Entrepreneurship
*Entrepreneur - a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so (Oxford Dictionary).
Learning Outcomes:
Outline entrepreneurial aspirations and goals
Develop your knowledge base
How to expand your network
Understand the market
Design the business idea
Secure funding
Business development
Outline Entrepreneurial Aspirations and Goals
What service or product(s) do you wish to provide? Use the provided outline to portray goals and objectives as an entrepreneur as well as steps for completion. It is important to write down your goals so you can visualize the path that you need to take to achieve said goals.
Develop Your Knowledge Base
Now that you have an idea of what you wish to pursue, it is time to do some research:
How will this service or product(s) be beneficial to the community?
What is needed to make this product or service successful:
Materials?
Funding?
Facilities?
Partners?
Look for potential educational opportunities that focus on entrepreneurship in the specific area the candidate is interested in.
Understand the Market
Part of your research to deepen your knowledge, was to understand the market, specifically in their community. The best product in the world isn’t going to succeed if there isn’t a market interested in buying it. Starting broad may seem like a good idea, after all that’s the highest possible number of buyers, but trying to sell to everyone means that you’re really selling to no one. To get a better idea of what your market is going to be, you’ll need to develop an understanding of what people are looking for.
Who are the people most likely to buy from you or would be most interested in your service?
Who are the competitors selling a similar service or product?
How do you differ from the competition?
Will the community be receptive to your service or product?
Design the business Idea
Once you’ve settled on what you want to do, then you’re going to have to outline your business structure and develop your product to show that it’s viable. That’s the only way you’re going to be able to win over investors.
It’s time to start laying out exactly how your business will be moving forward. You’ll want to create a business model, aka a business plan, that details how your business will be organized, a prospective budget for the future, details on how your business will make money. If you’re looking for models to follow, consider these business plan templates from Score and from HubSpot.
Plan out the sales process that you’ll use to acquire new customers. What’s your marketing strategy – are you using certain social media accounts? Are you attempting a viral marketing campaign? What sales materials will you need? Most importantly, what’s the process by which you’ll convert those who express interest into actual sales?
It’s time to truly show what your business is about and build out a proof of concept, or what’s also known as a minimum viable product (MVP). The MVP, whether it’s software, a service or a physical product, should be capable of executing the basic and most important functions of your idea.
Secure Funding
You have a plan and you have a product, now it’s time to secure the funding that you’ll actually need to start up your business and get it running. Depending on your product and market, you have several options available.
You can attempt to start with securing initial funding or loans from friends and family. Trust levels are high and you might even be able to receive the funds without having to pay interest or offer too much of a share in your company. Of course, this entirely depends on the level of wealth and assets of the people you know.
A far more likely scenario is that you’ll have to make a pitch to secure funding from venture capital (VC) firms or angel investors. Both are able to provide large amounts of initial funding for startups with the promise of even larger returns through owning stakes in the company. Start by looking at organizations that connect entrepreneurs with funders.
There’s also the opportunity to secure small business grants and loans. These investments differ from VCs and angel investors by offering (generally) smaller amounts of initial capital and having specific requirements: loans will need to be repaid with interest over time, while grants are reserved for meeting certain conditions – such as assisting minority or underprivileged communities.
Business Development
Once you’ve gotten this far, now the real work begins. Time to put that funding into place, whether that be obtaining a location or vehicle, or actually developing or acquiring products.
You’ll need to consider the actual structure of the organization and what the plans are for incorporating the business. At the very least you should consider the option of registering as a limited liability company (LLC) to both build the credibility of the business and protect your personal finances.
Keep working on promoting and marketing the business! You will still need to find ways to reach out to new, prospective customers and announce the latest updates and developments of the product or service. Review the metrics of your campaigns and social media channels to determine what’s working, and what’s not, and what you should be doing to effectively advertise.
Conclusion
Establishing a new business takes time, so do not develop frustrations if success does not happen overnight. Be patient with yourself and the process. Remember, you chose this path because you found the joy of being an entrepreneur.
Continue to monitor the progress of your business, and allow ample time for changes to take affect before making any more drastic changes.