When you have dreams, the sky is the limit. Or at least they taught us that. And of course it is important, but like any fairy tale, it misses that later part of the story. What next, how to take the first step and what if the step or the whole idea doesn’t work and what if it does?
Whether a new project or a new business is started, there are certain rules that sound simple but that are often a trap.
The first pitfall is over-dealing with a product / service. To launch a new thing, it is important that you know and prepare well for the product or service you want to provide, the market you are going to market, the competition you will encounter and the demand and size of the niche.
However, a large number of people very easily fall into the trap or over-researching and investing too much in product development without realistic market feedback.
The solution to this trap is limited time to research, limited time to build MVP (minimum viable product) and a clear plan to test the idea in the real market. Your mom, aunt and friends are not a realistic market!
Den Noris in his book Startup for 7 days gives you 7 days for the job. You can relax, these 7 days include the previous experience that you carry with you, but it is certainly important to keep that time clear and precise.
Another trap, MVP is made, we went out on the market to test a product or service and it did not produce results. Give yourself the opportunity to change your approach and strategy for market entry, but .. If you are sure that you have set strategies correctly and that the results are again lacking, know that it is not the scariest thing that can happen to you that you can get your hands on a project. The scariest of all would be to waste years and years engaging in a project that doesn’t deliver results, with agile competition and agile companies moving forward at the speed of light.
We are also getting to the point where the project came to the light of a day and was a success. Too fast success can often be a trap. It has different activities atr different stages of the project. If you are not grown up to the job, be honest to yourself and your work, do not be vain, hire an expert in an area you do not know enough or, even better, find a mentor.
However, as Didier Jardin, one of the directors of Four Seasons’ chain of luxury hotels in the workd, told me, when you ask a mentor, ’’don’t expect, neither accept monkey answers”. In translation, do not expect your mentor to give you an answer that you will only apply. Be wise and take the opporutnity to learn and develop your abilities and skills and it will be one sure way to get your project or business from scratch to the first step.
