The right business sense is more important than money

If you are still blaming your reluctance to start a business on your lack of money, you’d better get a new excuse.

There are just too many entrepreneurs launching startups without money. In fact, I believe the lack of money just might improve your odds of success. Doing more with less is a great bootstrapping theory that seems to build strong financial habits early in the life of a business.

By Stephen W. Gibson
Brigham Young University

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595074720,00.html

Money, if you have everything else, is the easiest commodity to find. Following are some things that are a lot harder to obtain than money but that will go a long way toward making your business a success.

• A great team. I’m not talking about two guys who were buddies in school or on their LDS Church missions and therefore think they should be partners. No, I mean two or more people who have complementary skills such as financial wisdom coupled with sales and marketing skills. A great team is made up of people who each bring to the table something different and of lasting value for the life of the business.

• A ready market now. The idea you have been sitting on might have been great five years ago, but the marketplace is constantly changing. A guy called me recently with an idea for a new automatic automobile transmission. Because of the sound of his voice, I felt he might have had the idea for a while. I asked him how long he had been working on his transmission, and he said he had been working on it for 25 years. If you can’t get it launched quickly, the ship will leave the harbor without you.

• A problem-solving idea. Many people have ideas. But I always ask: does it solve a problem that is prevalent? If the answer is yes, then the next question is: can it solve the problem for a price those who have the problem are willing to pay? I recently met a woman who had a great commercial idea for weddings. The problem was that few people would be willing to pay the price for which her item needed to sell in order to make a profit.

• Will it sell in Peoria? In other words, will your business idea be of value in middle America? Is it only good for your neighborhood, your ethnic group or your religion? Some money has been made selling to a small group of people; however, the more universal your customer, the larger your success is likely to be.

• A great written business plan. Oh, I know you are so busy developing your idea, you don’t have time to do a business plan. I’ve been there, done that. Yet if you have a great idea clearly expressed in a written plan that spells out the idea, the market identified, the management team on board and your plan to bring it to market, you are already ahead of hundreds of your competitors.

But if your idea is still in your head and you haven’t bothered to write it down, then you needn’t bother anyone else about it. Just keep telling people you weren’t successful because "it takes money to make money." Your buddies who think the same way will be making the same excuse for the next 30 years, and those in the know won’t believe you any more 30 years from now than they do right now.

Get your stuff together and get on with it. It can be done!

Stephen W. Gibson is affiliated with the BYU Center for Entrepreneurship. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].