Complete Course Entrepreneurship All In One for Entrepreneur

It is hard to teach how to success - there are too many ways.  But all the path to success starts with a failure, a learning experience.  Many people bump into this learning experience - it can not be taught.

In the end, every success is the same, but can not be reproduced.  Every failure is the same - it is predictable but can not be prevented.  It is OK. 

To do a startup for a first time, no amount of knowledge, intellect, or salesmanship can compensate it.

In this class, we will use rocket launch as an analogy to discuss startup.  In rocket launch, you need to prepare, and have checks and funding to get the rocket into orbit, and then there must be a mutual benefit for that endeavor. 

We will switch back and forth between your effort of start and the rocket ship launch.

We will identify if you belong to one of the three cases:

1. Someone who should prepare;

2. Someone who should take a side hustle practice to gain mindset;

3. Someone who is ready to start at high level commitment.

Launching a company/business is conducted in six stages.

Counter intuitive to common thoughts, entrepreneurship does not start with building a company or a product.  It start with finding a business to own and capture.  It started often with borrowed ideas and inspirations.  It started with understanding the market.

Business starts as a paired relation - your offer is met by recipient.  The best way is to start with the recipient.  Many people find their first purchase first, and then build a business based on the inspiration.

How do I find my first customer? how long would it take to validate my idea?  how long does it take to establish a business?

For the first level, your offering found buyer.  If you can do this, you are already better than 90% of business starts. You connected the value, you created value out of blue.  You have made great offerings at rather low controlled cost, so you can afford to provide favorable price to convince your customers. 

For the second level, you make revenue streams for your business.  You have not just one sale, but a stream of them for a company.

For the third level, you earned profits.  Profits are earned and hard fought - if you "make money" you don't necessarily make profits.

For the last level, your profits can power your growth.  Your business and company can grow and scale until you reach the ceiling.

We use the worksheets for feedback and evaluation.  Please print them out to take a look.  The central place to download teaching materials including the nine worksheets.

Look for the file turn by turn worksheets all in one.pdf and print it out.  Use the worksheets for this class.

Only the idea you are working on belong to you.  ONLY the idea you finish belong to you.

Each idea takes a long time to be realized, every idea can be a good one, and best ideas are in the business not in your study.

How does one convert an idea into business?  It must be a complete BUSINESS IDEA, not just one leg, but three legs.

The one element in your idea that would make it VC worthy instantly.

Customers conversion is not 1:1 - the funnel selection ratio is on the order of 1 to a million.  You must have large number of visitors and traffic to turn into buyers.  Attached please take a look at a Udemy conversion data that contains real social media account conversion to customers.

Let's learn how to use the Tripod theory to construct great business ideas from mere random thoughts.

How to build a brand? do you pick a unique arena no one touches and hope to get luck with no capital, or do you go into an established, saturated arena with the right amount of capital?

Many people worship the ideas, worship the planning and business plan.  They want to have a unique idea and a perfect plan - in fact that is all wrong.  The biggest secret is in executing the idea.  Having an idea, great.  Discuss and tell people about it.  If people laugh at you, then you might be right.  The Intellectual Property is not the well kept secret idea - it is how to do the impossible.

In the bigger picture, ideas are not important - planning is.  Planning is not important, surveillance is.  After planning it for 1 year, it takes 10 years to execute and grow your business. 

No idea is perfect, no plan is perfect.  That is what execution is meant to do - to correct mistakes.

Never use projection, hope and logical thoughts to replace critical thinking.  Critical thinkers think critically about their own ideas. Critical thinkers think they might be wrong. Critical thinkers use first principles and seek input.

At the end of section, ideally you should have one idea and it should focus on a product.

Use this idea for our next section's discussions.  Email chang liu (changliu8888@gmail.com) and discuss your raw idea.  Let's share in some discussions.

Without scale and volume, there will not be room to make profit.  One can make money, but making profit is a competitive sport, like drilling for oil.  Only areas with high scaling potentials can yield good profit.

An introduction to tools on http://www.teensharks.us for evaluating your ideas, business plan, and readiness.

Make sure you have efficient way to test the customer-product fit.

Make sure you make something that will sell.  People buy benefits and security.  People buy "easy".

Figure out if you are ready to go meet any investor, using this interactive tool.

Idea Grader: help you grade your idea strength.

Deck Tech: help you figure out the score of your business plan form the perspective of experienced funding investor.

BP on Napkin: use MadLib approach to help you brain storm your idea and business plan. 

We provide a check list to identify if you have goods and buyers identified, and offer a path to find them.  If you don't know who will buy, don't just expect to find them on the street or in the ether.  Business is made by linking the buyer with the product.

What if I do not have products, store, and target audience? what are qualified buyers?

Learn to sell things first - through side hustle.  If you do not know how to sell, you can not sell your own fantastic products.

You need to line up the offering, the audience/buyer, and the store.  If you have not have a serendipity moment about of someone who paid you for something, you are going to be in uncertainty territory for a while.  Make this uncertainty last as short as possible.

How do you find the right product to sell?  you can not be too early, or too late.  Find the right niche to get in - like Amazon and Walmart.

Don't try to make your own products to sell - the research, development, manufacturing process take a long time.

We are all surrounded by wonders of marketing everyday, but very few know how to build the marketing and construct the track. 

In reality, never try to make technology and then try to market it.  It is the hardest path - most uncertain. 

Likely, out of the retail price of a product, about 90% of it is the channel and marketing cost.

The world is not "waiting for your magic thoughts and solution".

