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Are you an entrepreneur wanting to start your own business? My name is Drew Aversa. I’m an author, coach, keynote speaker, business strategist and adjunct professor of entrepreneurship. The next 10 minutes I’m going to give you a free training on how to start your business so you are not one of those business owners that hits that 50% failure mark within the five years and one of those business owners that after 10 years 90% go out of business.
So if you don’t want to be in that category, keep watching this video for a sound road map on how to start your business and be successful. The span of business is truly amazing and the industries that businesses reach are wide. When you think about business, you can think about your first lemonade stand perhaps. When you were a kid in high school selling the basics of sales, all the way to starting a restaurant franchise with multiple locations or a non-profit doing social good.
The business world is a wonderful world if you get off to the right start that’s why I wanted to create this free training for entrepreneurs so I’m so glad you’re here with me today learning about how to start your business and how to start a successful business. I will be giving you key things that you can focus on to start grow and ensure your business is successful and in addition to ways that you can be successful.
I’m also going to point out some of the things that people overlook when they’re starting their business so that way you are successful and you don’t hit any of those landmines that are out there that could potentially ruin all your efforts and be very costly as I’m helping you the only ask I have is if you can hit the like button on this video because when you hit that like button it lets the algorithm know that you like this video. It brings it up into the feed into the different social media networks and I really want more people to have this free training so if you can do your part right now hit that like button subscribe if you want to thank you so much alright so let’s get going.
The first thing to starting your business is to determine your purpose. Why do you want to start a business? What are you hoping to get out of starting this business? How big is this business going to be in your mind in the ideal state? When the ideal state I mean this once you’re up and running you have capital everything. What does this business look like to you and understanding your purpose will help you enjoy the business.
I can’t tell you how many business owners I meet that either love their business they love doing what they’re doing or they hate it. They have problem after problem and they can’t wait for this thing to go away. They can’t wait to sell their business. So you have two choices starting now: be that business owner that has a clear purpose a clear mission in this world as to why you’re starting this business in the first place because it’s a choice. You can either stay doing what you’re doing be an employee or be an entrepreneur and take the risk to start something.
So let’s figure out your purpose and what I want you to do is write down: Why am I starting this business? What do I want to get out of starting this business? Who am I serving doing this business? Who are my customers? Who are the people that will refer us? And who are the people that may not want to come to us in our market?
So we need to understand how viable is this business. Alongside our passion and our purpose and our mission as entrepreneurs we may have a wonderful vision. The market may not be ready as was the case with numerous entrepreneurs years and years before us, when you think about Henry Ford, how many failures did Henry Ford have before Ford motor company launched and was successful.
So as you’re thinking about your purpose, think about who you are, what you want and who you want to serve, start writing those things down brainstorm, get a board like this behind me and just put stuff up there and see what sticks and then from there you can ask people. You can have an idea session of Hey, this is what I’m thinking about doing, what do you think? Do you think this is viable? Do you think there are customers out there who would like this? Get more opinions than just your own from a trusted sounding board.
All right, so step one purpose. Step 1.5: Go to my website with this link right here yep and you will get a free copy of my business book Grow It Now. You can also buy it on Amazon if you want the paperback for 9.95 but a free copy right now on my website drewversa.com and you will get a free copy of the business book that I use with all my clients starting them from step one like we’re just doing all the way to executing their business and growing their business. It’s a great book hit the top 100 on Amazon new releases out of books out there on out of the millions Amazon so I strongly encourage you to get that right now
Step 2 to starting your business: YOUR KNOWLEDGE BASE your knowledge base. What do I mean by this? What are you knowledgeable about imagine that you want to start a business for neurosurgeons and you’ve never taken an anatomy and physiology class? You don’t know anything about the body. You don’t have a knowledge base in this and I’m not saying you can’t start something in that field what I’m saying is it’s going to take you a long time because there’s a thing in business called learning curve theory so you have to learn and then there’s this curve before you actually get all the knowledge you understand: What the issues are? What the pros are, the cons are, the risks, all these different things to really understand the business that you’re going into.
