Your idea might be cool on paper, but when people are looking to solve a problem, you want your product or service to be the first thing on their mind, every time. When you can identify a problem, and know you have a way to provide a solution, you’ve taken the first few, very essential, steps in starting your business.
Postmates and Doordash delivered food from restaurants without a delivery service. Lyft and Uber ensured that a ride is never more than a few blocks away (all while providing accessible jobs to people looking for work!). At Werqwise, we offer flexible working spaces to help eliminate the high cost of rent and utilities, provide hospitality to you and your clients, and offer private offices for a more personable work life. Any way to incorporate additional keywords like hospitality, flexible workspace and private offices?
If you can pinpoint that one itch you’ll be scratching for your consumer base, then you’re well on your way to achieving household name status. If you’re still dealing with a few maybes and second thoughts, don’t be afraid to re-work your idea. You don’t want to be starting a business with anything less than perfection!
What can I do to start small?
Unfortunately, not all businesses have the luxury of locking down investors. If you’re able to get financed, great! But if you’ve got a product that has to be seen to be believed, starting small is a great way to convince possible clients of your product’s potential.
Whether you’re taking food to a farmer’s market, or the holiday season’s next big seller to a toy fair, it’s a huge help to get up close and personal to your audience. Starting small means you can answer questions directly, and get instant feedback to make the tweaks you would have never thought of.
What are you going to do differently?
It was Mark Twain who said “There is no such thing as a new idea… We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope.” And it’s true! Mostly, anyway…
Your company doesn’t have to break ground on an entirely new market. There were taxis long before ridesharing, and hotels paved the way for home rental. Even companies like Paypal and Venmo made it easier to transfer funds. It was that “something different” that can turn your company’s name into a verb.
People unknowingly come up with some amazing ideas. Little things that “If this one business would just do this, they would easily earn a customer for life!” Well if that one business isn’t going to do it, yours sure can! Don’t worry about creating something entirely new. Again, all you need to do is scratch that one itch, and suddenly you might become the new market leader.
How do I define success?
When you finish a book, television show, or movie, everything, for better or worse, ends with a bow wrapped neatly on top. Successfully starting a business is the exact opposite. There should be no end in sight.
Milestones are a much wiser way to measure the prosperity of your business. When you knock one down, set the next one up. As long as your business is moving full steam ahead, you’ll keep seeing successes, both little and big, along the way.
While we wish we could help you with every question along your journey of starting a business, these are four key questions that most business owners frequently find themselves asking. When you can answer each of these questions with confidence, you’re ready to take your company into the launch phase.