Ah, the glory days – where you have limitless energy for your idea, and you can’t imagine spending even a minute of your day discussing or working on anything else.
Typically in this phase, you’re starting to bring your idea to life – you’re experimenting, you’re learning, and you’re gaining the confidence to put your brainchild into the hands of real potential customers.
You’re getting feedback, and you’re CELEBRATING those early wins!
Energy
Design your LIFE (and your business) – you CAN live a life of purpose, generate profit, and have a business that allows you to work from where you want and when you want. But it’s not just going to ‘happen’ that way. Take the time to visualize the future life you want to live, and what you will NEVER sacrifice in the pursuit of your business (your non-negotiables). Then build a business that’s designed to deliver the life that you want (and not the other way around).
Time
This is not the time for a 5-year plan – we could probably just leave it at that. In the early days, it is impossible to know the exact direction that your business will take – this clarity will only come after continuous cycles of ‘test and learn’. So in the honeymoon period, focus on execution over strategy – focus on taking imperfect action every single day, and on being humble and receptive to feedback, so you can pivot quickly, and keep moving forwards.
Relationships
Build your support structure – (nearly) EVERYTHING has been done before. As much as we want to innovate and tread our own path, you can save yourself months (even years) and thousands of dollars on trial and error if you learn from and surround yourself with people who have done it before. You’ll want to find > a coach (with relevant technical skills), a mentor (with a relevant journey), and an accountability partner (to keep each other focused and accountable on your goals and timelines).
Money
Create your financial model – and if you don’t know how, find someone that does. Doing everything free is not going to help you grow your business – to have an impact at scale, you need the money to invest in scaling. You CAN be for-profit + for purpose, so spend time on how you can make your business financially sustainable – so you can get to your 1000 days!
We’ll be ending this post with a quote;
You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. – Zig Zigler