In this video, entrepreneur Evan Carmichael answers a viewer’s question about launching a children’s amusement park. He stresses the importance of maintaining a big, motivating vision while taking daily, incremental actions. Carmichael warns that starting large increases the risk of costly mistakes and recommends beginning with low‑cost, test‑market approaches: partnering with local events, using mall parking lots, and running a few rides to gauge demand and personal fit. He explains how early revenue can reduce personal financial stress and build a platform for growth. Carmichael illustrates his point with the Harley‑Davidson origin story, showing how a modest start in a backyard shed led to a global brand through steady, step‑by‑step expansion. He ties the advice to his broader mission of helping a billion entrepreneurs, noting that a clear vision combined with small, consistent actions keeps momentum without paralysis. The video ends with a typical call‑to‑action for likes and comments.
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Evan Carmichael. Think big but start small. Have that big vision for where you're going to go with your business to help keep you motivated, but make sure you're taking steps every day to move that business forward. Otherwise, if all you have is a big dream, sometimes it's so big and so scary that you don't end up taking any action to move it forward. Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael, your friend in all things entrepreneurship, and today I'm answering a question from one of our readers, Jennifer, who wants to start a children's amusement park and is worried that she only has the option to start big. So thanks for the question, Jennifer. Congratulations on wanting to start this business. I'm worried for you. It's possible to start big. It's possible to raise a lot of money and start big. But your chances of success go down dramatically. Because you're going to make a lot of mistakes. Like with any business, you're going to make a lot of mistakes. And the more money and the more you grow, the more opportunities there are for mistakes. The best way to build a business, if you can, is start small and build it up. And so applying that to your business, how can you do it? You don't have to have a huge amusement park right from the beginning. What I would do is try to find low-cost ways to get this thing started. I would try to partner up with local events that are happening and bring 1 or 2 rides out. I would partner up with shopping malls and use their parking lots on special days where you can bring some of your rides out. I would try to find cheap ways to get started. It does a couple things. One, it helps you test the market. Do people want what you're selling? It's a great idea to think about it, right? It's like, "Yeah, of course everybody wants it." But you never actually know until you start selling. It'll help you see if you actually like doing this business, right? Again, it can look great on paper, but until you're in it, you don't actually know if you're going to enjoy this business or not. So it'll help guide you, and they'll start bringing in some money. If you can start bringing in some money and get to the point where you're at least paying some bills off at home, it releases a lot of stress and a lot of tension, allows you to build a platform for growth. So I want you to have that big vision, but find a lower-cost way to test it out and get started, because I'm afraid that you have this big dream, but nothing is actually ever going to happen because it's too big. If you think, "I have to start big," it's the only way to do it, chances are you're not gonna end up doing anything. And that's my fear for you. With my business, my goal is to help a billion entrepreneurs. It's a big number. I don't quite know how exactly that's gonna happen, and we've helped almost 20 million entrepreneurs now through the website. Getting to a billion is a big number that motivates me to keep going but doesn't paralyze me with fear. I'm still able to do things every day to grow that business. If you look at companies like Harley-Davidson and look at how they got started, it was started by two friends, one named Harley, one named Davidson, and they built their first bike in a shed in their backyard. And the first year they had one bike, and the next year they had three bikes, and the next year they had another three bikes. And the next year they had another 7 bikes. And then they started to grow a little too big for their shed, so they created their own little mini factory. And they kept growing little by little every year, taking those steps, and eventually became one of the most well-known motorcycle companies in the world. They had a big vision, but it started small. They took steps. And, and it doesn't have to take you years to do it. But by testing it out on a small scale, making partnerships with local businesses, finding ways to get started cheaply and not spending a lot of money to test your concept, see if you enjoy doing this or not, and then also start bringing in some money is, in my opinion, a much better way to get started than to try to act big right from the start. My two cents. Good luck with the business. For those of you watching, if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. I'd also love to hear what you have to think if you want to leave a comment under the video. Thank you, and I'll see you on the next episode.
