A business idea, in its simplest definition is an entrepreneurial idea. An idea of a commercial activity that an entrepreneur wants to carry out in order to make profits for herself and for any investors involved. Many articles on this topic focus on the concept of business idea as absolute innovation, creating something that doesn’t exist yet. But creating a company does not always require having an absolutely innovative idea. A company can be created with the aim of entering an existing market with better than competitive products or services.
But you have to remember that the starting point of your business is always you!
Where do you start to plan or grow your business? You start from the beginning, and what are the first components that make up your business?
No matter what resources, products, services your company has, it doesn’t exist without YOU. You are the starting point for everything in your business so you will need to examine what exactly it brings to your business.
In order for your business to be successful you need to exploit your positive points and minimize the negative ones. So you need to know your individual strengths and weaknesses to make the most of the positives and develop a strategy to react to the negatives. The way you see yourself can be different from how others see you, so ask the people around you what they think about you, start from your family, friends, colleagues.
List at least 4 positive aspects and 4 negatives by trying to be brutally honest with yourself. Your strengths will help you in your business, the weaknesses need to be analyzed in order to understand how they can hinder your success.
Motivation is a pre-requisite of all our actions. To run your business you need to be motivated to work hard, to face problems and tensions and to carry on when you are alone. Having an idea of what can motivate you will help you to found your business and to stable personal goals, it can be earning more money, managing your time differently, managing decisions by yourself…no matter what, but list your motivation and remember them every day, and keep them alive. How? Here a short list that can help you:
- Have discipline in separating work, home and social activities,
- Plan days, weeks, months.
- Don’t set unrealistic goals, keep it simple.
- Listen to yourself and your body and if you don’t feel mentally or physically ready don’t start, you will lose motivation.
- Be organized.
- Build networks of like-minded people, you can start with the partners of WIN ON LINE project.
As an entrepreneur you have to be:
- creative,
- hardworking and determined,
- resolute and focused (even a bit stubborn),
- open-minded,
- ready to listen, learn, ready to fail, learn from experience and try again,
- don’t take things personally, a criticism of your business is not a refusal aimed at you
It is said that ideas are the engine of progress: this statement is valid in every field, including the economic one. Probably the idea that came to your mind seems to you to be the right “engine” to make you progress towards the future and create a business that turns out to be rich in both personal and economic satisfaction.
But always remember that an idea must be achievable and not remain an impossible dream: especially in the field of startups, it is necessary to understand if an idea is really a “good idea”: that is, if it is really possible to put it into practice and create a business that is able to generate income. Business planning and business canvas can help you in understanding the potentiality of your idea.
In the next page you will find a graphic which intent is to underline the start up phases of a business, traditional or innovative one. This is for you to have in mind all the steps and critical points you may face during your journey. It is a model that can help you in developing your entrepreneurial mindset and make you feel stronger in each step and it is made for you as new entrepreneurs to have a theory behind your actions.
Tips and advice in a video from other women entrepreneurs (duration 2’):
