Compulsory Steps To Launching A Successful Business 
Posted by Udegbunam Chukwudi on September - 8 - 2011
My wife and I spend many a Sunday at my brother’s pool. He lives in one of those great neighborhoods where the Homeowner’s Association makes you pay $450 per year. In return they don’t ever do anything. In order to slightly justify their existence, they give you free access to the neighborhood pool.
I was sitting poolside, having a drink and reading my new favorite book, The Personal MBA, on my Kindle. My sister-in-law, who is a designer and loves business, was reading an article in Vanity Fair’s August edition about Groupon’s Founder and CEO, Andrew Mason. She read excerpts from the article for a few minutes before she jumped into the pool. I hijacked the magazine and gave it a quick read-over. The article was very interesting—apparently Mason’s undergraduate major was Music, he is obsessed with gaming, and the Vanity Fair author makes it a point to highlight Mason’s eccentric behavior and personality. This was all good and fun until I hit the end of the article when Mason made reference to a new Groupon launch, called Groupon Now.
Long story short, I have a close friend who came up with the exact idea that Groupon had when it launched Groupon Now. Groupon Now is a mobile app that allows you to log in and find deals that are happening right now. For example, you get off work at 5 pm, and you want to know if there are any good deals in the area. You hit the “Eat Something” button, and the Groupon Now app tells you all the restaurant deals in your immediate area. I won’t waste time going into all the reasons this idea is maddeningly brilliant, but let me be clear—my buddy had this exact idea nearly two years ago.
His full-time day gig was in corporate finance at a Fortune 100 company. He spent his nights and weekends writing out a 40 page business plan. He visited local merchants in order to test the validity of his idea. But in the end, he did not execute. Suffice to say—it is relatively easy to get a million dollar idea. On the other hand, it is incredibly difficult to actually execute successfully and transform an idea into an operational company.
In this article, we are going to briefly discuss 5 key steps that will help significantly increase the chances of turning your idea into an actual business.
TURN YOUR BUSINESS IDEA INTO A REAL BUSINESS NOW!
Write Out Your Ideas For A Business
This should go without saying, but for some reason scores of hopeful entrepreneurs skip this step. Write out a fully detailed business plan that outlines your business model, marketing plan, financial projections, etc. You can find free business plan templates all over the internet. I repeat “Write out your business ideas before you forget them”.
Test Your Business Idea
A major pitfall for many entrepreneurs is to protect their idea and not share it with people who may not love it. This is a mistake. Share your idea with experts in business, and in the specific field, if possible. If these people all think your idea is horrible, it might be!! After watching films like the Social Network, it’s pretty easy for folks to cling tightly to their ideas for fear of them being stolen. Well it’s one of those risks you ought to take, thus you ought to trust whosoever you share your ideas with.
Cash is King
Develop detailed financial projections and determine exactly how much it will cost to bring your product to market. How much business working capital do you need? How will you get this money? Determine exactly how long you can operate the business with no sales or limited sales. Although it is all very exciting when you get a new idea, the reality is that it may take time to solidify a market presence. Expect that. Plan for it.
Don’t Quit Your Day Job Yet
If at all possible, keep your day job. Steady pay from an outside source will help protect your business working capital. If you are crazy about your idea, the energy it feeds you will help fuel you to work nights and weekends. If you can work 5 hours a night during the week and 10 hours on Saturday and Sunday, that is still a 50 hour workweek!
Your day job helps to cushion the frustrations of a business that’s taking to long to become a success. NEVER LET GO OF IT IN THE BEGINNING UNLESS YOUR FATHER IS BILL GATES 
.
Starting a business is an incredible experience. By following these tips, you will greatly increase your chances of making the business a success down the line.
Jason Hoerr is a writer, entrepreneur and trader based in Charlotte, NC.
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Investment in your business is so important, even an online business and many people don’t realize that. Thanks for this engaging post.
PS Wanted to make sure you saw your blog on my new CommentLuv enabled blog list!
Thanks for adding me to the list Anna.
Hi Jason,
This is an interesting post on launching a business, and everything you mentioned is absolutely true, especially on not quitting your day job.
Keeping your day job helps one maintain focus and not fall into bad practices all in the name of making it big in days.
Quitting Day Job is the absolute no go. Not even if one’s father is Bill Gates. You never know when will he donate everything to a charity
. But seriously, most guys trying to make a big buck, especially in IM are there ‘coz they want to quit the day job. They do it, and after a month or two, start a job hunt again. Hopefully, they will read this post and think again.
@Jason Good post mate.
Great tips in launching business online. It’s really ideal not to quit your day job as this would help your business online. Working 50 hours a week may sound unreasonable but it’s just a matter of time management and proper mindset.
easy way to make money online without stress.
Deciding when to leave your day job is one of the most important steps. As a rule of thumb, and the rule I used, is that your business should be making enough for you to comfortably live on.
Don’t quit your job and then just fall into the abyss! That’s the abyss of stress, financial hardship and unemployment – damn I sound negative!
I agree with you Sunny, try out if the “water is fine” for
you if you are just starting out trying to earn money online. Immediately
quitting your day job without a guarantee that you will earn well enough online
on your first try (making money online) is a very big mistake.
Hi Jason,
I agree with the points you mentioned regarding turning a
great business idea into reality. Many of us sometimes have a great idea that
can revolutionize our way of life, but many of us do not have the means or we
normally cannot execute it as soon as we have thought of a brilliant idea. We are naturally looking for ways on how to
be free from financial problems, but turning to online business can be very
difficult, especially for those who have little or no experience.