From Necessary to Impossible

There’s just too much information out there about how to grow your new business.

If this is your first start up, and if you’re like most entrepreneurs, then chances are you will be overwhelmed.

From accounting and marketing to technology and process. It’s an endless list of “TO-DOs” that will keep you up every night.

Of course, that’s the life of a start up. Entrepreneurship is not all fun-and-games. It’s serious business.

But what boils my blood is how much garbage there is floating on the internet from so-called experts.

First, if you expect ANY courses to be free, you’re a fool. Second, if you think for a hot minute that you will walk away from the course and build your empire overnight, you’re gravely naive. Third, if you want to build a real brand, don’t take short cuts. Last but not least, you have yourself to blame if you’re not ready to put in the work.

The snake oil salesman still prowls the streets

Of course, these experts give you so much information, but just enough to intrigue you. Want to learn the real secret? It’s exclusive and only a handful of selected people will get accepted to get access. Will you be the one?

Great! But first, you need to fork over money.

Yes, I get it. It’s like attending school or going to a concert. You’re paying for access to something you deem valuable.

And here’s the best part. After spend a ton of money, you can’t complain if you fail and ask for a refund. Why? Ultimately, you’re 100% accountable for your own actions and the health of your business.

What these expert courses offer is a framework, and you’ll hear this word a lot — FRAMEWORK — on how to succeed.

Just like college. You might get a 4.0 GPA, but that doesn’t guarantee you will be successful in your career or be a founder of a multi-million dollar business.

There is no guaranteeing your success just because you paid to obtain knowledge. You’re still lacking practical experience.

What they are showing (selling) you is that this framework, methodology, and road map worked for them (allegedly).

Here’s the typical hook you will see.

• A paid or sponsored advertising about how the expert has scaled their business from $0 to millions quickly
• The story is compelling enough that you click through to a landing page — you’ve bought into it
• You get your email “squeezed” from you because you’re signing up for a webinar, downloading a case study or strategy document, or getting free audits — and at this time, you have entered the rabbit hole
• Over the next few weeks you start receiving emails about scheduling a follow-up phone call to discuss your personalized strategy
• Before you know it, you’re signing up for something and happily paid for it

If this sounded familiar to you, it’s because this generic marketing approach has flooded the social media websites like Facebook and LinkedIn.

Let’s just say that as a marketer, this influx of lead generation tactics is becoming more like online sales-porno.

I’ve got a more practical approach you can follow — and it’s FREE.

Let’s continue, shall we?

You get more confused than when you first started

I love to learn.

And I just can’t get enough of it.

But there’s one problem I face. The more I learn, the more I feel I know less. Why is that?

Aren’t I suppose to get more knowledgeable and smarter and enlightened the more information I consume? On the contrary.

My brain can only process so much at a time — so learning too much at once (turning on the fire hose) seem like a misuse of time.

What I find works well is learning new skills in digestible chunks — and spend more time executing and fine tuning what I’ve learned before going for more.

There’s no shortage of things to learn. But there’s a finite amount of time you have each day. So be practical and reasonable with yourself.

Everyone is different. But when you know your limits, you will have a better idea of how far you can push yourself.

It’s OK to have limits.

Practical ways to tackle your startup business

So instead of blowing a wad of your hard earn money on seminars, coaching sessions, and conferences — here are practical things you should start doing immediately for your business.

As an entrepreneur you need to make the best use of your time, stretch your resources, and prioritize the crap from things that will move you forward.

Let’s look at some down to earth, practical, and cut-to-the-chase way of navigating your journey.

These approaches that I’m going to discuss is far from the sexy PowerPoint presentations, the high-powered webinars with rock-n-roll music, or the supercharged seminars with flashing lights and bottomless beer.

But it works. And it requires $0 from you. Just 100% effort.

First Step: Do what is necessary

As ambitious as you might be, start with what’s necessary to get your business running smoothly.

Curb your excitement and pay attention to the basic things you need to accomplish — this may take 1 year or more before you nail it down.

But so what?

The saying “slow and steady wins the race” — there’s a lot of truth in that. Unfortunately, in our day and age, everyone startup is in a hurry to be the next Unicorn. Everyone is rushing to either be the next internet sensation that they forget the solidify the foundation.

When I started Fullmoon Digital in 2017, I was caught up in the “future” for a while — until I realized that I didn’t have the fundamentals figured out yet. Yes, envisioning a successful future for my ad agency was exhilarating, but I allowed it to consume my time to a point of waste.

Here are the things that I spent way too many hours on — sourcing new hires, pontificating about the future, talking to too many unqualified leads, and striving for perfection (instead of excellence) — to name a few.

Instead, I should have been more focused on my process, framework, creating content, and automation. I would have been further along if I did what was necessary versus what was idealistic.

The necessary stuff is usually not the difficult ones. But it’s probably because it’s so easy that you feel these things don’t need your immediate attention. Wrong!

Now go do the necessary!

Second Step: Then do what is difficult

Once you have a good grip on what is necessary for your startup, move on to the next stage — do things that was difficult when you first launched your business.

Note: I say “natural” because by this time, you would have gone through a lot (trust me), and have a good idea on what you need to do next. 

While working your way through the first step, you would

Difficult things can range from software upgrades, scaling marketing budgets, hiring the right people, developing partnerships, expanding the business, and getting more clients/customers.

When you get to this point, it is important to realize there is still necessary things to do (from the first step). But now you are more prepared to take on the harder challenges of running a business.

Taking on something that is difficult as a startup can be counter-productive. Why? Because you are probably not ready for it.

“But Derek, I see entrepreneurs that defy the odds all the time.” Yes, but what you see and read represents 0.001% of the entrepreneur population in the country or world.

What you rarely read about are the failures of the non-funded startups — those are real people who have invested real money into a business too. But they don’t get their fair share of attention because, frankly, they’re not sexy enough to be deserving of any coverage.

I digress.

So, my point here is this.  The time for you to tackle difficult business issues will come. Don’t go searching for it before you are ready.

Third Step: Eventually, you do what seem impossible

As you hustle and work tirelessly in your startup, the time will finally come when you shoot for the moon.

Let’s recap.

You started with doing the necessary things — this builds your confidence because you are achieving milestones that have reasonable objectives.

Note: One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is trying to out-do themselves or prove naysayers wrong. This is usually greeted with failure — and that can cripple your enthusiasm.  

Then you do things for your business that are difficult. It’s easy to understand why you are ready to take on new challenges — simply because you’re prepared.

But don’t stop there.

It comes a time when you take on things that seem impossible. When you decide to challenge the status quo, people around you will think you’ve lost your mind. And maybe you have, or maybe you are just so fine-tuned that you’re ready for the next level.

Go ahead, it’s time to conquer the world.

A word of warning: at this step, your number of naysayers, enemies, and haters will also increase in proportion. But you already know how to block them out of your life. Right?

Conclusion

Friends, these 3 steps required $0 from you.

And they’re not even some bullshit marketing strategy or tactic. It’s pure simple truths about how to go about your startup business in the most logical way.

I don’t claim to be an expert in starting a business – hell no. There are already too many self-proclaimed experts out there.

What I am sharing with you is what I’ve gathered from my personal experience. It’s not the only way by any stretch of my imagination — I’m fully aware of that.

If you have other ways for startups to tackle their business, I would love to hear from you below.