As the New Year begins, it’s time to finally dive into your calling to be an entrepreneur. But where do you start? Getting the ball rolling on a new business endeavor is anything but easy. Here are 5 steps to help you take action on your 2013 entrepreneur resolution:
1) Identify Your Inner-Zuckerberg
What are your strengths? What can you do better than anybody else? Are you a Zuckerberg-like programmer? Or are you a Steve Jobs’ sales prodigy? Deep down we inherently know our greatest talents but we rarely take the time to think about them, let alone act on them.
2) Know Your Achilles’ Heel
Identify your weaknesses. Maybe you’re a fellow computer illiterate. Maybe you faint at the thought of coming up with a marketing campaign. It’s just as important to know your weaknesses as it is to know your strengths. We all have them. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. But your business is bound for failure if you don’t take the time to admit them. After you acknowledge your weaknesses, it’s critical that you surround yourself with business partners or employees who have complementary strengths. Doing so will minimize the effect of your personal deficiencies on your endeavor.
3) Find Your Oxygen!
Under30CEO fave, Garry Vaynerchuk has made the theme of knowing your passion the golden rule of entrepreneurship, (If you haven’t read Garry’s book Crush It, add it to the top of your to-do list!) Take the subject of passion one step further. What’s your obsession? What can’t you literally live without? What’s your oxygen?
To jump start your quest to find your oxygen, answer the following:
Putting aside all financial obligations, if you were to pick one topic/hobby to obsessively study/practice for the next 3 months purely for the sake of enjoyment what would it be and why?
4) Dream Small!
Using your strengths as a tool to act on your passion, identity the first baby step you can take to begin the journey of turning your oxygen into a business. Re-consult your weaknesses so you’re aware of what baby step not to take. The key is to start as simple as possible. Below are a couple of examples to help you brainstorm.
- Andy whose passion is art, loves talking for hours on end about his favorite paintings and artists. Yet, he realizes he’s not too fond of writing about art. Andy’s first baby step may be starting a podcast where every week he gives a verbal critique on one of his favorite paintings. Because Andy is not too excited about writing he may want to shy away from starting a blog about art.
- Sandy is obsessed with baking cup cakes with ice cream fillings. She loves to immerse herself in the creativity of baking. As a semi-introvert, she doesn’t possess the best customer service skills. Sandy’s first step may be participating in a bake sale for a charity. She will be able to gain experience producing her cupcakes for a large group of people, while the charity sells her cupcakes for her. Because Sandy is not too keen on customer service, it may be wise to partner with stores that will sell her cupcakes rather than trying to sell them herself.
If this step seems like an over simplification, then you’re on the right path. Facebook started as an online platform to rate classmates and now it is the premier tool that connects the world! It is impossible to tell what your ideas will turn into but it’s incredibly essential to take immediate action. To do so, you must dream small, dream slow, dream simple!
5) Actually Take Action!
Open up your calendar and circle the date a month from now. This will be your deadline for implementing your first baby step. List the 3 most important things you must do to complete the first step of discovering your business and aim to get one of those things done each week. That will leave you with a week to spare before your deadline. Happy Hustling!
This post was inspired by the work of AGoalPlanner.com. A Goal Planner is a simple self-discovery tool that empowers people to discover and do the things they care about most.
Sky is the Limit,
Eric Pasinski, AGoalPlanner.com
