you can. These questions will help you validate your ideas, understand if your products can survive in the market, and see if you’ve got the resilience to succeed.

Questions about your products and services, or “What is it that my business does best?”

A great business starts with products and services that meet a genuine need and offers them to your customers in the best possible way. These are the questions you’ll need to answer.

  • Do I understand who my ideal customer is, and what they need from my business?
  • Have I validated our products and services to check that they solve a genuine problem?
  • Have I tested, tweaked and refined our products and services so that they are as good as they can be?
  • Do I have a consistent brand and visual identity that builds trust?
  • Do I know the best channels to make my customers aware of what we offer?
  • Have I built a community of early users?

If you can answer these questions confidently, you will create products, services, and brands that meet a genuine need, create trust, and add value for your customers.

Questions on your knowledge and expertise, or “I don’t need to make every decision myself.”

As a startup, you will want to have access to knowledge, and experience from several different sources. Use this expertise to guide you when you’re making decisions.

  • Do I have investors that I can speak to that can share insight and knowledge?
  • What are my co-founders and employees good at and how can I best use that expertise?
  • Do I understand the results of my decisions and the impact they have on the business?
  • How should I react when growth slows or stalls?
  • What is the best way for me to delegate tasks to others?
  • Am I collecting the right metrics and feedback and using them to help decision making?

Remember that there are people that can help you, and they want to see your business succeed as much as you do.

Questions about the culture, tools and processes to let you scale, or “We’re doubling business every quarter, and we’re on top of it.”

If you want to be successful and grow rapidly, you need to put the right culture, tools, and processes in place now to help you scale up.

  • Do I have a simple business structure that can be easily expanded as needed?
  • Am I communicating regularly with my people to let them know what’s happening?
  • Have I built a culture of trust and am I listening to my employees?
  • Are our business processes and tools as simple as possible?
  • Am I tracking progress and do I have realistic targets in place?
  • Do I have the best employees, freelancers, or outside experts in the right roles, with the right amount of accountability and ownership.

Good hiring and communications practices, combined with a simple organizational structure, active feedback and the right processes and tools will help your business thrive.

This is only a taster of what you want to think about, and starting to answer these questions will help you firm up the right ideas and approaches in your own mind.

One of the first things you’ll need to think about is “How do I share my business, ideas, products, and services with the world? How do I get my message out there?” That’s something we just might be able to help with.

Ready to be an entrepreneur? Only if you can answer these questions Read More »