3 Ways to Get Your Business Off the Back Burner
For the longest time, we had our business on the back burner.
We were living in our comfort zone with the security of full-time jobs and spending our weekends partying with our friends. The timing was never right to invest the time and resources into building our business.
Things got real when my wife and I found out we were expecting our first child. Angela was waiting tables at the time, so we had to figure something out—quick.
I started offering websites and marketing consulting services while I was working full time. Fortunately for us, it helped to make ends meet as clients seemed to appear at the right time.
Why now is the best time to start your business
Much like having a kid, there is never the “perfect” time to start a business. It happens when it’s meant to happen.
You don’t have to wait for the stars to align to know that we are living in the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution.
With access to information and the tools to attract customers, there has never been a better time to start your business. The Internet has essentially allowed us to level the playing field when it comes to marketing your business. Check out some of these interesting stats:
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb
With that said, here are the 3 ways to get your business off the back burner:
1) Write down your impossible dream
El Capitan’s Dawn Wall is thought to be the world’s toughest climb. A friend tagged me in a “Dawn Wall” chain on Facebook where I was tasked to write down and share my impossible dream and intentions.
Here’s my post:
We set out to create this lifestyle a few weeks ago and now it’s happening for us. Looking forward to mastering the art of long-term travel
Posted by Yosuke Carter on Monday, February 9, 2015
Putting your thoughts down on paper can be powerful. It marks the transition from thoughts into actions.
In my case, the actions led me to land a job working remotely. This allowed us to travel across the country, reconnecting with friends and family. It’s what Tim Ferris refers to as The New Rich, where the currency is time and mobility.
We’re using our business as our means to create a lifestyle where we can spend the most valuable years of our lives with our son, Kaleb and the rest of our community.
2) Invest money into your business
When I started college, I didn’t have to pay for it. Instead of attending classes and taking my grades seriously, I spent my nights and weekends partying.
After a long hiatus from college, I had to pay for my tuition myself. Instead of slacking off, I studied every night after work and earned my degree.
We all have access to a lot of free marketing tools on the Internet. Since it wasn’t costing us anything, it was an easy excuse to keep our business on the back burner.
By investing into our own HubSpot account to manage all of our marketing and sales activities, it forced us to take things seriously. It’s just like paying your way through college.
3) Create a minimum viable product (MVP)
In product development, a minimum viable product (MVP) is a new product that has just enough features to gather validated learning, which helps you avoid developing products that nobody wants. It basically helps you to validate whether or not your approach to solving a problem is viable.
I see it as the critical point when thoughts and ideas turn into something tangible.
I’ve always been a perfectionist, which is one of the things that has always kept me from taking action. Everything had to be, “Just right.”
By creating a shift in mindset to think of my business as a learning process, I became more comfortable with the idea of a minimum viable product. There are always opportunities to improve on it as you go.
When you look at some of the most successful products of our time, a large portion of development time was spent on trial and error. It’s an ongoing process that requires curiosity, persistence, and most importantly, action.
Choose courage over fear of failure and just create a minimum viable product.
Conclusion
If you’re a wantrepreneur who has never put anything into action, this is your calling. The best time to start your business was 20 years ago, but the next best time is now. Take it from someone who has been in your shoes.
We’re getting our business off the back burner and we’re going to share some amazing experiences with our family and friends.
