In Spain we have not been taught how to undertake. People often do it in a way that carries a lot of risk. In this article I will try to explain you How to start a business . For this I will be based on the Lean Startup method.
He Lean Startup method Has been in the United States for several years and, although it is gradually becoming known in Spain, it still lacks much to expand.
Because I am implementing it In one of my projects, I have decided to document it to encourage and serve as information to other entrepreneurs.
Therefore, I will not speak from pure theory and my experience will serve for people who want to start a business. First and foremost, thanks to Joaquin Peña Siles For their continued willingness to help entrepreneurs.
Lean Startup is an entrepreneurship methodology for Validate business ideas Innovative and involves a change of perspective to what is usually done in Spain. It will allow you Avoid making huge expenditure of money and time And come up with a business idea that is profitable.
Currently the situation of recession is growing the number of entrepreneurs who want to set up their own business, so it is ideal to try to apply this methodology without ruining itself. Here's the reason.
THE TRADITIONAL ENTREPRENEUR
Traditionally, when a person or team has a business idea it does the following:
1-You have an idea.
2-Invest time and money in the development of the product / service. Sometimes working for a year or more and spending thousands of euros. HE Intuitively That the service / product may have demand although it is not really known and you do not have information of the business and its potential customers.
3-Make known your product or service.
The results can be:
"The business is going well. This happens a minority of occasions. Only 5% of startups survive.
-The business fails and is wasted money and time.
LEAN STARTUP EMPOWERMENT
The purpose of this methodology is not to risk a business that we do not know if it will have a demand, if it will solve a problem, if people will pay for it or if it will be profitable. Definitely, Decrease as much as we can risk To ruin us.
We want to go from our plan A (main idea of business) to a plan that works, with the minimum necessary resources.
With Lean Startup There is a change of perspective:
1-You have one idea: Regarding this, I recommend that you dedicate yourself to something that you really like to do, so that you feel passion, have knowledge and that you can also become a business.
Passion, knowledge / training and business.
2-It creates a Minimum viable product / service : It is a product or service that meets the minimum characteristics that your final product will have. It is about not investing money in the product before knowing that it has demand, will solve a problem and people will pay for it.
For example, the creator of Dropbox Uploaded a video to youtube with what would suppose its service. After receiving thousands of visits and positive comments, he was offered a million dollar investment.
3-Literally Goes out to the street for information : You must know if your product / service is demanded by the people, ideas that can contribute, people's vision about your business, etc. People will be shown the minimum viable product to know what they think about it, what you can improve, if it is sued, if it solves a problem, etc. This will be done through interviews (in each article I will detail each step).
For example, the creator of the multi-million dollar Zappos (Amazon bought it) began selling shoes that showed in a cardboard, visiting from house to house. That was their minimum viable product.
2/3 entrepreneurs change their initial business idea And end up doing things totally different from their initial idea. So it is very likely that your"plan A"will change completely. Although that is what it is, go from a hypothesis that has not been proven (plan A) to plan B in which you have checked a hypothesis.
Sometimes we see entrepreneurs who have triumphed with their product and become multi-millionaires. However, many of them have spent years working on their product (the inventor of gum bracelets had been working on that idea for 3 years). Cases like Steve Jobs that have a fixed vision and still win, do not usually happen.
4- Invest time and money : When we get key information about the products / services that people want, if they pay for them, if they solve a problem and if we will be profitable, we invest time and money in the development of the product / service. Only in that case. Then it is when we have moved from plan A to plan B, C or D.
STARTING: THINKING ABOUT THE IDEA
If you do not have an idea yet, I recommend that in what you think and what you go to work, comply with the following:
- Be your passion : This way you will dedicate more hours without effort, you will be more motivated and you will always have new ideas to innovate.
- Have knowledge about it : If you are an expert in the business theme you want to develop, it will be easier for you to move forward and people will trust you more.
- Be a business : If you want to open an NGO, you do not have to worry about making it profitable, but if you want to make a living with it, you should think about something with which you can generate income. Try to get your idea to solve a problem .
BUSINESS PLAN A
The first thing is to write your Initial vision / idea And share it with a person to give you feedback.
Traditionally the business plan has been used, which often runs the 50 pages and takes a long time to finish. As I have told you, Likely to change your Plan A , So why spend so much time on the business plan of an idea that will not work?
Better to use something less static that you can change in case of giving a change to your initial idea. To this end, Lean Startup expert Ash Maurya uses the Lean Canvas .
This model is:
Quick (You can finish the business model you propose in an hour or two) and it is much more Easy to share and of Take it anywhere.
And how have you started your business?