Deciding to start a business is a lot like bungee jumping. You need to leap off the cliff and have faith that the cord will hold you. Entrepreneurship and risk taking come hand in hand – to succeed you must be innovative and take chances others have not dared to take before.

Bill Gates is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time – but when he started off he was not sure that he was going to succeed. According to Gates:

“We bet the company on Windows. It was a risk that’s paid off immensely. In retrospect, committing to the graphics interface seems so obvious that now it’s hard to keep a straight face.”

Hindsight is always 20/20 but it takes a true entrepreneur to see an opportunity and go for it. Having said that, here are some ways to make the leap a little less scary.

1) Start off part time

It is hard to build a real business working only part time but it can be a great way to test out an idea to see if it works before you go full force into it. Michael Dell started his company while at university and when he saw the demand was overwhelming for his computers he quit to start his business. Get going in the evenings and weekends to test out your concept and see if customers are willing to bite before committing yourself.

2) Build around a customer

The best way to start a business is to find a customer with a problem and offer them a solution. Most entrepreneurs, however, build a product around their passions, invest a lot of time and energy, and never really have a business plan or a customer to sell to. Just because you love your product it does not mean that customers will respond with their wallets. Find someone who is willing to pay you for what you have to offer and build your company around them. This way you ensure that money is coming in from day one.

3) Stay cash flow positive

One of the main reasons why new business owners shut down operations is they run out of cash. They spend too much developing features that their customers do not care about and on marketing initiatives that do not pan out. When you start a business try to start small and get some immediate revenue coming in. Think big but act small and make your mistakes without using up a lot of money. Find a low cost way to get started in your industry, bring in some initial paying customers, and then expand your spending once you have some money coming in. A good example is to start by offering a service first before deciding to create and market a product which can be more costly but have a higher return. It may mean sacrificing progress in the early days but it insures that you are still around in the long run to execute your big vision.
Evan Carmichael