From my experience as a consultant, and after having seen countless cases of entrepreneurship, some unsuccessful and many others successful, I propose to convey which are the essential points to take into account before starting up.
First Condition: Correct Goal
Regardless of your age at the beginning of the business, since today there are entrepreneurs between the ages of twenty and sixty, you must first take into account what your goal is. The goal has to be clearly displayed on a personal level, so that later you can gain interest in others.
As with jokes, which need to amuse their rapporteur, the same thing happens with business. On the contrary, it should never be a priority to make money, but rather to satisfy a desire. I wish that you urgently need to link with your own and then seek that of the other.
Examples: Only those who enjoy organic foods know the pleasure they generate and therefore, when they offer them, they will have enormous firepower to argue reasons for purchase. The same thing happens with those lovers of aesthetics, who will be the most passionate when it comes to bringing the benefits of seeing themselves as they want to the market. If I refer to gastronomic ventures, then I will suggest that people who love good food will be the great hosts of their restaurant.
As you can see, customer orientation is a consequence of thinking of myself as such, that is, as a person seeking to satisfy their desires through a product or service.
Second Condition: Have thoughts of abundance.
Taking as north one of the ideas in Covey's well-known book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" I will say that people who are able to assume that the market is large and act accordingly, will have a much greater chance of success than others.
And this is clear, given that such a concept implies a vigorous respect and ethics towards the entire value chain, including suppliers, customers and the community.
In practice, those with an abundance mentality will try to satisfy all concerned. Thus, the providers will comply with the agreement without looking for spurious subterfuge; clients will receive what they asked for and the community will gladly accept the installation of a new business in their space when they obtain from it the fulfillment of their needs without breaking the rules.
Third Condition. Combine focused analysis with holistic capacity
It is a tendency in Western thought to be unable to deal with ambiguities. In this way, Manichaeism becomes present when some components are appreciated from a binary logic to the detriment of the others.
Entrepreneurs do not escape this, and the successful ones know about mixtures. They think of alternative ways to offer their products and also when negotiating. They are creative and use lateral thinking, but they do not neglect the classic analysis tools: customer segmentation; the cash flow; the rigorous control of their work processes, the SWOT matrix, the KPIs, among other variables.
This is possibly one of the main challenges. Achieve a harmonic dance between two different but not exclusive dancers: that of logical analysis and holistic synthesis.
Covey, Steven. "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." Ed. Paidós. 1989.
