When to start a business
I was off this past weekend visiting a good friend of mine – a friend who, like so many of us – has the itch. The itch to work for himself.
He told me about the great idea that he has been toying around with lately. Actually, he has been toying around with it for four years.
That’s right. Four years.
Now, I can understand that if you were putting together a grand manufacturing plan, or a plan for a city, or researching colonizing a planet, that it would take a few good years to put that together. But this was a small software package.
It’s not that he didn’t want to do it, to jump out there and work for himself. He just thought the product was not ready. It needs more testing. There is more that could be done. It just is not a good time right now.
Let me tell you something – it will NEVER be a good time to jump the fence and start working for yourself. In fact, I have talked to people that said you have to be crazy to work for yourself. That going solo should be the last think you try in an attempt to find joy in what you do.
Anyway, I told him that the finished product will never be finished. If there comes a time that your product is as perfect as you can get it, you might as well sit back and prepare to be overtaken. There will be someone else to come along and improve on your idea and run right through you. You have to start somewhere. Why not now? He has the contacts, a basic platform, customers willing to sign up.
“Do it!” I told him. It does not have to be perfect. Sign up your first customer. That will get the ball going, and put you in full gear. Don’t quit your day job yet, and be ready for complaints. That is how you work the kinks out of the product.
Now I don’t recommend your first customer being a huge one. Find a small client, one that will not smear your name all over the global newspapers every time you have a problem. Of course you want to keep the client happy, but you also want to learn from them. Use them as a test base. Give them six months free, or free service, or a free warranty – something to ease the blow of any unforeseen problems.
Another way to get started is, if nothing else, go get yourself a business license. Check in the blue pages of your phone book on where to call. Pick a name, and go do it. Do it during your lunch hour. Do it after a doctors appointment. Do it. Once you get that license (cost around $50, depending on your state), you will be that much more motivated to start working on your dream.
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