My 10 tips for getting started in entrepreneurship

There is no right or wrong reason to become an entrepreneur, it just starts with a desire to question yourself by using your knowledge to innovate, generating income from your passion or finding a balance between your professional and personal life. All entrepreneurs aim to find value in their work. Being free from a boss allows you to be free to make your own decisions.

If you really want to become an entrepreneur, get ready to challenge yourself because that’s not an easy job ! The 10 following tips can help you visualize how it’s going to work.

1) Be selfconfident

If you want to be an entrepreneur, you should already have an idea, if not, ask yourself this first question “What sector of activity is compatible with my motivation?”

Write your answer down on a piece of paper and sleep on it. Running a business is a long road, your answer may be your search for a project opportunity that can match your motivation with ambition. Define your real motivation and get information on how to plan your actions, nothing is random, depend on your means and your motivation you can:
- Be an independent
- Join a network
- Apply for a franchise
- Get a startup
- Buy an existing business
- Be an investor

Many people believe that having degrees and a large professional network makes you a successful entrepreneur. But your brain doesn’t need a diploma to think, creativity and action are all about personality. If you don’t have a degree, forget the piece of paper, your credibility is the way you think and act.

2) Take time to network

Becoming an entrepreneur implies a radical way of life and you will may be confronted to isolation.

You will often feel the need to speak up for support, and even though you have lots of friends, no one understands an entrepreneur better than another entrepreneur.

You’ll need to complete your actual network by meeting new people who can understand your needs and share your new daily life. For instance, you can join a coworking space and attend to professional events.

Thanks to networking, you can break the loneliness, make new friends, meet customers and benefit from recommendation.

3) Look for a mentor

A mentor is a skilled person who gives advice to an unqualified person. As a new entrepreneur, you have the opportunity to inherit knowledge from someone who is already successful.

The mentor knows your professional environment, through which you can receive advice tailored to your situation, be introduced to other experts and find solutions in the event of a crisis. Taking an outside look at your project should show you the beginner’s mistakes.

If you have the means, you can hire a mentor, otherwise you can undertake to meet established entrepreneurs by attending conferences and trainings. Thus, you will have the chance to be able to rub shoulders with role models with an inspiring career.

4) Build a dream Team

When you start working on project and you prepare your “to do list”, you incounsciensly see yourself in Superhero. You think you can do everything on your own, but you’re wrong … you obviously need support !

Making a list of your strengths and weaknesses will help you to find the good persons to work with and avoid basic biginer’s difficulties.

If you spare up funds, you have to build a team. Investors don’t believe in projects led by a single person. As a leader, you need to know how to recruit good talents.

5) Study the Market

Start from your experience, try to find a sector of activity that need your knowledge to develop or innovate from what already exists on the market.

Keep in mind that business ecosystem is strongly competitive. Your startup will take place among thousands of business currently active. Which means you need to define your target to build a relevant offer that will find its place among your competitors.

Don’t neglect this step, because all your business strategy will be based on your ability to define the right market opportunity.

6) Work on a prototype

An idea is nothing if it doesn’t take shape. Start working as quickly on a prototype and evolve it according to the desired performance. There is nothing worse than delaying an idea.

Thanks to you market study, you must be able to define the main typical profiles of your future users. Based on this data collect, create your Primo Persona and associated each of them with a User Journey
By being empathy with your potential users, you will be able to create the “user stories” wich help you finding the most useful features that your product should have.

7) Observe real users

You designed a prototype, well done! Now, you have to verify its efficiency by facing it to your future users.

Make a list of useful questions and search people to test your prototype : Is the ergonomics intuitive? Do they easily find the information they need? Would they like to buy this product? If so at what price? If not why? Is it better than what currently exists on the market? Would they recommend this product to other people?

Observe how they react, take personnal notes and improve your current version with further change anytime you have useful feedback. Iteration is the key of efficient product.

8) Make a business plan

Thanks to your Market Study, your prototype and your UX analysis, you are able to elaborate your business plan.

Your Business Plan must help you visualize your project in the long run, big picture your project and elaborate an action plan with realistic financial needs. Financial data must include all the expenses at least 3 years. Among these largest expenditures are those related to R & D, human resources, legal & financial support, various taxes and marketing promotional approach.

And of course, the Working Capital to maintain your cash flow required for your financial survival.

9) Meet investors

If you are well organized, you should be ready to meet investors bringing a great team, an advanced prototype and a business plan.

To convince investors of the viability of your project, you have to justify each strategic decision. This implies the fallowing points :
- You know the business sector that you are considering,
- You studied the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors
- You keep taking in consideration the needs of your users,
- You are prepared to eventual business risks
- Your entire team approves your vision.

Raising funds involves a pledge of trust between entrepreneurs and investors. Both of you have only one goal: finance a quality project.

10) Be aware of the risks

Being an entrepreneur is taking risks. Even if you think only for the best, you have to be prepared for the worse. Failure is a risk and when it happens, in addition to the financial loss comes the loss of self-confidence.

Before starting your project, ask yourself the following questions :
- What will happen in case of failure?
- Will I be supported by my relatives?
- Will I find a stable financial situation quickly?
- Am I selfconfident enough to restart fresh?

Conclusion: entrepreneurship is the art of daring. Think, create and act! If you have all the assets to succeed while being aware of the risks, then start your project!