Page 80 - 6 Secrets to Startup Success

Founder Readiness 59

If you are obsessively driven to solve a customer problem, be sure
to do your homework by testing your assumptions about the size and
readiness of your chosen market. It’s not enough to successfully solve
a problem. You must solve a problem that customers will pay to have
solved in sufficient numbers and at a price that will generate a healthy
return for your business over time.

AN ESCAPE FROM SOMETHING – Many, many people want to pursue
self-employment because they are desperate to break free from a
dead-end job or a bad boss. They may feel bored or stagnant or fear
that working for others no longer provides the security it once did.
Or, they may have been laid off and cannot find any reasonable op-
tions in the current job market.

Although it’s understandable that such situations provoke many
of us to finally take the startup plunge, these kinds of “away-from”
reasons, unless they are accompanied by an even stronger “toward”
motivation, do not typically drive entrepreneurial excellence. The fur-
ther a new founder moves from a distasteful situation, the less moti-
vational power these reasons pack. Starting a business is hard; people
don’t succeed simply because they were unhappy or unsuccessful at
something else. If you are driven by dissatisfaction with your career
or life situation, try to identify and cultivate more forward-looking
motivations, reasons that would cause you to abandon a great situation
because they are so emotionally or intellectually compelling.

LIFESTYLE – Some founders are primarily motivated to run a business
that meshes with their desired lifestyle outside of work, but achieving
your dream lifestyle while building a healthy business may be more
difficult than the hyped-up entrepreneurial media would have you
believe. It’s true that technological innovations have led to an explo-
sion of home-based, Web-based free agents across the world (blog-
gers, Web designers, Twitter consultants, SEO marketing specialists,
etc.) and you can now outsource almost any task that you find daunt-
ing or uninteresting. But most of these free agents don’t earn enough
to cover basic living expenses,5 and those who do make a good living
at it will readily admit that they work around the clock to lift their
product or service above the abundant noise and clutter of the Web.

American Management Association • www.amanet.org