10 Tips To Turn Your Business Idea Into A Reality

So often, we borrow the definitions from other people – which can limit us when it comes to pursuing what we think is a good business idea. It ultimately leads to what I call decision paralysis, which is when we over-iterate and look for a moving target of perfection before taking action. Instead, work out what you consider to be a good idea, think about whether it’s commercially viable, if a given timeframe for launching will really work for you, and stick to those definitions – because they’re true to you.

This doesn’t just mean doing a quick Google search to make sure there’s no one already doing the thing you’ve thought of. I mean serious market research that involves social listening, consumer data, trawling statistics from McKenzie reports, and looking at trend forecasts too – many of which are free online. It’s an integral step to turning a business into a reality.

If you want to make a million, make a pound first. That’s one of the best pieces of advice I can give anyone. Success in miles is made up of the individual inches. Huge ambitions are great, but having smart systems and processes in place to get there are imperative. Winners and losers have the same goals: most people want to create wealth when they start a company. The reason they succeed or not isn’t based on the size of the goal; it’s based on the plan to get them there. Maybe it’s testing the waters with some free samples, or just asking friends and colleagues if they would be interested in paying for what you’re offering. Either way, think small to begin with and expand the idea each day.

We are so overexposed to an abundance of information – podcasts, books, film, TV and social media all bombard us these days. Again, this can lead to inertia in terms of moving an idea forward because you’re overwhelmed with who you should be targeting and why. You’ve got to think through who your product is for, including when and why they’d use it, where they show up, and how they’d use your product or service. What are you actually providing? What problem are you solving and for who and when? You can’t launch a product for ‘everyone’ – so narrowing your focus is no bad thing.

At the start, it’s very easy to doubt yourself – either because you believe there’s someone out there already doing what you want to do, or that they’re doing it better. But one of the biggest lessons I learnt early on was that there was room for me and everyone else. In fact, knowing what your competitors are doing is important – but only if it’s interesting and inspiring. If you’re only comparing yourself and becoming demotivated, then perhaps it’s better to try and take a more blinkered view. But in reality, I often found that competitors weren’t doing things the exact same way I wanted to do them – which is what set my business apart. I had a lot to offer, and it’s important you think the same. 

I’ll admit this is the boring bit – but it can make all the difference in whether your business fails or succeeds. You want to set the company up properly, find a good accountant or bookkeeper, register a trademark, understand what IP is, have a separate account for your VAT, and find a tech guy to help when you inevitably lock yourself out of your server. You also need to know which lawyer to call if you get into trouble, and set up a proper CRM system. All of this is hard to do when the house is on fire and it’s the night before a launch, and it’s also hard to do retrospectively. Get ahead of it and plan your sh*t kit for when things inevitably go wrong. 

Mono-tasking is something I advocate in my new book Smarter. It allows you to focus on one single task at a time rather than trying to multi-task – which I think is an impossibility in real life. You’re not actually doing multiple things at once, you’re rapidly switching between tasks, which creates inefficiency, confusion and can sometimes lead to mistakes – all of which you want to avoid in the early days. Work through your plan or to-do list with singular focus on different tasks to create a more efficient loop of momentum. 

When I started my business, bringing it to life was one of the first things I did. I couldn’t afford a website, so I just had a holding page, but I found someone who could create a logo. With the book, I created the image immediately because I knew what I wanted it to look like. I then set it as my phone background and got the book printed into a cover, which sat on my desk. As a visual learner, I’m far more inspired by things like this. It also enabled me to envisage it as a real product, spurring on my creativity, and allowing me to get into more of a flow with the marketing and PR activities around it. 

In my book I talk about this as pivotal to your success, using the analogy of a fish tank. You can walk into a pet shop and buy the best fish tank on the shelf. All the bells and whistles – bright coral, a purple light, cool props and special glass. You can even buy the most expensive fish to fill it with. But, if you don’t pay your electricity bill, if you don’t clean the tank or feed the fish, they will die. Your environment is the most important way to set yourself for success. Clean it, maintain it and focus on what makes you thrive. Hot coffee, fast wi-fi, silence, a concentration playlist, positive people, creative locations – work out what works for you and protect it. 

Successful people plan. Try not to spend your time on productivity theatre or performative working. Think about what’s really going to create an impact and a difference in moving things forward. I like to think of this as switching from a focus on input to a focus on output. It’s okay not to share every moment with strangers online. Stick closely to the work that’s making an impact on your goal. In my work, we talk about this using the question, ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’ It’s a useful phrase to ask to find out if what you’re doing is contributing to your goal or just your ego. 

‘Smarter: 10 lessons for a more productive & less-stressed life’ by Emily Austen is available via AMAZON.CO.UK. For more tips & advice, follow @EMILYMAUSTEN on Instagram.