Evan Carmichael outlines three steps for launching a new business: have genuine passion for the work, gain industry experience by working for an established company first, and start as a side hustle while employed until you land paying customers and build momentum.
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The 3 most important steps to starting a new business. I get asked a lot by entrepreneurs who have an idea and they're trying to figure out, how do I launch this thing? How do I get customers? How do I— what are the steps that I need to take to get this thing off the ground? A great one came in recently from one of my YouTube viewers, love you guys, Celeste, who wrote in to say, I have an idea, I want to create a magazine. What are the steps I need to take in pursuing it? Here are the 3 steps, okay? These are the 3 most important steps you need to take when you're starting up. First, identify your passion. If you want to have success in business, you have to be passionate about your business. You have to love what you do. Every other rule in business does not apply, will not help you, will not save you, will not let you build something successful unless you love your business. Okay, so Celestia wants to start a magazine. That better be because be because she loves magazines or because she sees a change that she can make in the world, have a positive impact, and she needs to lead this charge. If she's starting a magazine just because, "Oh, you can make money at magazines," it's not going to work. It's never going to take off. You have to love it so much that you're willing to push through every hurdle, every barrier that gets thrown in your way. Because the sane people, the people who don't love it, the logical people, will quit because it gets too hard. It's the crazy entrepreneurs who love their business so much, would do it even if they weren't making money at it, who keep pushing through. And you have to push through so much crap to get to the place of success. So do you love this business idea enough to persist with it, to keep going with it, to eventually turn it into something successful, to deal with tons and tons of crap? Because it's going to be hard. So that's number 1. Number 2, if you're trying to now— I've identified my passions, those magazines, okay, or whatever the business is for you. How do you go out and get this thing started? If you have no experience in this business, you're not going to get a lot of money. You're not going to get a lot of new clients because you don't know what you're doing. You want to make money as an entrepreneur? You make money by providing value. The more value you provide, the more money you're going to make. If you don't have enough knowledge, experience, history to provide great value, you're not going to make a lot of money. You're going to make tons of rookie mistakes. You're going to maybe take on debt, try to build this thing out, and it doesn't work, and you end up going back and getting a job and paying off this debt for the rest of your life. You got to get some experience. So go work for a company. Go work for a small business who's in your field. Get to know the industry. See if it's for you. See if you still like this thing. See if you like being a magazine producer or not. Go work for a small magazine. See how they do it. See how they make customers. See how they create content. See how they distribute their product. See how they market their business. See how they run their company. Determine, is it for you or not? Do you still love this thing or not? Meanwhile, you're getting paid to make mistakes. You're getting your education and you're getting paid to get an education in being an entrepreneur in the magazine business. Then when you're ready to start, you keep your current job and you start on the side. Start getting one customer, one customer. If you're doing a magazine, try to talk to an advertiser, try to talk to content producers, try doing something on the side to build it up. Meanwhile, you're gaining experience from your job, you're still seeing if you're passionate about this business or not, and on the side you're starting this thing up. Try to get one person to pay you for what you do. One person who's interested, who will put dollars on the table and give it to you to start this thing. And keep building that up to the point where you have enough money to quit your job. Because most entrepreneurs quit their job, start up a company, run out of cash, have to go back and get a job. You don't let time for momentum to build. So start part-time. Start on the side using your current job. You're learning the industry, you're getting connections and experience, and you tap into those to create your first business and find your first customer. And you build your business around your customer because what you thought your business was going to be, it never is. It always changes. Your great idea at the start is never how it actually works out. You have to talk to customers and react to the market. And that will lead you to the path of success. It's so critically important because most entrepreneurs get this wrong. Most entrepreneurs fail, right? 80% of companies fail. That's going to be you, likely, right? Now you're watching these videos, you're investing in yourself, you are learning to be a better entrepreneur, so that increases your chances. But if you are just getting started and you don't know what business you want to start or how to go about doing it, Follow those key steps. 1, make sure you are passionate. Make sure you are following something that you absolutely love doing. 2, go get a job to learn about it. Learn from someone who's gone through it and can help be a mentor for you. And then 3, start your business on the side. Get your first customer and prove that what you have will work and expand from there. Those are your starting steps. That's your homework. If you have questions, write to me. I'm happy to walk you through even more detailed if you need it, but that's how you start a successful business. Believe. For those of you watching, if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. It always makes me want to do more, and I'd love to hear what you have to think. Please leave a comment below. Seeing those comments come in fuel me to make more videos, to answer your questions. I love seeing them come in. Thank you so much, and I'll see you soon.
