Starting Your Own Business in 30 Days (a Plurk Brainstorm)

I asked:

You’re quitting your job in 30 days and going into your own business. What preparations should you be making now?

A few things that came to my mind are: (1) get your finances in order if you haven’t already (2) calculate break even point (3) identify 30 day goals.

Notable responses from this microblog brainstorming session on Plurk:

You should have started generating revenue 60 days ago! (Jane’s note: I included this response because I think Frank Martin was being 100% serious.)

it’s a bit late to start preparing that should have been done at least 6 months ago, at least the financials… do not do what I did, walk out without a plan, especially a financial backup plan just in case you decide to leap. If you know you want to go solo, you need to know EXACTLY who you serve and EXACTLY what you do, how you are different from your competition and how you will market yourself… best plan you would already have clients that provide you with the income you need. As the Purpose Connector, I will add that U want to know Ur purpose clearly so U know that what U are taking on is in alignment w/Ur purpose. Purpose helps you distinguish your purpose process which should be what you do for your clients… it will also help you figure out who perfect client is… they want your process and will pay you well for it.

you should be set up by now. space, materials, equipment, software, etc., etc. needs to be ready now.

learn about the paradigm shift that must take place intellectually and emotionally. I think working for yourself requires a significant psychological adjustment.

I would get much, much more basic - clarify my market, who what where, start talking to people (a la launch an idea virus)-clear out my head; has found that money follows clarity we are taught clarity follows money-focus on money w/o clarity of mind, body and purpose too soon & lose

a lot of self-confidence. Self confidence tends to sell itself. I formed a corporation for liability reasons. protection from litigation for professional ‘mistakes’. Never need it, but it helped. if you’re living paycheck to paycheck, I don’t see how to do it. I had a cushion and needed it. I never thought about borrowing money…i don’t like to do that and it puts someone else (bank) in charge of business; you are working for the bank and not yourself

i’d add talking with all your connections/networks as much as possible, you never know what help might be there that you’d hadn’t thought of.

get yourself a safety net: a part-time waged manual job with regular hours outside those of your new business; family has to eat and bills have to be paid. You can’t be efficient in your new biz if you’re struggling to survive.

how clearly are you visualizing the entrepreneurial effort? Can you taste it? Does it make you hop up and down shouting woohoo? if you’re not visualizing the heck out of it, you’ll become lost in the hows, not the goal, and it will be unnecessarily hard. ie: don’t be a control freak reacting to fear. Move towards goal, not away from obstacles imagined between you and goal. Anecdote: any great success I’ve achieved had nothing to do with focusing on how, and all to do with being excited by the result. that excitement breezed me through the hows. If I had focused on the hows, I would have fought with them.

I was put in an unethical situation at a job and had to leave, wasn’t planning on going into business for myself. I took contract work to do while I was job hunting. I got so much work and hadn’t found a job that was a good fit, so started writing my business plan, work on branding, and doing my market research. I have had enough business to keep me going that I have been lucky. I am sure that is the kind of thing that won’t go on forever…so have been hustling to do business development, which has worked because a lot of people know me, but I will be glad to do it once I have launched my consultancy’s new identity next month. I decided to wait until after the DNC so that my business wouldn’t get lost in the shuffle. This way I will have completed my business plan, have my new office, and my new web site and other brand-related items such as collaterals, etc. together. I didn’t plan for it to work out this way and it has been stressful, but I am pretty lucky. It helps that I used to write marketing plans for small businesses as part of a former job, so I kind of knew some of the pitfalls.

I’m grateful to my colleagues on Plurk for generating a wealth of ideas and insight during this business brainstorming session!

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