The Seed of a Business
By: jwilder, 2/15/2022
How do you start a business? Why do businesses fail?
I am fascinated with seeds. A seed contains a complete set of instructions on how to create a plant that grows to maturity in a specific environment.
It sounds like a business can be codified into a set of instructions. In someways this would be a franchise. A franchise business is similar to a seed. All of the essential ingredients are there. It just needs to be planted and nurtured.
For solo businesses or side businesses, we sometimes lack a complete picture of how to use our talents to serve and be prosperous. It could be that we simply lack the seed. We lack the detailed instructions.
So the first step would be to identify the plant in the wild. There must be someone doing something that you would like to do also.
The key is to write down or clarify all the instructions that make that business successful.
The variable is the environment. That is you need instructions I said must be planted in an environment that enables it to grow to maturity.
So there's the instructions and there's the gardener (the business owner).
The key is in order to build a set of instructions that describe in detail the business you want, you would need a framework of some sort.
A quick framework would be:
- Business name description
- Purpose
- Products or services
- Talents and Skills required
- Tools required
- Legal requirements
- Accounting requirements
- Cash management
- Cash Transaction System
- General instructions
- Launch/Growth Plan
- Key Milestones
It's one thing to have a talent, it's quite another thing to run a business that is sustainable.
One way we struggle as a creator is we don't clearly define the business we want to be in. If we could clearly define the business, then we could find the key instructions (the seed) that represents a proven sustainable business. It sounds easy, but as far as I know there is no place to buy proven business frameworks. Usually it's trial and error. Everyone starts from scratch and makes the same mistakes as everyone else. And if you're lucky, resilient, and diligent, you will figure it out.
I do believe at some point these solo/passion/creator business frameworks will exist. Today they exist as one off training by bloggers or writers that create courses to explain how they succeed.
What makes this possible is that creator economy type businesses are fairly simple compared to large companies.
It should be feasible to purchase a framework for a cookie making company, or wedding photography, marketing business, food truck, etc.
Once these proven frameworks are available I believe the creator economy will become mainstream.
James Wilder
I write about success principles and practices that help dreamers take action and achieve their goals! I believe that success is for anyone that truly desires it.
Join me on the success journey! Subscribe to my weekly Keys to Personal Success email and gain momentum in the right direction! Sign up here: James On Success.