Are you a Small Business Owner or an Entrepreneur? (pt. 1)

When it comes down to it, a small business owner is building a stable entity from the beginning. Following both a passion and a desire to create a stable and sustainable living from a business idea that he/ she can turn into a reality in year one. An entrepreneur is building a business concept into a growth machine, and is willing to take big risks to jump start the entity and kick it into high gear immediately.

Whether you are one or the other is for us to discuss in future posts.

For now, the critical conversation to have is around the fact that the best founders, whether small business or startup, are building something off a concept that actually solves a problem; fixes an issue; fills an unmet need; or delivers a promise of a real outcome in the short term for the user.

Building off a concept that just sounds good, or you dreamed it up over 2020 because you thought it would be interesting to make, does not mean you are on to something.

It makes you more of an idea person and maybe an inventor (which exploring your creativity is almost always a good thing). However, an inventor doesn’t always become an entrepreneur or owner.

The businesses that are finding their footing and have some lasting power are providing something of worth to a targeted audience.

This audience seeks a valuable outcome from a task they are faced with or a desire they are consumed with or a need that must be addressed. The business who understands what the outcome of this audience is, is already one step in the right direction of potential “there may be something here.”

More so, those businesses who do a deep enough dive into what is actually driving this audience to seek help (look on google, ask friends, read industry blogs, follow advice of others who have experienced a similar scenario) are in the fast lane to getting closer to their intended customer.

When it boils down to it, the motivated audience is driven by a root cause.

A situational reason that causes them enough “pain” or “depth of desire” that makes them seek out something to help them overcome this not yet fixed hole in their path.

And motivation is almost always spurred on by emotions and values. (It’s the emotion that gets them moving to finding a solution that fills the hole; and it’s the rational that answers the smaller obstacles that they need to get over to finally buy.)

So, as you are working on your business concept, be sure to ask yourself some key questions (that we will cover more in depth in this blog):

• Am I building for stability or do I want to go straight into trajectory growth? (Note: both are EXTREMELY hard to do, for different reasons. Be sure you understand the differences and the time, money and effort requirements of either before you answer.)
• Is what I am building an answer to a real person’s question, a solution to their problem, an opportunity to their desire, or a fix to their issue?
• Am I an inventor of something interesting, but maybe just to me? (Would enough others be willing to pay for this idea so I can make a go of it?)
• Do I understand the target consumer’s challenge enough to know what is really at the root cause of it? Could I figure out what is motivating them to look around for a business to help them?
• If I needed to find out the level of “pain” they were having and what obstacles they were experiencing getting out of it or across the gap, could I find enough people right now to ask them and talk about it?
• Am I willing to do all of this work, just to get my concept into development?

This is just a drip in the well of information you will need to be asking yourself and working on.

Whether you are a small business founder or startup founder, skipping these basic steps of understanding will cause a significant gap in your business’ foundation.