Trissa,
First I think the topic is an important one that every entrepreneur has to answer and your web theme is very intriguing. But I believe your answer came at the second comma of the question “but not necessarily how to run a business”. This is the single definitive reason why most businesses fail in the first five years. Everyone knows their skill, yes but applying it in a competitive market place requires thoughtful evaluation and planning. Your answer is somewhat confusing in that the base title question “Single most important investment when starting a business” and then your second paragraph jumps into growing a business is not compatible. They are two different stages of business development. Starting a business is all about evaluation, feasibility, planning and yes putting all this data down on paper and in a format called a business plan and proforma. I will assume that the majority of your subscribers are 5 or fewer employee based business owners, please correct me if I’m wrong but the ideal does not change, you spend time and money planning and developing your business model before you ever consider running head long into marketing and growing your client base. Do I need to elaborate? I love the fact you have many fine quotes but the one that applies most to this question is the one by Abraham Lincoln, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Know your skill? Great now learn how to apply it in the real world were competition will sort out those who failed to sharpen their axe. Every business is different and requires a different level of planning but the basics will never change, always build the road map before you start the journey. I look forward to your comments…

Appreciate the comment, Jeff. We have very similar point of views. I absolutely believe in creating the roadmap for any kind of goal much so for a thriving business. Solopreneurs who know their skill and do not know much about running a business get stuck precisely because of the mile long list of Have to’s and Should do’s in starting or running a business. A lot of people when they think of “running a business,” they think about the big companies with an accounting department, operations department, marketing department, sales department, research and development deparment, etc. and that overwhelms them. For solopreneurs, all those departments is usually one person. The question sounds like it asks which department to focus on. My answer is the marketing and sales department. What’s important for heart-centered entrepreneurs is to help people, live their soul purpose in every moment, make a difference, make money and contribute. When they take too long in the planning stage, they get side tracked in what they’re meant to do and lose their self-confidence. They need to be helping people and generating income NOW.

A one-page plan is enough to get rolling. You don’t need all the complicated detailed plan to start helping people and making money. Just hearing the terms: executive summary, market analysis, financial analysis, financial projections, etc. can be overwhelming. You can create a simple working plan and a marketing coach will help you do that. You’ll clarify your vision and mission, define your target market, help you set yourself apart from the sea of other service providers, help you talk about what you do, overcome challenges to name a few. At the end of the day you end up with a business plan while implementing, helping clients and seeing what works or doesn’t work for you with a guidance of a mentor, instead of just reading, researching, doing computations about it. Learning all that stuff can take a lot of time too.

A lot of very successful entrepreneurs didn’t start with a complicated business plan. They have a simple plan, (some have told me from a piece of scratch paper) and just started getting clients and helping people. When their business expanded, they added people, grew their team and got funds to get help with developing more elaborate plans to take the business to the next level. To end it with another quote, “It’s so much better to make money than to plan on making money.”

I’m curious, what is the failure rate of Solopreneurs nationally? Bureau of Labor Statistics says 8 out of 10 new startups fail but that’s all startups, so I’m going out on a limb and say 9 out of 10 Solopreneurs fail in the first 5 years because they typically will skip having a CPA (one that has CFO experience) review even a simple financial statement, and a good percentage of those fail in the next 5. So, yea who wants to be overburdened with all that planning stuff, that’s just too much work – not saying anything against you Trissa, but how many business coaches are out there helping the small business owner? Hundreds? Even thousands? Absolutely, there are entire industries built around business coaching and I know many individuals associated with those coaching organizations and everyone of them are great people doing great things including what you do on this blog, and we still have this kind of failure rate, why? Coaching in of itself is not the answer or planning or accountants. The problem is starting a business today is fraught with peril and even those who plan every detail do not always succeed. So, is there a cure all process for success, no it’s a combination of the right business in the right market at the right time doing a lot of the small things in an anal retentive way. Can someone run enough financial models on whether a business will make money under varying economic conditions, price point, etc. NO, and how many even produce one to see if their idea will ever make money, oh probably the same percentage that actually succeed not that there is any correlation between the two, I just have enough experience to know that few even know what a financial model is or how to create one, maybe that is something that should be coached, I’ll leave you to answer that. I will revert back to my first comment that planning in whatever degree is essential but the better you define your business on paper the higher the percentage of success is achievable. Those who have started on a shoe string budget with a one page business plan and succeeded are in the same percentage range of the college football player making it to the NFL. Got to like those odds… Coach them up Trissa we will never have enough business mentoring, coaching, and risk management professionals to help the small business owner.