So some businesses like food service may be easier for you to enter into if you perhaps partner with a franchise and they have an operating system already set. They have the technology already set and you know that you are an excellent person with customer service. You’ve done very well with sales. You know how to manage a basic budget and you know how to recruit and hire staff that might be a wonderful business for you to go into where perhaps you don’t know everything about food service but the people you’re partnering up with they do and you’re bringing your knowledge base with their knowledge base to form a meaningful partnership and to move forward starting a business where you are your own boss
And here’s why the knowledge base is key. Statistics show that within the first five years fifty percent of small business owners fail. They go out of business all of the money, all the hard work and let’s face it. Sometimes when you lay out quite a bit of money that depending on the business you’re in, it might take you past five years to recover that amount just to break even, just to break even with your startup costs. Especially if you’re going to a brick and mortar retail environment with build outs and things like that. So it’s very important to be mindful in your startup costs and your knowledge base if you’re thinking about technology, technology also has risk to build product is costly at times if you are not a product engineer, if you don’t know how to build the technology, let’s face it. You’re going to have to go out there and hire somebody who knows how to build the technology that can be expensive as well.
Ecommerce stores are also not cheap to do right with SEO with getting on top of Google. I always say it’s like online real estate you have to pay money whether you are in a brick and mortar shop or you have to pay money to Google, Facebook, all the different social media companies that are out there to get to the top even on Amazon. You see all those ads that are sponsored ads bringing their products to the top so making sure you have a knowledge base in what you’re doing is key to launch successfully and to also minimize potential risks down the road if you don’t have the knowledge but you have a general idea or you have some different strengths to bring to the table partnering with the right franchise with the right other entrepreneur that can be extremely beneficial because now you are sharing your knowledge base.
The third tip for starting your business: Marketing And Revenue whether you’re a non-profit or a for-profit you have to have revenue. If you’re starting a non-profit business then from there, you have to think about grants who’s paying your bills. How do you keep the lights on? How do you pay staff? How do people have health care? These are very important questions and you have to have an answer to this and that usually comes around marketing, grant writing, different things like that to generate revenue sales what are the things that you are going to have in your business model to offer your customers. It’s either a service. It’s either a product or a program.
So start thinking about what service you’re offering? What product you’re offering? What program you’re offering and that can start helping you figure out what revenue model that you have to start building out in order to be sustainable.
The fourth tip to starting your business is to research your industry. Yes, that’s right. You need to research your industry and within the industry. Let’s say you pick technology there might be a subset like healthcare technology and you need to research that industry you need to know the trends is this a growing industry or is this a dying industry. There is a lot of disruption going on right now so if you plan on going into business and you are going into a dying or contracting industry that might not be a wise move even if you think you are the most disruptive person out there. If you don’t have a lot of capital and a good sounding board around you, I would be very careful in going into a dying industry or one that is being disrupted at rapid speed and rapid pace because that often takes a lot of capital to be number one in that industry.
So look at industries that have solid sustainable growth, they have upward trends that look sustainable and they look like they are something that you can actually do and that the risk is worth the reward within reason. So understanding your industry is a big big tip and then from there you need to understand your national and your local competition. You need to look at what are the national trends in your space. For me I’ve done a lot in the food and beverage space so I always refer to that and with that I would say: Look to McDonalds’. Look to Starbucks. Look to these big chains that are out there that you can see what is going on in the industry: What do people like? Do they like hot coffee? Do they like cold coffee? We’ve seen that cold brew and cold product categories are going up but millennials love that.
So if you are thinking about doing hot drinks and you’re seeing trends go up in the cold drink space maybe there’s an opportunity for you in the cold drink space so that is what I mean by looking at national and then from there look at the local level. What do people like in your area? The best way to get started as an entrepreneur is to have a local base. If you’re bringing into market a hot sauce then think about having a hot sauce in your local grocery store will people buy it. Can you test this product in a local store and is there demand remember the principle of economics supply and demand.
Tip number five to starting your business is putting a plan in place so many people are busy working on their business yet they fail to put a plan in place. There is no road map so things start happening day after day after day the fire as people call it. They try to put out fire after fire after fire and there’s no plan in place and then things get worse and worse and worse typically and people get deeper and deeper and deeper into the hole and when that happens.
