My entrepreneurship journey is now in its thirteen years. Before the leap of faith into it back in 2011, I was in corporate for ten years. This coming October, I will be 52. I’ve experienced success and failure, made millions and lose some, made new friends and lost a few too across my journey.
Here is the route I am using to make it happen, and at the same to ensure that I minimise expensive mistakes in the future. Just for your information, I’m growing an internet platforms business so my context here is pretty much website-based. Nevertheless, the concept here can be applied on your business.
- Take time to come up with the business idea, then draft an extremely detailed business plan. It has to be a very, very detailed plan and I am putting everything that is in my head into a document. I make sure that I do not leave anything behind.
- Creating value. The business I am building must stay relevant forever and to achieve this, I need to know my target market and solve their current problems through the products or services available on my website.
- Identify the right benchmark. The idea that I have here, has been done by other people already. It’s not new. Whatever idea we have today, somebody out there might have done it already and this is a fact. So, what I do next after I have the idea is to find the people or brand that has done it, observe how they are doing it, identify the reason behind their success (or failure), and make mine better.
- Monetisation, cash flow and exit. In the business plan, these three elements are as critical as the business idea itself. How to make money, what are the ways to generate income, are those incomes sustainable that comes in again and again, and how best to exit from the business when the time comes.
- The business plan must have on-going versions, with regular updates as I go along. When drafting the business plan, I will insert the latest information I found from my readings, observations and input I get from my conversations with other people, into the plan. This kind of input will always be there each time I changed to a new book, when I come across new articles, meet with new people for coffee and so on. That being said, my business plan must stay fluid and flexible — always be updating.
- Find a cut-off date and start executing it. Usually, I will put a cut-off date and start working on the execution part of it. In my case, the cut-off date here would mean, I will need to share the plan with my website development person and build the website. Before reaching the cut-off date, I need to be confident that whatever mistakes I am going to do after this, will be expensive and cost money. On paper, the mistakes will still be free but not when executing the plan.
- Understand who will execute the plan. Here you have a few options. One, it can be you and you alone. Two, you can create a team to work on it together and reap the fruits together. And three, you hire people or freelancers and pay them to work on the execution. In my case, I usually go for either the second option or the third one since I play a long game.
- Continue to update the business plan, with minor add-ons. If I don’t continue to update it, I might miss out on the latest or valuable trends, features or better ways of doing things. So, when the website is being developed and completed, I will continue to refine my business plan with updated information and details in place.
- Soft-launch the business and officially launch it. Once the website is ready, I will run through the user experience test with my website development guy to make sure everything is smooth and there should be no hiccups. This usually takes me a month or two. Once satisfied, I will then soft-launch it. During this period, I will invite a number of close friends to give it a test, use it, and send me their honest feedback for improvements. This alone will take easily one or two more months. After all the rectifications are made, I will straight away enter the market by officially launching it.
- Continue to refine the business plan with the latest finding or input and make the business better. Once the traffic starts to come in, people are using the website and purchasing the products or services offered, I will find a few more small issues, bugs and challenges which theoretically were missed. This is the time we start to redo certain processes, make certain changes and take out unnecessary things to ensure the user experience is better.
- Fundamental is finally done, and now it is all about growth. With all the fundamentals are done and you are ready to hit the market big time or grow the business to the next level, improving the user experience matters. By this time, I already have certain financial capabilities and it is wise to reinvest in the user interface—making it even more professional to cater for the global market. This is where I will be spending big on marketing too.
The above methods are proven and tested. Being 52, the last thing I want is to see my hard-earned money burned just like that. Losing money is never an option. I’m sure this applies to you too. Should I plan to come up with a new business, I am going to use these methods and take this route till the end. Maybe you can take some ideas here and build your own steps to build yours. I don’t play short games but long ones. If you prefer the same style, you will see significant results out of your effort here within 24 months or so. The result is worth the wait.
Remember, continue improvising and do not rush the process.
