Josh Melick is a multi-talented individual who has worked as an engineer, a project manager, and a sales representative. Josh co-founded and was the CEO of Broadly.com, which was a local small business mobile CRM and messaging platform. He knows a thing or two about starting up a business and getting it off the ground.
Josh was kind enough to offer advice on the ten things entrepreneurs need to do as they go about starting a business.
1) Learn how to manage your money
“First and foremost, if you have a wife or girlfriend, ideally before you start the business, you should sit down with them and show them what your profit and loss will look like every month for the first five years of the company. Explain to them that in year five, if your company is going well, you will have a salary you can live off of.”
2) Find a product or service that customers need and want
“The number one reason start-ups fail is that they don’t have customers who are willing to buy their products or services.”
3) Create a business plan and be sure to include financial projections
“When I was at Mxplay, we had fifteen different product strategies that we were pursuing. We realized that to focus, we would need to pick one strategy and not pursue any other strategies until we proved or disproved the initial one. The only way to prove or disprove whether your strategy is viable is through financial projections.”
4) Understand how much you should spend on marketing
“Marketing should be between nine and twelve percent of revenue. If it’s more than that, then you’re not efficient enough with your money. The other side of the equation is that people tend not to spend enough money on marketing. In reality, you can’t expect a customer who is totally brand new to come rushing in the door if you haven’t been out there letting them know that your business exists.”
5) Find investors or lenders before starting your business
“It’s much easier to find people willing to invest in or lend money to a company that has revenue. If you don’t have any money coming in, then people will feel uncertain about your business and be unwilling to invest their time or heart into it.”
6) Create the product before trying to sell it
“The number one way small businesses fail is because they try to sell a product that doesn’t exist.”
7) Be patient and stay lean
“Most entrepreneurs tend to overestimate what they can do in one month and underestimate what they can do in one year. It takes time to build your business up, so you want to start small and let it grow organically.”
8) Start your business now, not later
“People who start businesses don’t fail; it’s the people that never start their businesses that fail.”
9) Stay focused on running your business and building up customers
“You can do anything you want to for five years if you’re willing to work hard enough. If you’re reading articles, talking to friends about ideas, or even planning for what you want your business to look like five years from now, then you are not focused on running your business.”
10) Go out and get your customers
“People who build businesses don’t fail; it’s the people that never try something that can’t succeed.”
