Did you just bake a tasty cookie? Is the cookie so tasty you are thinking about quitting your day job?
Take a breath.
To start a business you need three things: (a) a vision, (b) the ability to explain your vision to others, and (c) the initiative to act on your vision.
Got a tasty cookie? Bake two dozen. Ask someone at the farmer’s market if you can sell them in their farmer’s market booth. How fast did they sell? Ask people to take a bite in front of you. Do their eyes go wide with delight or disgust? If they go wide with delight you might have something.
Next week bake four dozen. What are you learning? You are learning that owning a business is hard work. How does it feel to have to bake cookies? How does it feel to bake four times the number of cookies you usually bake because of the demand?
Do another farmer’s market. How fast did they sell? Did you sell out? Do you have leftover cookies? Are you cookie customers giving you ideas? Are they saying: “These chocolate chip are great! Do you have oatmeal raisin? If you had oatmeal raising I would buy two ziplock bags full!”
Nest week you bake eight dozen. How do you like cookies now? Do you miss your family. If not, does your family miss you? If your family like: “Why are you always baking cookies?”
Do another farmer’s market. Do you have repeat customers? Are you surprised to learn the oatmeal raisin are selling twice as fast as the chocolate chip? That’s called getting paid to learn.
The market loves your chocolate chip idea. But, the market loves its oatmeal raisin idea even better. What to do? You have limited time. Limited facilities. Do you commit to baking one or both? Is it time to leave your day job, bake 40 dozen cookies a week and get them into local stores?
A business can start small. One of the best free modern seminars on business is available for free to stream on Discovery Channel, called Undercover Billionaire. Being successful in business means taking constant action. Failures and setbacks will always exist; they require response, can can sometimes require a pivot in your strategy.
Finding solutions to problems no one has solved is the key to success. To those who say there is nothing left undiscovered, no secrets left to un-turn, take a glance in your nearest Costco alcohol section to see alcoholic seltzer waters that were most certainly not there ten years ago.
“You can have agency not just over your own life, but over a small and important part of the world. It begins by rejecting the unjust tyranny of Chance. You are not a lottery ticket.” –Peter Thiel