Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Many, many people have good ideas for starting businesses, but they run into trouble when executing their unique ideas. The following contributed post is entitled, Business Ideas Are Easy. It’s The Practicalities That Are Hard.
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How many people do you know who have a great idea for a business? Chances are there are at least half a dozen of them in your life. And they like nothing more than sitting down with a drink in a bar and spending all night talking about them, including how much money they’re going to make.
When they actually come to do it – if they bother, that is – they encounter a problem. Organizing all the practicalities is a nightmare. They wonder how anyone manages to get a business off the ground.
In this post, we’re going to look at some of the everyday practical stumbling blocks for getting a business off the ground, and how you can overcome them.
Getting Funding For Your Idea
You might have an excellent idea for a business, but convincing people that it is the real deal is a challenge. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos asked more than fifty people for money when setting up his e-commerce store. Less than half of them agreed to pay him. Think about that: even the world’s richest man struggled to finance his startup.
If you’re looking for money, therefore, you have to create a quality pitch. Ideally, you need to know two things:
● Why people will love your idea
● How much money it is likely to make
Once you have those two things nailed, most investors will become very interested in your project quickly.
Sorting Out Your Logistics
Some entrepreneurs attempt to manage their logistics in-house. But this is a hopelessly terrible idea. Heavy haulage isn’t something you can do by yourself. It’s immensely complicated and requires the assistance of experts who have the right equipment. The last thing you want is to lose a load because of errors in your distribution strategy.
If your startup relies on moving stuff from one place to another, always outsource the task to somebody who knows what they’re doing. Avoid the temptation to adopt the DIY approach.
Finding People To Do The Work
You would think that finding people to work in your business would be easy, given how many individuals are currently looking for jobs. The problem, though, is capturing the employees with the right talents. There are thousands of people who are willing to work in your enterprise. But very few of them actually have the skills you want.
In general, there are two approaches to this problem. You can either pull people out of your private network and get them working for you. Or you can get a specialist recruiter to do it for you. The advantage of the former is that it will cost you much less. The benefit of the latter is that you get results faster. So it’s a trade-off between time and money.
Whatever you do, commit to getting the people you need to make your enterprise work. They almost always pay for themselves in the long-run.
Entrepreneurship is partly about ideas, but mainly, it’s the practicalities that make the difference. That’s why so many wealthy people are doers, not “thinkers.”
