The First Thing to Do When Starting a Business

By Michael Masterson

There are many tasks involved in starting a new business – choosing a name, filing for corporate status, finding office space, renting equipment, etc. – but there is only one thing that should take priority, and that is figuring out a winning formula for acquiring new customers.

Every business in every industry has its unique characteristics and there is no marketing solution that is good for all. That is why it is so important that entrepreneurs devote most of their early time and money into finding out how to make those viable sales.

By making viable sales I mean sales that will generate customers whose lifetime net value exceeds their original cost of acquisition. It is a common sense observation, but it is not commonly done.

The trick to being a successful business starter is to discover how to make profitable sales before your time and money run out.

This is an application of the ready-fire-aim principle. That is:

• Get the product ready enough so that you can sell it but don’t worry about perfecting it.

• Figure out how to sell it.

• Once it is selling profitably, start improving the product based on customer response.

That’s the smart move. But some new business experts advise would-be entrepreneurs to do other things.