The Entrepreneur’s Tool Kit: Retaining Experts
“Learn everyday, but especially from the experiences of others. It’s cheaper!” — John Bogle
In this week’s installment of the “The Entrepreneur’s Tool Kit,” we move to the second step in the journey from a business idea to a fully realized product or service: retaining experts.
This step is often overlooked by many new entrepreneurs as they may not have a network of advisors or the necessary funds to hire qualified specialists charging high rates for their services. However, getting your business off the ground will probably require top-tier talent and expertise outside your own experience.
Many entrepreneurs begin the journey solo with just an idea or a specific skill set, since they lack capital to augment their own knowledge. This lack of resources often creates hurdles to realizing their goals. While some of these early challenges will represent valuable lessons in resiliency, all will slow the process and growth. Knowing which hurdles to avoid in this case becomes extremely valuable, and this is where retaining experts comes in.
Once you have validated your idea to determine there is a market, you need to take action to build the product and the business around it. This entails a variety of functions that require skill, training and possibly a certification:
- Design and development. You’ll need someone who can create a specification for the user experience you intend, and someone who can build a simple prototype.
- Financial advice. You may need expert help building your business model — and possibly tracking your finances while you build the product.
- Legal advice. A lawyer can help you incorporate your business and advise you on whether you need trademark, patent or copyright protection at this early stage.
- Marketing. While it’s too early to publicize your idea widely to consumers, your first marketing challenge will probably be to create a pitch deck, introductory emails and other assets that help you get the attention of potential investors, partners and collaborators.
This is a daunting task for the new entrepreneur. Like most people, hey are unlikely to have all the required skills — and unlike more experienced entrepreneurs, they may not know where to turn to acquire them. Googling isn’t enough: The results are likely to generate an overwhelming assortment of ideas, opinions and suggestions. It can make finding a simple answer more complicated than necessary. And even when you’ve identified the specialists, your startup needs to consult with, the price of their services may seem prohibitive.
Despite all the recommendations, every business is a bit different. Don’t panic! First-time entrepreneurs can take a couple of routes to to start their journey, and then pivot as they grow.
- The first, lean approach focuses only on retaining the expertise you need to create a Minimum Viable Product and a business pitch: experts to build the product, market it, and handle finances. (If you already have one or two of these skills, you’re ahead of the game!)
- The second option is to turn to a startup incubator, where you can gain access to all the necessary resources and experts to guide you through the process of bringing an MVP to market as you launch your business.
Receiving professional advice and a community of entrepreneurial support will provide you the quality experts and advice to enhance the trajectory of your business.
Previously on “The Entrepreneur’s Toolkit”: Validating your business.
Next week: Employing blueprints for your business.
