How To Start a Successful Business You Love

All businesses start with an idea. Some are ideas are simple and some complex, but the successful ones solve a problem. Sometimes it’s a problem you didn’t know you had. Ultimately, as long as your business adds value to the lives of consumers that’s what matters.

An Idea is key, but you need more than just an idea. You need passion as well. If you find a product or service that sells but its something you hate, you’ll never be as successful as you could be.

Your idea should be something you care about. Ideally it will be the solution you’ve been looking for. For example, you really wish there was a bowling alley in your town because you love to bowl but you hate driving to the next town over to bowl at their run down alley.

Examine Your Idea

Starting a bowling center in your town doesn’t guarantee success, but it does guarantee your interest. You’ll need to tell people about it, be excited and get them excited too. You’ll need to take everything about why it solves your problem and turn that into the “why”. As in “why would people spend their money here”. That is all business is, solving problems in exchange for money. The thing is, money solves a lot of problems. So your job is to identify why the solution your offering is more worthy than another solution to another problem.

To put it simply. I’ve got 99 problems and money would solve most of them. I have enough money for the big ones- shelter, food, clothing and some left over. Lets say the remaining problems are minor, they are things you want but don’t have. They fall into Entertainment, Travel, Goods & Services, Charity. What is going to make what you are offering more appealing than satisfying the consumers desire for something else? Your passion may make the difference.

Trust In Your Business

In order to be successful you need to know your industry, know your customer, and connect with everyone involved. That may seems a little extreme, but its true. Relationships are key to everything in business, especially where marketing is concerned.

No one wants to buy from someone they don’t have any trust in. In fact, nobody really wants very much from someone they don’t trust. For all I know there really could be a Nigerian prince out there trying to give me $10 million. I will continue to miss out because I don’t trust the emails or whoever may be sending them, so they continue to go to spam.

Now you may not care if you trust your customers, but if you’re a supplier you might. Trust allows you to work on net terms instead of cash. It also allows you to build relationships and be informed of new deals you can then pass along to the consumer.

Basing your idea around something that you love helps you to quickly build that trust. You know your product and you are thrilled to share it. You’re not a sketchy used car salesman trying to pawn off a lemon when you care about what you’re selling and people can tell.

Developing Your Business

Once you have your idea you need to decide if its something that can generate revenue. As mentioned above, why would someone pay for what you are offering? Once that question has been answered your left with the task of making sure your expenses are less than the revenue.

The easy part is finding something you’re passionate about and selling it. The hard part is making that turn a profit. For that you will need to determine how you will deliver your offering to your market. You’ll need to identify your costs and margin by asking yourself questions like “do I need an office?”, “will I hire employees?”, “will I need storage?” and so on.

You’re on Your Way

For now, focus on identifying your idea. Think about how you can do things differently and add value that others don’t. Develop your concept of how you will get your product or service to the market. Above all, make sure its something you want to do for the rest of your life. You will pour countless hours into your business at the start with little financial reward, but if you do it right you will likely set yourself up for financial success in the long run. You can have a business that will last that you’re proud of and love.

I’ll be continuing to post the step by step journey on how to start a successful business so don’t forget to follow! I’ll be covering everything from financials to marketing

For a complete overview check out How to Start a Business.