I really don't like it when someone publishes a list of steps to follow for folks who are looking to be entrepreneurs because it's just so old. So. Old. If you're here then most likely you're interested in becoming an entrepreneur so I will give you tools, advice, support, everything you need to help you do that as best as I can across this digital dimension.
Back to lists... yes I really don't like them; I don't hate them, but I just don't like them. Go to Entrepreneur.com if you don't believe me, everything is a list of steps; "8 steps to become a millionaire", "the 5 things successful entrepreneurs all have in common"... it goes on, and on. Unfortunately I don't know of a better method so I must use a list, but I will try to keep it simple, straightforward, and informative.
First, come up with an idea. The best way, and in my experience the only way to come up with a legitimate idea is to stay busy doing anything and everything you can; keep working your current job, keep doing household chores, keep hanging with your friends, and just keep doing what you're doing mostly. An idea will hit you sooner or later. The worst thing you can do for yourself is to sit and think about and try to force an idea to come. Don't do that!
My father is an entrepreneur; he started buildings homes in his early twenties and busted his ass to get to where he is now: he owns a construction company, property management company, and a lot of profitable real-estate. But he worked exceedingly hard, I know first hand and for me it is incredibly humbling. His work ethic has never diminished either.
When I was around nine years old, my father would have come out to job sites and pick up scraps of wood, shovel dirt, whatever. Some of it I enjoyed, a lot of it I didn't, but I quickly learned that I could hire my friends to help me for a fraction of what my father was paying me. So, if I was earning a dollar an hour, I would hire one or two friends to help me and pay them each 25 cents an hour. That way I am still making money even if I am not there... I would usually have them come out when I was not around.
By the age of eleven I was mowing lawns. I make advertisements on my parents computer using the old Microsoft Word, print out 30-70 at a time, and go door to door around my neighborhood setting them on peoples welcome mats, next to their doorknobs or anywhere I could so long as they were highly visible. Then, I would just wait for the calls to come in. For every 20 ads I put out I would usually get 2-3 calls. I don't know if my future clients knew I was so young but after I mowed their yards and they saw my work I would usually get the job throughout the summer (the only time of the year to mow lawns in Montana). Eventually, I saved enough money to buy a weed-trimmer, a five-gallon container of gas, and gloves and snippers. I'd set my trimmer on the mowers handle-bars, the gas can (which I could hardly lift) on the mower itself, along with my snippers... the gloves I could just wear. I'd push my mower anywhere within a ten block radius, anymore than that was too far and just not worth the effort.
I took great care of my tools and I took pride in my work. I would first scan the yards and do a walk-around, checking for anything in the grass that might hurt my mower or something that I might hurt, like an injured bird, a piece of concrete, or a kids toy. After that, I would prime and then start my mower and away I went. I changed my mowing pattern every time (and mind you I did not have a self-propelled mower, all push baby!) some clients like me to bag their grass, others preferred that I simply mulch.
Although I was young, I learned to listen to my clients needs and wants, like what time of day and how frequently they would want me to mow, how short they liked their grass, etc. I always showed up on time and always did my best, it was easy because I loved mowing lawns! I was excited to go out everyday and mow some grass! In fact, I still like doing it.
There was also a double whammy to this: these same clients that I would mow for, I would also snow-shovel for in the winter. I would do relatively the same thing, print out flyers, go door to door, and carry one, sometimes two shovels, and a bag of salt. After a couple winters I decided to buy a cart because trying to carry all of it was very, very difficult.
My lawn-mowing business taught me a lot of things: always check my gas levels and bring extra gas, always check my oil, check my blade, sharpen it if needed, wash the mower blades frequently, how to not flood the engine, how to start the engine even when it doesn't want to start, and various other things. I dealt with a lot of problems, like wheels falling off my mower, pull-strings breaking, wet grass (which is a killer with a push mower), and other issues. But I learned how to overcome all that and eventually I became very good at it.
