15 Crucial Things to Know When Starting a Business

This is the Sunday Motivational video. Every Sunday we bring you a different type of video which should improve your life. Today we're looking at 15 Things You Should Know When Starting a Business Welcome to ALUX.com, the place where future billionaires come to get inspired. Hello Aluxers, we continue our Sunday Motivational series here with a video targeted to those who are planning to or have just started their first business. Our goal with these videos has always been to provide you, the Aluxers, with a bit more clarity on what you should expect on your journey to success. After asking you guys what do you believe would have the greatest impact, most of you suggested that you're planning on starting your first business or company, so a heads up or a game plan would be beneficial. Now let's just get this out of the way early on. Starting a business is not for everyone. Some people possess a particular set of traits which just fit better with the entrepreneurial template than others. You can be happy and successful by working for someone else, it all depends on who you are as a person. If you believe you're destined to be an entrepreneur and looking to start a business, this video will help you to figure out both a game plan and double check your existing beliefs. The problem we found when researching for this video is that most articles on this topic tend to shy away from the hard to swallow truths and basically all of them regurgitate the same information. If we did it, we had to do it differently. We structured this video so that it's perfect for everyone who's in the beginning stages of their company and if there's enough interest, we could do a part 2 adding a few more points. If you're new here, welcome! Be sure to subscribe and follow us on Instagram at Alux. With that said, here are 15 things you should know when starting a business. 1. Talk is cheap Nobody cares about what you're planning to do until you do it. We get hundreds of emails from people who say they plan on launching a company. Even among your friends, we're sure that at least a couple of them say they plan on starting a new project and even give you a glimpse into what that would look like. How many of them actually did anything about it? We can answer that. 1 in 60 people. For every 60 people that say they plan on starting a business, only 1 actually does it. The rest just talk about something they'll never end up doing. Most people will find excuses, saying it's not the right time or whatever reason they find, but the result is always the same. The world doesn't care about what you plan on doing. The world doesn't run on wishful thinking. No matter how many times you read The Secret, the world works on people getting things done. Talk is cheap Aluxers. Instead, let your work speak for you. 2. An idea isn't worth anything before it yields results An idea is worth a million dollars only after it makes 1 million dollars. Newsflash Aluxers, ideas are free. Everyone has ideas, tons of them actually. They're not that special. Talk to anyone around you and they can immediately bring up 5 ideas of businesses or projects. But as we've mentioned in the previous point, since everyone has multiple ideas, there is an abundance of them. Most of them are actually good ideas, but that doesn't mean they're worth anything. Ideas are worthless unless they are paired with the right execution. Let me put it this way. A good idea with poor execution. Not only will it not yield any positive results, it will end up consuming resources and time. Meanwhile, a mediocre idea with a great execution will become a viable business. It's very rare that good ideas and great execution meet, and they almost never happen both in the early stages. You start with a simple idea, which in time could evolve into a good one. But execution is everything. Just because an idea sounds great to you, doesn't mean the world will think so as well. We recommend you find unbiased opinions. Don't listen to your friends and family, because they care about you and they'll sing your praises. If you want real feedback on your idea, ask people to front you the money. You'll find out that everybody says an idea is good and they'll pay for something like that, until you actually ask them to put their money where their mouth is. Don't be protective of your idea. It's not that special. It all depends on your ability to execute. Also, you don't need a revolutionary idea to get rich. You don't have to reinvent sliced bread to have a successful bakery. Facebook wasn't the first social network, and delivering food to customers is not revolutionary. You just need to execute it better than your competitors. Nobody cares about your business more than you. And they never will, no matter how much money you throw at them. Your business is the product of your dreams, your desires and your need to materialize something you truly believe in. You might inspire people to join your cause, but nobody will ever want this business to succeed as much as you do. This is something really important to consider in the very early stages, especially if the business has multiple founders. If you partner with other people in order to build it, every single one of these members needs to want it as bad as you do and be willing to give whatever it takes. So many times we see best friends teaming up in order to start a business, only to realize six months in that one of them really isn't that passionate about the idea and wants to move on to something else. Partners can be a great thing, especially if they can fill up a void in your skill set. But with every person you bring in, remember that you're slicing up the pie as well. Rarely do you see businesses started by a single founder. The upside is that you get to keep all the rewards. The downside is it's going to be a lot more exhausting than you think. No matter which way you're moving forward, think of your team as a chess set. You want as many of them to be around you when you win, but you don't refrain from sacrificing some of them if otherwise you're going to lose the game. Number 4. You don't need money to start a business. You are the business in the beginning. This is one of those things that stop people from starting out. They all think you need a ton of money to get started. This is because most people look at the final stage of the company, the part where you have a ton of employees, marketing teams, multiple products, raw materials, and registered intellectual property. That's not how businesses are started. They start with one person, you, hustling your butt off and growing as the journey progresses. You can start a business with under $100. In the description of this video, we'll link to a book that proves multiple business models all started on a shoestring budget. If you don't even have $100 to start with, get a one-month job or add value to people in any way you can so they can pay you the small amount. What you need to understand is that in the beginning, you have a lot of time, that is your main resource. You will convert your time into money and use that money to