“I have been fine-tuning details of my Business Plan for three months, I am looking for financing. I have my website ready. I have defined the mission, vision and my values. I already have a team, the facilities are almost ready, I have hired some people. What do I need to start? ”
Many think that first things always come first. We learned it at school, at home, in church, at work, and we tried to do it in business. Few think of moving into their new home without it being completely finished. Few start selling before having the business "well set up"… but those who do it do well.
What do I need to start? The answer is simple: "You need to start." what do I want to say with that? It is not always possible to have everything 100% perfect to start operating your new business. It is not always possible, it is not always necessary, it is not always convenient. They say that being a perfectionist could be one of the invisible barriers to achieving success in life.
From a theoretical point of view, the entrepreneur must prepare a Business Plan, before going out to seek financing. You must also register your brand, your trade name, establish a commercial company, document the entire process that will take from the idea to the creation of your first company. Ironically, most banks never lend to a business on a Business Plan, if the company has no operations for more than a year, two years or more.
It also happens that the entrepreneur who manages to open his new company, continues to perfect the details: facilities, machinery, designs, products, trains the staff and many other tasks to "be ready", but there is something that is postponed: " attract your first client and get your first sale ”.
I remember, quite a few years ago, arriving at a mattress store: The owner, a pleasant and attentive man, who was later one of my first clients, took me to his small office to proudly show me the photograph of the ticket he received at his first sale: it was a hundred colones bill (today it would be twenty cents).
Don't wait any longer, take your product and make your first sale
I strongly recommend that you should become an expert before starting your own business. Expert in what? You must first be an expert on your client. You must choose it before starting, you must know its needs and expectations before creating a product for it. The product must be good, necessary and attractive to him. The entrepreneur usually falls in love with his product and runs the risk of not determining if the client will be too.
You must be an expert on your client first. Then, you must be an expert in the product or service that you are going to offer them.
Solved that, you must create your first product. It can be a prototype, it can be the final version and you can go out and make your first sale. The best and most successful entrepreneurs are excellent merchants, skillful and persuasive sellers.
Do not fool yourself. If the first sale is to a close relative, it doesn't count. Trying to lose my shyness, when I was eighteen I went out to sell encyclopedias, that was many, many years ago. After two weeks of effort I sold the first one. My elementary school teacher bought it. I'm sure he bought it out of "pity". By the way, it was the only one that I managed to sell.
That was a long time ago… Maybe I'm still shy! But now I am a much better "seller" than I was back then.
Make your first sale, cold. Find the customer you want to reach with your business and offer the product, with that sparkle in the eyes that all "in love with your product" has. That customer, who does not know you, will not buy you out of love, courtesy, or compassion. He will buy from you only if you convince him about the benefits and benefits of your product.
At what price to sell?
Of course, you should define the price of your product based on market prices. Of course you must know the cost of manufacturing and selling it, to determine what will be its contribution to the company's profits.
But once the price is defined, don't "get off". Do not apply discounts because of desperation or because it is your first sale. Your client, even, does not have to know is that your first sale.
It depends on the country you are in, so you will have to face the pressure of those who have as a "sport" always ask for discounts, they do it almost automatically. If you make a name for yourself that you "accept discounts", you will be in trouble from the first days and you will regret this, the rest of your "business" life.
Not always more sales, it's more profit
It is true that I say this frequently (I leave you at the end the link to the article on Earning Potential); but sales are the engine that drives all the machinery of the company. You must achieve profitable sales, from the first days of your business… if you can do them before starting better.
So go out now, grab your product and start selling.
