 Re: Things I wish I'd known from the start.
And even BEFORE the start. PLAN! I cannot overemphasize how much pain and headache I could have saved myself with additional research and a FORMAL business plan.
The notes and ideas I had were (and still are) great, but when it came down to actually doing it, I found that there were gaping holes in my planning which led to stress, frustration, lost sales, and lost money.
With each failure or missed opportunity I have learned something, but a full business plan is an absolute necessity, even (or especially) if the whole thing is going to be financed out of your own pocket.
Knowing who is likely to buy your product, who is competing for their business, what you need to charge to make a profit, what you believe you can do to make your product more attractive to potential customers than that of your competition, all CRITICAL to success!
The business is like the shirt: actually printing the shirt is the easy part; the tough part, and the part that makes the difference between success and failure, is all the prep work that goes before. |