We’re so focused on such small details and problems and different things like that that we forget the bigger plan. We forget the strategy. We forget the roadmap of how we go from point A to point Z and have that final destination in the end which is often called an exit strategy so you have to have a plan in place. Today you start your business for how you’re going to start it, how you’re going to grow it, how you’re going to scale it and how you’re going to exit one day because you may want to go on and start another business and if you haven’t thought about the exit then you can be running a business and then at the end of that time you’re going: Wow, I want help. I want to do something different. I want to start another business and if the business didn’t build the right things in place in the first place, it can be very difficult to sell a business right because you’re selling at that point perhaps just your idea if it’s not sustainable if it’s not scalable if people can’t take it over. There’s no operations in place for them to take it over.
So think about operating plans, think about human resources plans, thinking about recruiting plans different things like that your day-to-day operations even if you’re running an e-commerce business and you want to sell that e-commerce business. How can somebody like myself come and buy a business from you and start running it the next day? Do you have an operating manual in place that literally I could walk through and I could be making the same money as you and then potentially growing more money if I was focused and really committed to this business that’s the value you have to give in your business not only to your employees but down the road to somebody who’s interested in selling or acquiring your business is through strategic planning and that sounds like a big word and it sounds like something that is reserved for big, big companies.
It’s not small businesses that are successful have plans in place and they do this frequently quarterly reviews, looking at the plans, talking about things and tweaking things and modifying things throughout the year so the plan is running smoothly.
Now when you start your business in your plan, you should have a budget. You need to have a budget so you need to understand your costs, your expenses, all the different things that go into your business. You need to know what your breakeven point is? How much money do you have in the bank right now and when will you breakeven? When will your expenses be paid off? So that way you know when you are truly profitable. When you’re actually having money in that bank that you can go take a nice trip to the Bahamas and you don’t have to worry about it because your business is profitable that’s why planning is very important.
Now you’re saying: Well, I don’t know how to do a plan. You can work with me. You can schedule a free call. We can talk about what it might look like to work together. There are also these things called small business development centers in the United States where you can apply and you can actually get business coaching from different business coaches on there so either way if you work with me or you call a small business development center, there are a lot of resources out there to help you with your planning to make sure that you are successful because people don’t want to see you fail. They want to see that success story of entrepreneurship that American dream.
The next tip to growing your business is talk to professionals. You don’t have all the information and nor should you because you know what you know but you also need to know what you don’t know so knowing what you don’t know helps you plan. It helps you plan effectively and it helps you bring in the experts.
So starting with a branding expert. What is your brand? What logo are you going to have for your business? How are you going to differentiate online on Google, on all these online search things that show your brand and your logo? How do you stand out branding is key and then from there you need to also talk with a CPA to understand tax implications both on a personal level as well as on a business level and lawyers to talk about what sort of incorporation might be right? it an LLC? Is it an sCorp? Is it a cCorp? What is the right structure for your business depending on your goals? Do you plan on bringing in investors? Do you plan on giving equity? What are your goals? and those are things that you need to talk with experts and licensed professionals on and then when it gets to business, you want to work with a business consultant. You want to hire somebody to walk through your business plan to say you know what I would check this or in it.
I think that’s a little risky having eyes and ears to work with you and to be a sounding board is key. When you think about big corporations, there are numerous people involved on different leadership teams, board of directors and if you’re starting a small business, don’t try to do this on your own, reach out to people. You’ll be surprised. There are so many groups on Facebook that you can reach out to different entrepreneur groups. Get on LinkedIn, find an entrepreneur in a product space that you like and say: Hey would you be willing to talk to me for 5-10 minutes. I want to go through this thing with you, a couple ideas, couple questions.
People are truly willing to help. You’ll find that the entrepreneurial community is actually very helpful and you don’t have to always look out to entrepreneurs right in your backyard online you can reach people across the world doing things that you want to do and making the impact that you want to make so use technology can be your friend in this situation of reaching out having a sounding board and reaching really cool people that are doing exactly what you want to do and here’s the money tip to growing your business. As an entrepreneur you may have to lay out some money because odds are your business does not have a track record and perhaps you as an entrepreneur don’t have a track record.
