It has been a few years now since I wrote my first business plan for the happychild website, registered trademarks and started to publish the happychild newsletter. It’s almost one year since the site launched on 1 July 2010. When I started to write these posts for the ABN, I wanted to share my “entrepreneur’s journey”; that phrase sounded like a cliché, but it has been an accurate description of several years of travelling towards many destinations, with some unexpected stops along the way. I’ve always known the direction I’m travelling in, but I have rarely predicted the detours and roadblocks; I’ve always had a plan but I have rarely anticipated the best parts of the journey. Perhaps you’re at the start of your entrepreneur’s journey – writing the plan, saving the money and dreaming big. What do you want to know? Reflecting on what I wish I had known, I decided to share some things I have learned, before you pack your bags for your first business trip! Although these five tips are cautionary, my intention is to encourage and support your success.
Perfect is Too Late
You will never have your business plan, finances, technology, office layout or logo absolutely perfect – if you wait for perfection, someone else may take your seat on the journey. Once you have the basics in place, make a start and work hard to listen to feedback from your customers – that’s often where you’ll get the most valuable feedback. Strive for perfection after you launch your business.
Protect Your Idea
If you plan to build a sustainable, profitable and even saleable business, take steps to protect your intellectual property. Depending on your business, this could include patenting a design or registering trade marks for a business name. Information about this is available on the Australian government’s IP Australia website, but you should also seek legal advice in this area.
Invest in Quality
Whether your business is online, offline or both, make sure that the infrastructure of your business is the highest quality you can afford from the beginning. This means: choose a website developer that has plenty of experience in building what you need, take time to find a great location for your physical business and have a clear vision of the values that your business will stand for. This is not about being perfect (see above); it’s about having clarity about the essential elements of a successful business. Clarity and quality will help you make good decisions when you reach your first detour or roadblock.
Tomorrow Really is Another Day
Sometimes you’ll feel exhausted, worried about the direction you are going in, feel upset about a colleague; at other times you’ll doubt you have the vision and strength to execute your business plan. Believe me on this one – these are normal feelings and these inevitable times on your journey are when you’ll reflect on your itinerary and perhaps even make some small changes. But the next day or the next week, you will feel different again and as long as you have a great business idea and plan, tomorrow is another day when something great may happen.
Trust is Earned
One of the best books I have read on trust is by Maister, Green and Galford – The Trusted Advisor. There is an equation in that book that makes perfect sense to me: T = (C + R + I) /S T = trust C = credibility (real expertise and experience) R = reliability (established dependability and reputation) I = intimacy (honesty and disclosure) S = self-orientation (only in it for the money, the benefit to themselves or their own agenda) Along your journey, you’ll meet competitors, engage consultants and network with colleagues. As a general rule, you should extend a degree of trust to everyone you meet, but when it comes to making decisions to spend money on a consultant or divulge confidential business information, you need to be more astute than you might be in social settings. In my experience, most people can be trusted, but in business, you need to spend more time getting to know your advisor, mentor, network and consultant before you place your business or business information in their hands. Use the formula above and it may help you make the right decisions. Making this journey was the right decision for me – I’m loving it. Thank you for reading these posts along the way. Can you share another tip with me here on the blog? Or do you have a question?
