You need to know these simple business principles before you get started.
I remember when I was starting out with my business I constantly felt overwhelmed. The questions “Where do I get started? What do I do first when there are so many things to do?” flew through my mind all day long.
That’s why today I will walk you through the first things you need to know when you are getting started.
Do you want to start building an online business? Do you feel like you’re all over the place and don’t know where to start?
In this business series I will walk you through smart business decisions and help you out with easy step by step information!
1. Know your endgoal and reverse engineer from it
In the beginning it is so confusing and there are so many things to do… Basically, you end up not knowing WHAT to do! That’s why it’s important to think about WHAT your end goal is first, before you get overwhelmed by too much information.
What is your end goal? Well… It SHOULD be: getting happy clients!
- You need clients to fuel your income and your business development.
- Thus, your end goal should be to get happy clients.
I do have to add: your end goal might not be happy clients, it might be that you want to build a personal brand. It’s ok if that’s your end goal, just don’t mistake ‘playing on social media’ for ‘building a business’. If your end goal is building a personal brand, that’s fine. For example for me, I have decided I want to reach as many people as possible and make an impact. That’s why I am creating a podcast. My end goal is not revenue or clients, but instead I want to reach as many people as possible with positivity and empowerment.
Your takeaway?
Think about what your end goal is and work backwards from there.
Too often we don’t know where we’re going and you start doing many things and you get stuck. That’s why you are going to reverse engineer what you are doing. If you know you want your first happy client, you are gonna look at what you have to do to get that first happy, paying client.
Think about the steps you need to achieve your first, happy client instead of wondering about stickers for your car, your logo etc.
You might feel all over the place and like it’s difficult to keep your focus. When you are wondering about how to keep your focus, you can ask yourself ‘does this contribute to my end goal of having happy clients?’
When in doubt, ask yourself ‘does this contribute to me achieving my end goal?’
The first principle is “know your end goal and reverse engineer it”.
The second principle, I learned from my dad when I was 10 years old haha.
2 – Keep your pipeline filled.
What I see happening a lot when I talk to potential clients who are starting a business: “Yeah I should market myself, but I don’t want to advertise too much or talk about it too much because then I will get too many clients”
That’s like someone starting out with fitness saying they don’t want to look like a bodybuilder. It actually takes A LOT of work to look like a bodybuilder. Honestly, when you are starting out building your business, it would actually be a REALLY GOOD PROBLEM to have if you would get too many clients.
Do not worry about getting too many clients when you are starting out, instead focus on getting a lot of clients!
Too many clients = a really good problem to have 😉
I encourage you to focus on that because then you will be able to grow your business.
The second business principle = keep your pipeline filled.
Even when you are very busy with ongoing projects, never forget to keep your pipeline filled. Clients come and go and especially when you are delivering services this can be tricky. Make sure you do not end up without clients because you forgot to advertise while you were working with your current clients.
3 – Protect your downside
I learned this one from Richard Branson. When you are going into a new venture, you want to make sure your risk is covered.
You want to make sure your wins can be high, but your risk is low.
I might be mistaken about the correct story, but it was something along these lines: When Richard Branson started Virgin Airlines, he made a deal with a leasing company about his first airplanes: he would lease the airplanes but if things didn’t work out, he would give them back at no cost.
That means he created a situation where he could win, but he couldn’t lose (other than lose his time investment).
What does that mean for you?
Don’t invest in a bunch of stuff without knowing what your return on it will be.
Don’t create so much overhead (fixed costs) that you can’t even carry them anymore if you aren’t getting enough revenue. Instead focus on creating revenue first, without having too much overhead.
Obviously, these are some of my favourite principles and in the future I will talk about them a lot more in depth on my podcast.
For the time being, I’m keeping it short and I hope this article helped you.
Ps: Do you want to start your online business? Read this article and find out how you have to start!
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