get more resources. It's pretty straightforward if you think about it. Number 5. Be ready to make sacrifices. Something most people don't realize when starting a business is the amount of work and sacrifices which are needed to turn this into a success. Most people start a business because they don't want to work for a boss, they want to be the boss. They despise having to work the 9 to 5, so they do something about it. It doesn't take long to realize that instead of working 8 hours a day, you're now working 16 hours a day, every day, including the weekends, and you can barely sleep at night because you worry so much about the future. Yes, creating a successful company leads to a way better life than you would've had otherwise, but those rewards don't come for free. The moment you start a business, it needs to become priority number 1 if you want to have a shot at success. Your social circle is gone, your family will see you less, it will take a toll on your health and that's just the beginning. If you're curious to learn which are the 15 sacrifices you need to make if you want to be rich, click on the top right corner. We give you a unique perspective on the issue and don't hold back on the truth. Number 6. Build smart from the beginning If the foundation of the company is crippled, it doesn't matter how high you plan on going, it's bound to fail. This is something you should definitely consider when starting out. A smart business will check at least some of the following boxes. 1. It doesn't have a demand ceiling, which means that as you grow, you will always have customers. This used to be a problem with some small specialized shops in locked areas. If you were the only one selling blue hats to a small town, at one point you would reach a certain ceiling where sales cannot be increased anymore. People only need one blue hat and at some point in time, you will sell one to every person in town. No more growth. 2. Every part of your business is replaceable Which means the business can survive if one of your future employees or one of your suppliers decides to leave. 3. Your business can scale You have a clear plan on how you can increase production as the demand increases. 4. There is a clear direction for the business Both you and your employees understand what you're working toward. Number 7. People should free up your time so you can focus on your strengths Don't be an employee in your own business. One of the most common mistakes people make is they trade their job for another one, this time in their own company. When you're starting out, you are the first employee. You need to get your hands dirty so you understand, optimize and perfect the system. At the previous point we talked about building a smart business, which means once you have your entire process figured out, break it into smaller interconnected systems, then find people onto which you can unload that specific part of the chain. Your employees are here to make sure that the engine is running while you're holding onto the steering wheel, getting everyone to the promised land. The founder should be in charge of innovation and business growth. Your job as the founder is to figure out ways this business can grow, so everyone who works for you gets paid. That's your job. Their job is to make sure they take care of the day-to-day, so you can focus on your job. In the early stage, you'll feel the need to micromanage everything, but this keeps you away from the most important task you have, which is growth. Every individual who moves into entrepreneurship has some traits they can use to their advantage. These are your strengths. Identify them and put them to work. Use them to get the biggest return on your time. 8. Fail fast and adapt quickly Be ready for things to not go according to plan. You are a novice at this, so you need to keep in mind that there are many things you have yet to learn. There are going to be plenty of bumps in the road, but if you're serious about this being your life, you need to keep going. You need to rethink the way you look at failure and what failure actually is. For us, failure is not achieving our dream life. Everything else is just a part of the game. Think about your journey as gathering data, so you can make a more educated decision on the future. 8 out of 10 businesses fail in the first 18 months. This is because 1. They hit a bump so big they decide to call it quits and 2. They fail to adapt to their newfound reality. A great example is Nokia. For those of you who don't know the history of the brand, they used to be a rubber manufacturer before moving into technology. Their rubber factories were struggling, so they adapted to a newfound opportunity. A few years later, they failed to adapt to the changing environment of the smartphone and almost bankrupted the company. This giant that once dominated the space is now fighting for breadcrumbs left by those willing to fail faster and adapt quicker. 9. Long-term success depends on your ability to manage your resources. Life is a lot like a strategy game. You have several resources at your disposal. Your time, your willpower, your ability to work, maybe some money and some people you know. This is the hand you've been dealt, it's time to make the most out of it. Don't complain about not having enough to begin with. Yes, there are other players who've been dealt a better hand, but you have your own storyline. You have your own journey and your challenge is to make the most with the resources you have. Many people undervalue time. Time is a resource we've all been dealt equally. You have the same 24 hours in a day as Beyonce or Elon Musk. It's up to you to use them wisely. The best players are those who are strategic with the way they make use of everything they have at their disposal. If you're disciplined enough, you can get out of any hole and start building yourself a ladder towards the sky. 10. The right mentor is worth 10 years of struggles. They've walked the road you're on right now. They know where the potholes are, they know what's up ahead and you'd be a fool not to leverage their knowledge in your journey. You need people who inspire you, that have done the things you're about to do. Analyze them, study them, see what nuggets of gold you can extract from their experiences. If you're lucky enough, serious enough, prove that you're worthy enough, one of them might become your mentor. Think of mentors like power-ups. Things get so much easier when you have one. The mistake new entrepreneurs usually make is they try to get a mentor too early when they just have an idea. Please remember the first two items on this list. Talk is cheap and ideas are worthless without action. A good mentor will want to see the results first. They're not going to waste their own time and resources betting on a horse they've never seen run before. That's why it's important for you to get a bit of traction, to have some experience so they can see what they're getting themselves into. Now if this is something you're interested in, we made an incredible video on why it is important to have a mentor and how to get one. You can watch it by clicking in the top right corner. 