Your solution typically can not turn into a successful business - then the problem is unsolved, but SO WHAT?  For example, most of United States business population are largely involved in "marketing" activities and being middleman.  Marketing is serious - you must help the middleman, and then they will help you.

Market is where the buyers live.

Marketing is where others out smart the smart.

Use the attached worksheet and follow the instruction of this video to identify three candidate markets.

You must land yourself inside the supply chain, even if you are the last link (retailer) or the first (the manufacturer).  Once you know who will buy and what you will sell, do you know where you will conduct your business?  who in the market and channels will benefit from your being there?

Marketing is what you do - it is the best expression of experience and creativity.  Marketing has no rules, and marketing is pure creativity - freestyle thinking after knowing all the constraints.

Think in the market - but out side of the box.

Don't think out of the market!! 

Marketing is not to gain approval.  It is to get something done!

Can I start a company without investors?  yes and no.  Investors and investment money does not help you PROVE that you have business, but they help you grow and scale, and beat the competitors.  If the startup is a rocket launch, the investors are necessary side booster rockets - without them you won't get to a high altitude.

However, the booster rockets do not want to share your mission and business - they are done before you even get into the orbit.  The investors are on the financial track, not the business track.  When an investor asks you about the business, they only care about your potential as a story and return on investment (ROI).

Your preparation does.  Check all fantasy and false hopes at the door.

Is there one crucial element to make investors say YES?  what is that element? how do you prepare for an investor meeting? 

The two common mistakes entrepreneurs assume is that investors want to be well compensated from the IPO or revenue - in fact this is wrong.  The investors are interested to know how you can make them rich.

Think of the investment as the booster rocket ... it is not even part of the journey and business, but it is important and indispensable.  It is also a long game of its own.  The investment and the agreement of investors should not be taken for granted.

If your company and business launch is the rocket launch, the investment game is a side game that can take a large amount of time.  As we mentioned earlier, investors are hitch hikers, or "flippers".  They are not waiting for your business to become big before cashing out their returns.

Investment is important, even if you don't really need money.  Think of an investor as someone who values your idea, like a co-founder values your idea, or a customer values your idea.  Your ability to get funding reflects the fact that you are in the business main stream and not just a side show or curiosity.

Take the investment game in two steps.  Step one, prepare yourself to have scar and become a business person.  Second step, spot a big game and a big trend.

Many successful VC or investors entertain 10000 cases before pulling trigger once - everything has to line up - including the personal, business strategy, timing, and uniqueness.

BUSINESS PLAN is how the business will run, not how the business will start.

How not to tell your idea and still get funding?  that is not possible.  Start to do your idea - the intellectual properties are hiding in details and in doing - it is the knowhow, not knowledge.

Think about the exit before you start.  Think about finish line before you start.  There are three kinds of exits of business starts.  (1) Operational cash cow business (life style); (2) Initial public offering (IPO), and (3) Merger and Acquisition (M&A).

The M&A is a good exit for most startups.  In this case, the investor and the founders exit at the same time and paid by the acquisition partner.

The founders and investors generally don't have the same exit - the investor is a hitchhiker and will not stay with the founders for long - but will push the founder to higher orbits.  It is critically important to realize and admit this.

The CEO's main job should include raising funds.  Leave technical work to CTO, leave daily operational decisions to the President.  You as founder must raise money and raise awareness of your company.  Even if you don't need money you need to raise money.  Even if you have a great people you need to promote it.

People don't buy every solution.  It is important to know what the buyers demand today rather than what they might want from you tomorrow.  Validation is separate to all your business building endeavors.  Ideally, validate first.  Sometimes validation happens by inspiration and epiphany, like catching a lightning in a bottle. 

Validation is the first step of marketing, and marketing makes your business go smoothly.  It is based entirely on hustle and many cold calls to "find the needs" or research the demand.  Be prepared to work hard, no matter how smart and well educated you are.

Why schools don't train entrepreneurs?  why well schooled people struggle in entrepreneurship (no matter how smart you are)?  Let me explain how schooling and entrepreneurship are related but totally different.

Should someone skip school and go into building business?  are there side hustles that is worthwhile?

Even though schools don't help, and even though schools can hurt entrepreneurship mindset, many well schooled people still manage to become great entrepreneurs.  That is the exception, not the rule.

School knowledge is never enough for entrepreneurship and business building. 

Even the best plans seldomly work.  Still you have to plan.  But it is more important to search.

How people got their first sale is a deep secret.  It is like asking a fisherman how he got his first catch, or a professional basketball player how he figured he could go this far.  It is often not told because the exact way people win the first order is often a matter of luck after long tries, and clever observation of wind after scheming for many tries.  It is hard, but then after many tries one lucky bounce has to come your way, and that is crucial.

It normally takes 3-4 years for any organized efforts (suppose you are already doing it the right way) to stick.

Ingredients of great long haul companies that become dominant and monopoly.  You need to be absolutely flashy and creative in drawing people in, and then you must deliver results they really care!  Getting people in is hard, and making people buy is hard.

Business never happens over night.  Even if the idea is great you need to execute.  Even if there are customers, you need to capture them one at a time.  Even if the customers are many, you need to convert them.  In this example we will use actual funnel and growth date on a Udemy course market to illustrate.

What is the mindset and what does it do?  How could someone get the mindset?

No one succeed by magic.  There is no such thing as a giant over night success. 

The initial state of an entrepreneur is to have nothing: no capital, no product, no store.  To get to a point where you have store, have products, and have capital takes daring moves.