Three Things to Know About Starting a Business

There’s lots of advice and opinions out there about how you should start a business. Matt has already reviewed some of those videos, but he’s back with another reaction. Are these the top three things you need to know to start a business?

There are tons of people out on social media giving business advice. Some of it is good advice, but most of it isn’t good. In this new series watch CapForge’s owner react to different advice videos. He’s an expert in all things business and has 20+ years of experience under his belt. Some of the things he reacts to might even surprise you!

Video Transcript: 

Business Advice Video: 

Starting your own business? Here are three things you need to know before you start your own business. Number one, identify your target market and their needs before you start that business and start campaigning in a proper manner for it. Number two, have a very solid business plan which defines your market your potential, and more importantly your projected financials. This will give you the layers you need in order to grow your business.[number 3] Prepare for financial challenges. Starting a new business is gonna be very expensive believe it or not. There’s some cases that you can reduce that cost but always be prepared for the worst-case scenario until your business starts generating proper avenues.

Matt:

Okay, so the first thing he said to start a business is identify your target market. I would say there’s a step before that, which is identify what your business is gonna be, right? If you’re gonna be a window washer, then you wanna identify people who own homes with enough windows that they want window washing and can afford and are gonna care about window washing service. So but if I just identify people who own homes as my target market but what’s the service? So you have to start one step before he’s saying. Once you identify what your product/service is gonna be, then yes, you wanna know who the target market is. 

And then the second thing he said is have a business plan. I would say yes it doesn’t hurt to  have a business plan, but more importantly or the biggest critical part of that business plan is what are you gonna do that makes whatever you’re doing different than, better than the competition, from the people who are already paying for that kind of service or product that you’re offering. What makes you stand out? That’s the key piece. And yes if you wanna write a business plan around how you’re gonna do that, great. But just having a business plan by itself doesn’t do you any good if you haven’t identified what your unique selling proposition is gonna be. 

And then last he points out that it’s gonna be very expensive to start a business and you have to be financially prepared. I would say again, I’m starting a window washing business I can identify my target customers as people with higher-end homes with plenty of windows that might wanna pay for that service and then I can literally, go door to door, or put a listing on Craigslist, or next door, or offer up, or whatever as a window washing service, wait till somebody calls or until I get a potentially interested customer, go out and give him a quote. If they agree then I can run to Home Depot and get a bucket, and a squeegee, and soap, and sponges, and some extension poles, and a ladder and come back on the day I agree to do the service. And that’s the same day that they pay me, right? So it doesn’t have to be very expensive to start a business. It entirely depends what kind of business you’re gonna start. You wanna start a high-end restaurant? Yes, that’s gonna cost half a million to a million dollars by the time you fit out the space with everything you need. But if you wanna start a window washing business, or a content writing business, or a marketing business, or social media marketing business, or lead generation business, or on and on, there are all kinds of businesses you can start with virtually no cash. And pay for it as you make sales. So I don’t agree that necessarily you have to plan to spend a lot of money to start a business. It just depends what kind of business you’re gonna start.

So there’s some okay advice in here but I would take it from a different angle and focus a little bit more on what I’m gonna sell and then identify the target market and then identify what my unique selling proposition is gonna be. And then depending on the answer to that tells me how much, if any, money I need to go ahead and actually get that thing started.