Take Your Dream Hustle From Bright Idea to Business Launch
Contributor: Kae Gruner, Lawyer, Author, Educator
Hey, day-dreamer… I see you! I’m totally a dreamer too. I’m also a patent lawyer and pretty much obsessed with new ideas, innovation, & entrepreneurship. If you have a new business idea or side hustle dream that you just can’t shake, or if you have too many ideas to count, then it’s time for you to grab a piece of paper and take notes, sis! I’m here to tell you that, even without knowing what your business idea is, I know that you can be successful as an entrepreneur. Here’s how!
From years of practicing intellectual property law (i.e. the law that protects our most valuable ideas), I’ve been able to curate and simplify the mission-critical steps for organizing and assessing your new business ideas. With over 80% of new small businesses failing in the first 5 years, it’s a no-brainer that you need to validate your next business idea before over-investing in the wrong direction. With the proper strategy, a little bit of discipline, and a whole lotta heart, you can carve out the perfect little slice of market-share pie for your new business dreams. How sweet is that?
First, let’s figure out the big picture vision. What will you sell? If you already have your business, or business idea, you can probably skip this part - but it wouldn’t hurt to revisit the fundamentals! Some common areas of business potential are below:
You may have a hobby, craft, or expertise that you can monetize. For example, do you have experience and skills in knitting, graphic design, or accounting, etc...?
You may have an idea for a new product. For example, do you mix up your own new skincare formulas or do you have an idea for a brand new gadget?
You may be ready to roll up your sleeves in a brick-and-mortar shop. For example, would you love to open a fashion boutique or cafe in your neighborhood?
Now that you have a pretty good idea of what kind of business you’d like to start, it’s time to take meaningful and specific action. Remember, even baby steps are better than no steps at all! Below are a few critical early-stage steps to get your business idea off the ground (& positioned for success):
First, set your goals on paper
Your path to success will not be crystal clear at this point and will likely pivot over time. Regardless of any twists and turns, you need to maintain focus on your end goals and get comfortable with the uncertainty of the entrepreneurship “journey”.
Why set goals on paper? Studies have shown that writing down information helps you remember and act on it. As an added bonus, writing it down will make taking the next steps (2 & 3 below) much more efficient, since you’ll avoid wasting time trying to orient yourself every time you sit down to work on building your new business.
Need a little guidance on goal-setting? Check out this step-by-step business goal-setting guide by clicking here.
Then, take mindful + strategic action
Remember that viral video “ain’t nobody got time for that”? That phrase is pretty much burned into my brain, partially because of how quippy it is and partially because of its profound and fundamental truth. Time is limited, time is currency, and time is irreplaceable. If you are serious about wanting to start a business, you really need to avoid wasting this precious resource. One way to do so is to follow a strategic framework to build your business, because, truly, ain’t nobody got time for wasted resources when you’re an entrepreneur..
When we think of our first big business idea, most of us don’t have training or experience in business already. In essence, we don’t even know what we don’t know. As a new entrepreneur gets started, often one simple question leads to another three or even ten, and before she knows it, overwhelm and doubt quickly follow the decision to pursue a new business.
This is why strategy is so important. In every new journey, there’s a starting line, an end-goal, and a bunch of “milestones” of progress along the way. If you aren’t mindfully working towards those milestones, you aren’t going to make the kind of progress you need to build a business that is profitable and sustainable.
For starting any new business, there are at least 9 major milestones to get that business idea out of your head, onto the page, and into the market. To summarize, these are the milestones you want to work towards as you start your new business: (1) Mindful Ideation. (2) Market Research. (3) Product Development. (4) Pitch Perfection. (5) Intellectual Property. (6) Legal Protection. (7) Brand Creation. (8) Marketing Strategy. (9) Launch Party! Each milestone achieved while building a new business makes the business stronger and more likely to succeed. To learn more, check out the breakdown of each milestone and grab your free simple business plan template here.
Stay organized and follow up
Once you really get started on building your business, often the excitement begins to fade and the grind takes over. For most of us just starting out, entrepreneurship means wearing all the hats, doing all the tasks (the fun and the mundane), and being the one to hold yourself accountable. The only way to get through in one piece is to stay organized.
You can use your phone, a journal, or your favorite notebook. I recommend a resource that I wrote, the Idea to Launch business planning + strategy workbook, which is an interactive guided workbook for building a strong business foundation. The workbook not only takes you step by step through the 9 milestones of starting a new business, it’s also a beautiful little business-plan-in-a-book that can go where you go, so you can capture your ideas anytime and anywhere. Grab your copy here!
As you build your community of customers and strategic partners, you need to both keep track of key interactions that will impact your business and be diligent about following up on warm leads. Persistence is key to success with your new business!
While there’s no such thing as a “magic formula” for business success, there are proven steps you can take to build a strong business and strategy. Entrepreneurship is not only wildly exciting and fun, it’s also empowering and rewarding. It creates freedom of lifestyle, finances, and time for the people and things you love most. If I leave you with just one takeaway, it’s this: don’t sleep on your big idea. If you don’t pursue it, someone else will, and you deserve to build your dream life. I hope this information guides you and inspires you to know that you do have the power and ability to succeed in entrepreneurship. Go for it, girl!
Thank you so much to Kae Gruner, Founder of Start Up Heart Up, for these incredible tips. We’re feeling inspired and we’re sure you are too! Be sure to give her a follow on Instagram for more and visit her website here.
xx,
Girl Gang
