Fred Scharr ⋅ Suffern, NY Independent Contractor/Consultant ⋅ 35 years experience

Find a passion and perform a services better than the rest.

Brian Richardson ⋅ Columbus, IN U.S. Army, Sergeant ⋅ 8 years served

Hi Jimetrius,
That is the $64,000 question. But it does boil down to a few things.

1. A true need for your product or service. This can't be a perceived need. You should go out and test your idea first. See if you can get someone to use it, kick the tires. I would call this a "pre-launch". The equivalent of selling cookies at the fair...before you buy the bakery.

2. Where are your potential customers? Hang out where they do...websites, in person, forums, social media etc. Learn their language if you don't already know it. LISTEN to where they are having problems that you can solve.

3. Know what resources you have and what you need. Determine if you have a method of getting those or not.

Obviously there are a ton of other moving parts in starting a business. Did you have a particular type of business? Any more details on what you are wanting to do and what you need the most information on...specifically?

Here are a few books I have read. And reading is a good idea. Get as much info as you can so you can decide the best course for your particular situation.

http://vetlaunched.com/books/

Brian Richardson
www.VetLaunched.com

Reid Lohr ⋅ Greenville, SC The EDI Group ⋅ 25 years experience

Jimetrius,

I am new to ACP and so not sure if my thoughts are after the fact. The are definitely some interesting books with good advice. With that said, I think you may be looking at this a bit wrong from the little information I can gather at this point. 'Creating a winning business' is certainly a good objective but I would first look inside yourself and determine what is your passion and what is exciting enough to get you up in the morning and fight through the tough times of owning your own business. There are lots of folks that want to be entrepreneurs, all want a ' winning business' but many fall short of that ultimate goal. Also, they fail to define 'winning' and how that relates to a variety of personal and professional dynamics.
Do you want to purchase a franchise, create a partnership, have a store front, etc, etc.
Sorry to lecture - I give presentations and discussions on this topic so it gets away from me at times. :-)
If interested, please feel free to reach out to me off line.

v/r
reid

Jim Rohrbach ⋅ Evanston, IL ⋅ 22 years experience

Hi Jimetrius!

Start by reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Since this book is now in the public domain, you can access it for free by doing a Google search "Free Think and Grow Rich."

Let me know what you think of it after you've read it --

Jim "Da Coach"