In 2007, Mark Manson moved from a cohort of employees to entrepreneurs. Now he admits that if he were asked then what his business would look like in five years, he would not be able to answer. Therefore, Mark put together this list for newcomers to the business so that they at least have a little idea of what they are faced with.
1. Sell. Do not squander money
Obvious advice to me today. My first business started powerfully, so I decided to reward myself with an unnecessary trip to Buenos Aires with friends, where I spent most of the money I earned in the first six months.
Less than a year later, I went broke and begged my ex to let her live with her so as not to be on the street. Do not repeat my mistake.
2. Earn on your free time
Most people who want to start a business complain that they do not have enough free time. Between work, hobbies and family obligations, they have a maximum of an hour or two a day to sit down and come up with a new business idea that you can get rich on.
No, no and NO. If you have a feeling that in your free time you are working in a second job, you lost, not even starting.
Take what you like – analyze sports matches, gardening or wood carvings – and try to make money from it. This is the most reasonable starting point. So you will not give up your hobby, but expand it.
3. Communicate with other entrepreneurs
You need to surround yourself with people who you want to be like. If all your friends are boring office plankton, then you will unconsciously feel social pressure and remain the same boring office plankton.
Such friends will not understand your ambitions or will even be offended and envious. Find people who are in the same state as you, push and motivate each other.
4. Drop work as soon as possible
Burn bridges. Do not leave yourself any options for retreat.
5. Feel free
The desire to do something that no one else has done before you requires a certain degree of unreasonable faith in yourself. You must be prepared:
• turn into an object of ridicule;
• ring up dozens of potential customers and convince them that you can do the job better than anyone else;
• advertise your new product to people who are unaware of its existence;
• promise to provide your unique product or service, even if you still have little idea how to do it. But at the same time, then you must definitely figure out how to do it.
You should not be shy.
6. Fuck your business idea
Mark Kuban once said that for every good business idea, you have to imagine that 100 other people who are already working on it have the same idea. Business ideas are not important. Performance is important.
Henry Ford did not invent the car. He just figured out how to make cars better than others.
Many people are proud of themselves because they came up with a cool idea. But the most successful companies, if you look at the history, rarely based on new ideas. Google is not a new idea. Facebook is not a new idea. Microsoft is not a new idea. It’s just that these companies coped with the implementation better than others.
7. Read less, do more
Try to read only when you need a specific solution for the problem that you encountered at work. You do not need to read about marketing, because it seems to you that you should understand marketing. This is damn boring. Read about marketing when your new project needs a marketing strategy. Suddenly, reading will become much more interesting.
Often people read about what they want to do, instead of really doing something. Reading is useless without execution.
8. Check, check, check
You don’t know anything until you tested it. Every marketing seminar I attended and every marketing book I read said it was necessary to raise prices. Nevertheless, the split test that I conducted on my books on the site showed that books with low prices do not lead to a decrease in revenue, but, on the contrary, attract new customers, receive more positive reviews and bring more traffic to the site.
9. Be eccentric
You cannot stand out if you are no different from the rest. Turn your oddities to your advantage.
10. Constantly think about your brand
The reality of the modern economy is that any information, product or service that people need is already available in dozens of options. There is no shortage anymore. To differ from competitors only in price or quality is an almost unrealistic strategy for entering a new market.
Only a brand can dominate the market.
Your brand determines how the relationship develops with a customer or customer. It is for this reason that they return to you, and not go to your competitors who offer exactly the same services.