Yes Jeff, the success rate for entrepreneurs is very small and that’s one of the things that we business coaches want to change. I believe that there’s only one way to fail in anything, and that is by Quitting. The football players that made it to the NFL got there because they never quit no matter what challenges they came across, they trained hard, stayed healthy, learned everything they can about being better in football, and got coached. They had a vision of where they want to go and a clear plan of how they will do it. They got help along the way and kept on doing their best. I don’t know of any who made an in-depth paper in highschool or college and stopped playing while evaluating their risk factors and feasibility of going into the NFL. They focused on the goal, kept on playing and resources came in along the way.

It may sound cliche but the one thing that can determine success is attitude. And that includes being open to not having to learn everything and asking help from experts in their field. Growing a business is like growing as individuals.. it is complex, takes a lifetime of tweaks to reach our peak potential. We both learn from other people and discover other things on our own. There’s really a lot of factors to be considered (capital, financial statements, laws, etc) and the one factor in my opinion that makes a difference is our attitude and mindset on how we will conquer these factors.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Jeff!

Trissa,
I think you just made my point (thank you) “The football players that made it to the NFL got there because they never quit no matter what challenges they came across, they trained hard, stayed healthy, and learned everything they can about being better in football, and got coached. They had a vision of where they want to go and a clear plan of how they will do it. They got help along the way and kept on doing their best.” I think you covered everything I have been saying all along but this sentence is absolute truth “They had a vision of where they want to go and a clear plan of how they will do it.” Sounds like a well thought out plan to me – a business plan.

I don’t think it is necessary to continue the point, counter point to this discussion but it is essential that a new entrepreneur understand what lies ahead without sugar coating it. You can have all the attitude you want but when the cash stops flowing for whatever reason its game over. That’s not to say you go out and find another source of capital and restart your business but credibility will now be a hurdle. You know, my Forbes newsletter came today with great timing – I can now say, don’t listen to me listen to what the top experts and the successful business owners are saying in this article which is posted on my facebook page. I also recommend that business owners and coaches join CEO Space and attend CEO Space events and keep their axe’s sharp.

Trissa,
I think you just made my point (thank you) \"The football players that made it to the NFL got there because they never quit no matter what challenges they came across, they trained hard, stayed healthy, and learned everything they can about being better in football, and got coached. They had a vision of where they want to go and a clear plan of how they will do it. They got help along the way and kept on doing their best.\" I think you covered everything I have been saying all along but this sentence is absolute truth \"They had a vision of where they want to go and a clear plan of how they will do it.\" Sounds like a well thought out plan to me – a business plan.

I don\’t think it is necessary to continue the point, counter point to this discussion but it is essential that a new entrepreneur understand what lies ahead without sugar coating it. You can have all the attitude you want but when the cash stops flowing for whatever reason its game over. That\’s not to say you go out and find another source of capital and restart your business but credibility will now be a hurdle. You know, my Forbes newsletter came today with great timing – I can now say, don\’t listen to me listen to what the top experts and the successful business owners are saying in this article which is posted on my facebook page. I also recommend that business owners and coaches join CEO Space and attend CEO Space events and keep their axe\’s sharp.

Trissa,

You are talking about the awareness phase in which you gauge your ability to deliver the goods you own. This self analysis is important because it saves you from initiating any such business that is good at draining away your precious dollars instead of multiplying them.The person should make himself or herself aware of the goals and set the realistic ones. Having done this, it is high time that he or she starts a effective marketing campaign, which will make the prospective customers aware of the product/service and convert awareness by skillfully linking it to the client’s requirement.Here the seller or provider should harmonize the awareness phase of the prospective client with his or her own conversion phase in such a way that it does not appear to the client that he or she is being pushed into buying something about which he or she is not fully convinced. Pressing the call of action at the right time can work wonders for your marketing campaign.