After a few summers of mowing, I also began landscaping and pulling/clearing weeds and rocks. In between sports, occasional school work during the summer, and my other job of helping my dad, I stayed busy, but again I loved it. And I loved having money; my friends never had their own money, and when they did get any, it was mostly a product of their parents generous hand (monthly allowances, allowances for good grades... I never had these things). Before I knew it, I had clients ranging from residential houses to apartments complexes and plenty of cash, almost all of it I had saved.
At night, I learned how to code and build websites. One website led to another, which led to another, and another, etc. I had websites on Christianity, gaming, news, politics, war, you name it.
So the point I am wanting to get across to you is that I know what I am talking about because I have been an entrepreneur my whole life, and maybe you have to. Either way, were here together.
Entrepreneurship is about problem solving: you want to solve a problem that any number of people have; the more people who share the same problem, the more earning potential you will have. Competition does not matter... yes I said it... competition does not matter! This is something I have not heard any entrepreneur ever tell someone else. I learned this from my father and eventually from my own personal experience.
Competition doesn't matter.
Why not?
Well, because if you're doing your best chances are they aren't. This is a good time to reference Game Theory and the Nash Equilibrium, though that assumes that everyone is perfectly optimized and has perfect information. But from my experience, people, including entrepreneurs, are lazy. 99% of people I have met are lazy. They may have a successful company and they make good money but they can still be lazy. This is where I come in and exploit that laziness for my own gain. I see someone mows a lawn for $25, so I go and offer to do it for $20. I see someone has shoveled a driveway but has neglected to shovel the sidewalk, I offer to do both for the same price. Boom! Job is mine!
Most people are competitive, they will look at what others are doing and work to do it better, but they often neglect the most basic of principles: work smarter. Everyone has heard that saying, but few understand it.
For example; most people work between 9-5, I don't. I work anytime, day or night. I capitalize on their mistake. I develop personal relationships with my clients and I go out of my way to offer them more for less. If you mow someones lawn that's great, but maybe for an extra $5 I will come mow it, and trim/pull the weeds. You charge based upon the current marketplace, I charge according to whatever it takes to beat you. I don't care what the market says my work is worth, I care about how I can beat you. This works well when you have a lot of clients.
For example; if you charge $50 per lawn and it costs you $30 in fuel to travel there, gas your mower and weed eater, and for the oil and anything else then you have made yourself a nice $20 profit. I look at that and see $20 less that I can charge. I figure I can undercut you and so long as I am doing similar quality work, others in the area will take notice and my clientele is likely to grow. This works, I used it when I was younger and I use it today in my current businesses.
So long as I am not losing money, I am OK. And if I mow enough lawns I will eventually grow beyond my breakeven and become profitable. From there, I can adjust my prices for future clients and maybe charge a little more once word gets out... I just have to keep an eye-out for the punks out there looking to pull a me on me and undercut my prices.
To be an entrepreneur, you have to have some guts. To step ahead of the crowds and go your own way. You don't need the best tools, you don't need the fanciest equipment, you don't need any of that. You just need the right attitude and the right tool for the job. I can mow a lawn with my fifteen year old mower just as well as you can with your brand new self-propelled one. You may be able to do it faster but you won't do any better of a job, plus those self-propelled ones always break so while your mower is in the shop I just took a couple clients from you.
I can extend this analogy out to my web development and business analytics company. You charge a client $500 just for an estimation and first meeting? I will charge $400. It's all about your attitude. This is why I laugh every time someone says "this job market is way too impacted!", yes it probably is way too impacted if you're a sheep. I can come in and undercut you, out-perform you, out-work you, and out-smart you because I live and breathe to work. You work to buy games, TV's, etc, which is fine, but rather than taking time out of my day to use those games and TV's I would rather be making money, so now I have just gained an upper hand on you. If you do your best you will be successful; if you only do as good as it takes, you may still be successful but not nearly as successful or happy as that guy or girl who is truly doing their best at their job.
This is where entrepreneurship is so different and so much better than working for the man! Your best actually shows, it really matters and you will immediately see results. Rather than working in an office, preparing taxes all day for some boss who takes a cut of everything for doing nothing more than provided you the tools, office space, and marketing. I mean, you can do all that yourself for cheap! I just had an idea... a mobile, traveling, tax accountant.
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