11. There are no shortcuts to any place worth going Don't try to cheat the game because it's hard. We're fascinated by people who jump from business to business, from shiny thing to shiny thing because they're looking to get rich quick. Even if they settle on a business, they never put in the work. Instead, they spend most of their time looking for shortcuts, for loopholes. Real value comes from building a solid foundation and laying brick next to brick until you put together your dream. You can easily see this on social media. There are so many Instagram profiles with millions of followers which only get a few hundred likes and several comments per post. People want the cake, but they're not willing to learn the recipe and how to bake one when the others offer them a cardboard cutout of a cake. They take it because they don't understand what a real cake is. If you're trying to cheat the game, you're just cheating yourself. 12. Keeping your head down and grinding is what will make or break you The only thing you are in complete control over is yourself. It's easy to see some initial results and let it get to your head. There's a difference between winning a battle and winning the war. You should be playing the long game. Sure, celebrate your wins, but the next day it's back in the trenches, day in and day out until you have achieved the life you started all of this for. We can't stress enough how important self-discipline is, especially when you're building your life. Success is the sum of small actions repeated every day for extended periods of time. That's why you need to keep grinding, keep learning, stay humble and keep your eyes on that goal. If self-discipline is something you've always struggled with, last Sunday we published a video on just that. It took us multiple weeks to narrow down the process of mastering self-discipline and without being biased or anything, it's probably one of the best resources available on this topic. Click on the top right corner to check it out. 13. Sales solve all of your problems Sales are the gas to your machinery. Without it, you're just left with a pile of scrap metal. As a new entrepreneur, it's easy to get sidetracked into marketing, branding, social media presence. They all help, but that's not what keeps the lights on. Your job is to bring money from the marketplace into your company and use it to grow. Remember the saying, money makes the world go round? Well, without it, your business isn't going anywhere. It's shocking to us how many people leave the sales part out of their business for later. They have no idea how they're going to make money or if people are actually willing to pay. You need better equipment? Get more sales. You need better marketing? Get more sales. You need a better accountant? Get more sales so you can afford one. There are very few problems which sales cannot solve in a business and that's why getting paid should be your number one priority. 14. Raise capital from investors only when you can't do it by yourself Mark Cuban has a great saying and it goes something like this. The first time you raise money, that's the first time you lost because you were unable to do it organically. We have a lot of acquaintances in the technology space and they all celebrate their funding rounds like they won. What did you win? You just gave away 40% of your company in exchange for a little bit of cash which you would waste in less than 12 months. Don't get us wrong, having access to capital is amazing but it's not something that should be your main focus. We know entrepreneurs who spend more time trying to raise money than actually working on their product and business. But instead, if you spend all your energy improving your product and getting sales, you wouldn't need an investor taking a large chunk of your business or at least get a better valuation. There are strategic moments when a business can no longer grow or survive without external capital but this should not be something a new company is dealing with. Do it yourself, figure it out, bootstrap and get creative. It will teach you more about your business than anything else. 15. A business without an endgame is headed nowhere Why are you building this? When do you know you've made it? What is the goal of the company? What are your personal goals related to this company? Will this company be sold at some point? Do you wish to maintain this as a company business? These are all questions you should be able to answer even at day 1 of your business because it puts everything else into perspective. All your actions you will take from this point forward should align with this goal. You need a game plan. Without it, you're just going to be shooting in the dark. Businesses where the founder knows what the endgame is, not only have a better shot at success but evolve quicker. It will take you less time to get to wherever it is you're going because you know what to measure for and focus all of your energy on checking off those boxes. Now these are just some of the things most aged entrepreneurs would have wanted to know when they were starting out. If you're planning on being a multi-millionaire or even a billionaire, these 15 should become a part of your mindset as much as your goal has. Now we're curious to know Aluxers, are you planning on starting a business or do you already have one? Please share some details in the comment section. We love doing these Sunday motivational videos because we craft them specifically on the things which could have the biggest impact into the lives of our community members. As a reward for sticking around all the way to the end, you know you've earned a bonus point. Number 16. Don't worry about the legal part in the beginning. You'll figure it out as you grow. Legal and finance are both important in the long run, but to be honest, you don't need to worry about any of that at the beginning. Most people don't start a business because they believe they have to go through so much paperwork that it's better to just quit before even getting started. You should try out your business idea first, experiment with it, see if you can get anyone interested enough to become a client of your product or service. You should incorporate, start a formal company, only when things are getting serious or you want to play the game for real. Think of your early days like a trial period, where you get to experience what a business might look like without all the add-ons. You'll know when the business is ready for a complete package. Hopefully, things will move fast for you and you'll quickly understand why it is better to form a certain type of company versus another. If you've watched this video up to this point, we kindly request that you let us know what type of business you run or plan on starting, plus the words ENDGAME so we know you're a true Aluxer and we can talk to you guys directly. Thank you for spending some time with us Aluxers. Make sure to like and subscribe so you never miss another video. We also handpicked these videos which we recommend you watch next. Thank you for being an Aluxer and we'll see you back tomorrow.