Now I’ll say that there is this thing called other people’s money OPM. OPM are banks, are private investors, angel investors, different forums through maybe your university. I have access to people in capital that can help you grow so researching other people’s money is extremely helpful because it reduces the amount of money that you have to bring out of your own pocket so that way you have more money to live because when you’re starting a business you need to have money to live so when you hear about other people’s money OPM that’s what we’re talking about in business is what sort of funding, is out there through all the different channels, all the different resources that are out there people use Kickstarter campaigns. People use GoFundMe. There are all sorts of ways out there to raise money right now to get ventures lifted and video marketing is one of the best things you can have a short video explaining: Hey I’m Drew and this is what I’m here to do today. This is my business or this is my product that I got made and this is blah blah blah blah blah blah and we want to do this and we need to raise $10 000 in order to have the plan come forward and the plan is an online business e-commerce this that and buying 1 000 units of this product that we can start selling right here to you right now today because we’ve already proven that 20 people love this product and have given it great reviews if you do something as simple as that you have the ability to reach more people and to reach people who have money to help you grow and scale your business venture and lastly there are a lot of people interested in technology.
Venture capital is not that easy to get. Venture capital firms get hit up with a ton a ton of people so really start thinking about who you have in your network, ways you can do what I just mentioned with the video. Kickstarter campaigns different things like that to show proof of concept. Venture capital firms want to see your proof of concept. They want to know that this is actually a viable thing and that you’re really committed before they give you millions of dollars wouldn’t you do that with somebody who wanted a million dollars.
So get started researching other people’s money OPM and make sure you manage your money extremely well so that way you can live, you’re not starving, you’re not broke and you’re not living under a tree trying to start an amazing business because you’ll have this other thing called stress and entrepreneurs do have a lot of challenges with mental health with stress like that because it’s very stressful managing all these different pieces so do take care of yourself
So we’ve covered some of the basics that you need to do to start your business. One figuring out your purpose. Next putting a plan in place having money to start this business, having a proof of concept, having a brand, having the legal structures in place to get going so now you should be at this point where you’re thinking I’m either starting this business or I’ve done the research and I’m not there should be that Y in the road where you take action and you take action either one of two ways; you say nope I’m not doing this. It’s not the right time. It’s not the right business model or yes, I’m going all in. I’m doing this step by step. I have a plan in place so congratulations you’re an entrepreneur. You just decided you are starting your business. It’s freaking awesome. I’m here for you team.
So what’s next? Well, what’s next is you should start working with somebody to figure out how to get your business going in the right direction and as you’re doing that you want to start evaluating your efforts are the hours that you’re putting in working if you look through the lens as a business leader and not as somebody who just has a dream and you’re trying to fulfill this dream. You will have more success and you have to modify, you have to tweak, you have to innovate throughout the course of your business, you have to change things. Things change in business all the time whether it’s an online business or whether it’s a brick and mortar business things are constantly evolving and changing in today’s disruptive business world take a time out quarterly for strategy, put it on your calendar, put planning sessions in place, put a leadership team time in place where you can carve out time with people on your leadership team go for a hike, have those candid conversations of what’s working extremely well, what are the gaps, what am I not seeing be a humble leader and let people tell you things that you may not want to hear and that will also help you be more successful because if you’re one of those leaders that doesn’t listen to people or people are afraid or intimidated, they don’t want to talk with you then you will have gaps in your business that inevitably will cause a lot of problems and really at the end of the day that’s on us as leaders to listen to our people and to have sounding boards to go out in the field to know what it’s like if you were running a restaurant. How fast can people chop tomatoes? What tools do they need different things like that right? Be a leader, who never forgets where you came from? Be a leader, who is always out there trying to make it better? For the people, who are helping you and your success with your vision remember people need jobs and when you’re an entrepreneur one of the biggest responsibilities we have is to create a culture of trust a culture of caring and a culture of confidence where people are confident in our leadership abilities our skills and the way we treat people
So get out there. Go start your business. Congratulations on being an entrepreneur and if you need anything here is a link to my website. Here’s the business coaching form. You can literally start this form and then schedule a coaching session with me one on one and the coaching sessions start at 249 for one hour and in that hour you will get a ton of actionable advice that you can start rolling out today to grow your business really proud of you. It takes a lot to be an entrepreneur. It takes a lot of grit so go congratulate yourself today if you haven’t done that go take yourself for a nice walk self-care whatever it is and just know you’re right on track. You’re right where you need to be researching learning doing all the things that I’ve done other entrepreneurs have done spending hours on YouTube trying to figure out you know what the right way is to start grow your business and make sure it is successful. Make it a great day!
