Common Mistakes When Starting a New Business: What to Do Rather Than How to Do It

I will be holding a seminar on new business development this week.

As I think about what to talk about at the seminar, I find myself wanting to mention a few basics before getting into the main topic.

Today, I will organize some fundamental ways of thinking when taking on a new challenge, such as starting a new business.

What to do, rather than how to do it?

When I hold seminars, people often expect to hear about know-how, but there are things more important than the know-how of how to do something.

What are you going to do? (Theme, target)
Why are you doing it? (Purpose, motivation)
What will happen if you do it? (Outlook, direction of development)

It is important to at least roughlywrite these down.
If you are casual about these points, your thinking may develop in a completely different direction, and it might end up being a total waste of time. Though, if you think of it as practice, it is not such a bad thing.

Selecting what to do and what not to do

There are so many things you want to do!
But time and money are limited.

Therefore, you are forced to choose what to do.
Is there anyone who keeps thinking about it without making a choice, with their head spinning?
(This is a common story, so don't feel down about it lol)

Deciding what not to do requires a lot of courage and energy.
Here, I recommendprioritizing what you will dofirst.

From the various things you have written down,
・Things you absolutely want to do
・Things you must do to move forward
・Things that are absolutely necessary
etc., pleasechoose only three.

Only three. Four is not allowed. (Is that too strict?)

Once you have chosen three, pleasechoose only one.
This is theultimate oneyou choose in a desperate situation where you have limited time and money and can only do one thing.

Prioritizing the order in which to do things

Once you have chosen the ultimate one, let's think about the remaining two in relation to it.
If you have A, B, and C, and you choose A, think about the positioning of B and C.
If B and C are preparatory steps and A is the main task,
the positional relationship of B, C → A becomes clear.

Can you skip B and C?
Are they absolutely necessary as prerequisites?
If you were to do them, how much time should you allocate?
Think about these things.

In other words, you want to spend most of your time and money on the main task, A.
Can the others be put on the back burner?
Do they need to be done at the same time?
Decide on the order and the allocation of time and money.

The outlook that if you do it, it will work!

Once you have decided what to do, the order in which to do it, and the priorities,
take a bird's-eye view of the whole thing and check for any oversights.

If you can see that 'If I just do this, it will work! It looks like a success!!'
then you are good to go.

Is there anything else you need?

I recommend not overthinking it, starting small, and
setting specific times to check your progress along the way.

If you can believe, 'If I do it, I can do it!'
then you can commit all your energy without hesitation.
This is the shortest path to success.

My previous article is also a helpful reference. That one discussesidentifying items and organizing them.
Today's discussion is positioned as a guide onwhat to focus on when identifying those items.

This article was written by
Shigeki Kawahara, a 'Future Realization Partner' who helps increase revenue streams
https://mousoubiz.com/
https://twitter.com/mousoubiz