Tips for Beginner Entrepreneur by Oliver Amberton

And again, Oliver Amberton is with us. We have already translated articles on how to find your calling or learn to fulfill dreams. The time has come for specific recommendations. If you are thinking about “going freestyle”, but don’t know where to start, then this material is just for you. In this case, you do not need qualifications, money or a very high level of intelligence. There is no need even for an idea that will be something especially good. Other details are under the cut.

All that an entrepreneur does is create something that makes a profit.
Think of the company as a mechanism that you design, design and build. Take, for example, McDonald's:



Naturally, your “mechanism” consists of certain details. He sells something to someone, and then reinvests money to increase sales in the future. All that remains is net profit for the owner. Look at Google:



If you are able to develop such a mechanism, create it, own it and take care of it, you can really become very rich. This is not easy, but you can easily overcome most of the barriers. Interested in?

Let's talk about you.

Are you young? You have no money? No profession as such? Are you a student or hate your job? Maybe you are a little rebel by nature? Perfectly! You have no bad habits, and you will work tirelessly. The world is waiting for you.
Are you older Wiser? Have any accumulated money? Stable work? Maybe a mortgage and kids? In your case you have to work hard. There is every chance to achieve your goal, but at first there will be a feeling that you are not moving forward, but backward, drowning in quicksand.

The most important qualities of a good entrepreneur are energy and determination. Do not be afraid to be intrusive, this can be learned. I started at 21, being a very shy nerd. Soon I learned to sell when there was no other way to feed myself.
The prologue has come to an end. So, let's make you a billionaire!

Idea

Please forget all that terrible nonsense about the value of the idea that you heard. It's a delusion. Ideas are inexpensive, in addition, their relevance is quite fleeting. The idea itself costs less than a half-eaten sandwich. But at least you can eat a sandwich.
Of course, you can’t do without an idea. But understand that the formation of even the most successful companies was not in any way connected with bright, wild ideas. Starbucks chose the beaten track - they started selling coffee in Seattle. Facebook just improved MySpace. Google has improved Yahoo's search engine. Microsoft took Apple as its basis, which, in turn, imitated Xerox.

The value of a fresh idea is exaggerated. The main thing is to implement it in a timely manner. Google has chosen the perfect time to create an advanced search engine. Now, for example, it is unlikely to be able to do the same. Thus, you need to be extremely aware of the needs of consumers, about which products are not well represented on the market. After all, you want to launch a product or service that will become successful. And it doesn’t matter if it looks original or not. It is usually easier to improve an existing idea that is not 100% implemented than to create a new one.

People are afraid to start a business when there is competition, but competition can be useful. The best place to open a new restaurant is next to another popular restaurant. They have already kindly done the hard work for you - they have found customers. Often a business succeeds due to another business. So, sometimes it’s better to have several rivals than not a single one. You just need to become 10% better.

Personally, I would recommend trying to sell what you and your friends yourself would buy with great pleasure. It will be easier for you to begin to understand an already familiar, interesting area for you, you will better understand your customers, and you will be passionate about what you are doing. If you manage to interest a potential customer, you will inspire yourself and the people around you. And in order to successfully cope with the next stage, inspiration is indispensable.

The beginning

Many compare the emergence of a company with the birth of a child. At the same time, everyone assumes that you know what you are doing, but the operating instructions are not attached to the children, as well as to the companies. You will learn everything along the way, stumbling and learning from your own mistakes.



At the very beginning, there is a huge chance that you will not succeed. Your goal is to build this magical mechanism for making money, but you may not have all the necessary parts, and the ones you need may cost more money than you currently have. Your idea is wrong (at least half), but you still don't know which half needs to be replaced. All this is normal.

When Steve Jobs founded Apple, he had neither money nor customers. What he did speaks of him as a great entrepreneur. First, he persuaded the local computer store to order his non-existent Apple computers with payment upon receipt. He then convinced the supplier to sell him the components necessary for the production of machines, using the order as evidence that he could pay for the goods. Jobs and his small team built the first computers in their garage. In the end, they delivered them on time and made good profits. Apple came out of nothing. Creating a company, you need to convince people to believe in you.



Most novice entrepreneurs go to a similar trick early on. If that sounds scary, then don’t hesitate - the way it is. One day I had to pay employees with my credit card burdened with debts when one of the first orders fell through. In general, until you try, you won’t know.

Doing all this, you must maneuver between the process of creating the ideal company (task for the idealist) and paying bills (task for the realist). If you do not take both points into account, you will not succeed. That is why the collaboration of realists and idealists is so common in business.

Do not run ahead of the engine. Do not try to create a large company at an early stage, just strive to create a company. Do not rush to spend and hire. Do not waste time writing applications and concluding contracts. Imagine that now you are someone small, nimble and aimed at work. Create and sell. You will manage to organize the personnel department later.

Do not be surprised or scared if your company changes over time. A rare business survives the first contact with its customers. However, do not abuse - do not change direction too often. In this case, the profit will definitely not increase.

So, your company survived, you reinvested your meager incomes and increased them. Now you can go to the next step.

Make yourself less important to the company.

Most small enterprises are unable to overcome this stage.
Until now, there is probably one irreplaceable detail in your magical business mechanism - it's you. If you are an economist, you are probably the chief accountant. If the programmer is the best encoder in the company. Whatever you do in your company, most likely you feel important and somewhat overworked.



Here's the hardest part: you have to make yourself redundant. If you fall dead tomorrow, your business should continue to operate unchanged, as if nothing had happened. All your time should be spent working on a business, not a business. Otherwise, you just hired yourself, along with other specialists.

Many enterprises fall into this trap. But I'm sure you will fight. Remember that it is you who lead the company to success, and if you fail to become part of the business model, your company will not develop.

McDonald's has built a business that will work, even if wages are minimal. The production process is so streamlined that it works on its own. Every hamburger is effective, and nothing is left to chance. Their brand is so large that people line up around the world to eat at McDonald's. Your business may be fundamentally different, but it should be just as reliable.

If you go through this, you will get a self-supporting mechanism. Monthly profits will be quite high. And now you have enough time to grow your business. Now, to conquer the world, all you have to do is go up.

Scaling

The last step is a bit like the game “Who wants to be a millionaire?”. Each question that you answer correctly doubles your money. Or you go home.



Do not make naive mistakes, assuming that a large company is like a small one, but bigger. Although ... It doesn’t matter! It’s the same as telling your children that drinking will not make them cool. You will feel everything in your own skin.

As the company grows, its rules and culture will also change. You may even find that you do not like the company you created (many founders experience similar contradictions). If you are one of them, you can hire help, sell the company, or go all-in and see how everything turns out.

Remember, no business can grow indefinitely. Just be a two-person plumbing company. But it is almost impossible to build a corporation of plumbers of 1000 people.

Define your boundaries in advance. If your company is related to software, then you're in luck. This industry is incredibly popular today, which explains the number of young billionaires.

In conclusion

Creating a company has never been so easy. You can create a killer product without leaving the student hostel. And without even registering any documents. So it was with Facebook.

In my understanding, business is a kind of honest gambling. Mastery and perseverance determine a lot here, but luck plays a major role. As long as you fall and rise again, try different things and continue to study, the score is in your favor. It remains only to decide.

Good luck!