Page 48 - The 7 Day Startup: You Don’t Learn Until You Launch - PDFDrive.com

It’s time to start thinking about how you might charge consumers and whether
you could reasonably expect to grow this business idea month over month.

4. Operates profitably without the founder

Most small businesses would die without their founders. They are too tied to the
delivery of the product or service, or they just don’t have enough profits to hire
people to replace all of the jobs they do.

A lot of people fall into the trap of not worrying about this because they expect
to “hustle” early on with little reward. It’s okay to accept that, but fundamentally
there needs to be a profit margin built into the product or service you sell.

You need to be able to see a point where you can hire in staff or systems to
replace you, and still continue to generate a profit. At that point it becomes a real
business.

Can you see your idea becoming a real business that operates profitably without
you?

5. An asset you can sell

Business is not just about making money. It’s about creating something that is
valuable. Not “I think what I’m doing is valuable,” but a third party validating
that there is value there.

Things that carry value are assets, so it’s your job as a startup founder to build
them.

Focusing on short-term launches or
projects won’t build assets. Assets are
built over time by ignoring short-term