Is “lack of money to launch my startup” your favorite excuse for not executing your business idea?
Definitely, you must redesign your logic. Right now.
Money is indeed necessary to build a successful business.
But, not having enough money to build the whole business doesn’t mean you cannot start your execution.
Actually, taking the first small steps in your entrepreneurial journey is cheaper and has a bigger impact than you imagine.
Below, you’ll find 9 powerful steps you can do today to advance in your entrepreneurial journey.
Here we go…
1. IDENTIFY THE MAIN COMPONENTS OF YOUR BUSINESS IDEA
One of your first tasks as the founder of your business is to clearly define the components of your idea.
Certainly, designing your product features is important, but not enough.
When you say you have a business idea, you must be assertive about: the problem, the market size, the cash metrics, the skills needed, the business model, and the approvals and the patents required.
P.S.: I briefly explain all these elements in this free ebook)
2. ASSESS THE LOGIC BEHIND YOUR BUSINESS IDEA
Once you’ve identified the components of your business idea, it’s time to criticize the logic they’re based on.
Of course, validation requires you to test your assumptions with real people. But, even before doing that, you must come up with a strong rationale.
By building a solid hypothesis, you’ll avoid some easy-to-identify mistakes, which will save you a lot of time/energy/money when testing your idea in the market.
3. INTERVIEW POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS
This is an extremely powerful tip. Don’t ignore it. Your potential customers can provide you with invaluable insights to validate or improve the assumptions of your idea.
Despite being a cheap task, it may also save a lot of your startup’s cash in the future too.
Understanding what your customers really need before building the solution will prevent you from building things nobody wants.
4. BUILD YOUR STARTUP’S CASH FLOW FORECAST
Cash management is at the core of any startup’s success. If the cash ends, your dream ends too.
Investing time to produce your startup’s first cash flow forecast will provide you with a means to take well-based decisions about the launch of your startup.
Simulating revenue scenarios—as well as forecasting costs, expenses, and investments—will increase a lot your chances to succeed.
If you still don’t have a cash flow forecast, check my Cash Flow Forecast Template, so you can easily generate your forecast. 👇
5. NETWORK WITH POTENTIAL COFOUNDERS OR PARTNERS
Finding the right people to partner with takes time and patience. If you still don’t have money to build your business, use your time to develop relationships with potential partners.
Look for people who will complement your skills and that have the same values as yours.
Start by identifying the benefits your startup could provide to partners and, then what benefits a potential partner could add to your business.
Building strong partnerships completely changes the outcomes of your business. But, don’t expect them to happen naturally. Start designing and nurturing ideal partnerships for your business, in order to make them become true.
6. DEFINE AND BUILD YOUR VALIDATION METHOD
After defining a strong rationale for your idea, you must test and validate its riskiest assumptions in the market—in the fastest and cheapest way.
To do that, you may count on an infinite number of validation methods. In a previous post, I presented you 5 methods to validate your solution. If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest you do it right now.
Defining a validation method and building the first version of your solution is super-powerful to generate insights (and much easier and cheaper than building a full-feature product).
7. DESIGN YOUR MARKETING FUNNEL
Just building a great product won’t make people naturally come and buy from you.
As an entrepreneur, you must design a clear marketing funnel that conveys a strong strategy to intentionally make people purchase your solution. Consequently, this funnel will be the basis of your marketing metrics and initiatives.
There are some great free and paid online services you can use to design your marketing funnel. One tool I like using is funnelytics.io.
8. BUILD YOUR REPUTATION
If you don’t have enough money to build your solution, you may find some time to start developing your reputation in the industry.
Start engaging in conversations about the problem you’ll solve through your solution. These conversations might happen through social media, blog posts, podcast episodes, etc.
Why is that important? Because when you have a strong reputation on a specific topic, people will listen to what you might say about a potential solution.
And guess what… You’ll have a solution that precisely solves their problem. Such a coincidence. Right? Of course not, it’s a pure long-term strategy.
9. IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE INDUSTRY AND LEARN EVERYTHING YOU CAN ABOUT IT
Learning is definitely one of my passions. The more I learn, the easier it becomes to understand some of the world’s dynamics.
While you’re still preparing to execute your business, you may start absorbing a ton of knowledge about your industry from sources like:
- Books
- Researches and publications
- Videos
- Social Media Accounts / Influencers
- Hashtags
- Social Media Groups
- Podcasts
- Many others…
The knowledge you’ll gain will help you to take well-based decisions about your business and drive it faster towards success.
It’s time to start making progress!
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With a simple, one-page Excel model, you’ll be ready to make the most out of your early-stage cash.
