Many entrepreneurs and inventors who came up with great ideas ask themselves "What's Next?" Want to protect the unique idea but don't really know who to trust. Have every urge to start but don't really know how to. These 7 steps will help you to transition from conception to development stage of your vision.
Steve Jobs
“If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.”
1. Understand your Why
When entrepreneurs decide that they're going to launch a business, there's hard work that comes with it as we all know but that hard work really means nothing if we don't dive into what makes us do the things that we do so in a personal level. The first thing that you should ask yourself is What's my #motivation? Why am I motivated to #launch this business? What's my clear #vision? If you don't know those answers then it's not a great place for you to start thinking about owning a company. You have to know who you are as a person and your #why before you decide to bring someone else into the vision.
Viktor Frankl
“When you know your why, you can endure any how.”
2. Write Two-page Summary
Having a vision is one thing but making this vision a #reality is another. The act of writing down your idea is a very crucial step in development stage. I'm not talking about writing a multi-page report with Excel spreadsheets just a two-page #summary of what this idea is, why it's a business, who the #market is, what the pain points are that you're solving, how it's going to make money, and ultimately how long it's going to take for you to do things such as #prototype it and get to your audience or get to your market. Go through that exercise. Write it down. Write it again and make it ready to share with people.
3. Share the Vision
Once you have found your why and write the two page summary, your vision gets more clearer and it is time to share. Share it with your friends and family. Don't be afraid about #competition or someone stealing your idea. Share the idea, talk about it and you'll find that
you get a lot of benefits such as getting #feedback from customers, potential employees, partners and #investors. I'm not saying you share your secret sauce if you figured out an algorithm or recipe that makes it #unique. Main purpose of sharing your vision is to clearly identify if this idea has potential, value and market.
3. Identify your Market
Market research is about anticipating and minimizing risk and understanding your potential #customers. It is vital to research your market, identify potential #clients, and have a #strategy for attracting them before you invest your time and money in a new #venture. Here are some of the factors that often contribute to a new businesses success
- Sufficient capital
- Excellent planning or cost projection
- Keep up with market factors- growth or reduction in market signs
- Be aware of the #competition & new entrants to the market
- Be quick to solve #technological problems
- Have a strong business plan in place
- Have strong #advertising or marketing
- Be strong in selling and marketing
Market research allows you to solidify your idea whether it can pass the test of market and become a success.
4. Write Business Plan
A written business plan will help you in defining your #goals and the #path your business needs to take to achieve them. #Elements of complete plan includes following.
1. Define your vision when you start a #business
2. Set your goals and objectives for the business
3. Define your unique selling #proposition
4. Know your market 5. Know your customer 6. Research the #demand for your business 7. Set your marketing goals
8. Define your marketing strategy 9. #Action steps with due dates In the process of writing the business plan, you also should identify what #strengths and skills you have as an #entrepreneur and business owner. Identify what kills your business require and #recruit people who has what it takes to bring this vision to a reality. Having strong team is vital to your business success.
Edward Albee
“The act of writing is an act of optimism. You would not take the trouble to do it if you felt that it didn't mater.”
5. Build a Prototype
Prototyping is all about building visible and testable product such as semi-functioning example product, #clickable website or application, and 3D presentation in PowerPoint. It is designed to test the market or determine your idea's potential. Let's say that you are working on developing this great mobile #application. To build the prototype, you will have to come up with raw #sketch of how each screen will look like and #develop clickable semi-functioning version using tools such as #Keynotopia or #PowerPoint. If you are staring a service based business, creating a website will be very great prototype to test the market or potential customer. It is a crucial step of development stage so be sure to come up a #prototype.
6. Raise Fund
Fund Raising process starts with you investing into your product or business. Next ideal step would be sharing your idea with your friends, family and people close in your circle and receiving seed #investment. It is very important for #investors to see that you have gone great extent to #raise #fund on your own before seeking their investment. Here are some popular ways to raise funds for #startups.
7. Build your Team
We all know that you alone can not create a #successful #business. Therefore identifying your strengths and skills will hep you to determine the kind of skills and talents your #company need to succeed. Having limited funds does not allow you to hire the top #industry #experts but you can certainly build your #team through following options.
1. A #partner- what are your biggest strengths? where should you be focusing? and bring people on to complement all the areas that you're weak at or don't want to do.
2. An #intern- find a college or high school student to come in and work under you. The high school interns typically are free because they're doing it just for school credit. The university interns are mixed some of them are free some of them are paid
3. A #part-#time #employee- you don't have to hire someone full-time it could be on a part-time basis. You can bring somebody on even for one hour a day it may be a friend and maybe a family member. You can also use websites like odesk.com where you can find
people from around the world with tons of skills
Stay Inspired
Above steps will help you to transition from conception to development stage. At #VisionGuard, we believe in your potential. Being entrepreneur is not an easy task but if you have that passion and zeal to start your business and make it succeed, VisionGuard is always ready to serve you and support your vision. Your Vision is Our Mission.
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