Ever had a seemingly brilliant business idea — say, an app or a product — pop into your head and think, Huh, I should really make that a reality? The entrepreneurial bug, as they say, bites you. But it can be daunting to actually pursue the venture and see it to fruition as opposed to temporarily ruminating on it (and maybe later learning that someone else launched that genius concept — ouch).
While there's no one-size-fits-all for entrepreneurial success, there are some useful nuggets of wisdom to heed in order to get your idea off the ground, says Jaclyn Johnson, founder of Create & Cultivate, a company that provides resources to help female entrepreneurs launch businesses. For starters, embrace resiliency. "Be comfortable being told 'no,'" she says. "Don't think of it as a stop-your-business 'no,' but as an I'll-get-back-to-you-later 'no.'" In other words, look at it as feedback.
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Also key: Try not to obsess over everything. "Sometimes, people overthink what it takes to launch a business and they want every single thing to be perfect before they hit go," Johnson says. Be okay with 80% — not 100% — and reorient from there.
Once you've adopted an entrepreneurial mindset, Johnson says you can focus on the (many) logistical aspects that are necessary to launch a company, like registering your trademark, organizing your website, and getting everything together from a legal perspective. Building a good team and bringing in capital are are also tactical steps to take in the early stages.
If you've got the itch to start a business, but you aren't sure where to start (or what exactly to launch), Johnson recommends discovering what you're passionate about and then finding out what's "missing in the market." If you're stuck, she says it can be as simple as talking about your passion in public. In addition to being an excellent conversation-starter at a party, doing so will help you sculpt your idea based off people's feedback.
Watch the video, above, for more of Johnson's advice about entrepreneurship, from pitching your idea to investors to working from home while running the company of your dreams.
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