Yesterday I was talking to a young entrepreneur who is planning on entering an interesting niche space in the entertainment industry. The product idea he had was very interesting, and showed an ability to scale quickly. Three minutes into the pitch however he got into how he planned to order a huge inventory to start off the business, hire an agency to do the branding and packaging for his product, schedule road shows for his product, and launch a retail store. When I asked him how many products he had been able to sell so far, the answer was… zero.

Many first time entrepreneurs fall into the trap of jumping ahead of themselves before they really understand what they are getting into in the first place. Before you start up any business, ask yourself :

1. Why am I starting this business?

2. Am I truly passionate about the business I am about to start?

3. What do I hope to achieve when I enter this business?

4. Am I going to be able to achieve my goals through this business idea?

Next, figure out how to start, and how to make that first sale. Do not waste your time and money setting up all the fancy trimmings before you actually make a sale. The initial stage is all about developing a customer base for your product/service. The aim should be to get there as quickly as possible without spending or allocating too many resources, until there is positive feedback and response to justify such investments.