Page 93 - 6 Secrets to Startup Success

72 6 SECRETS TO STARTUP SUCCESS

quire? After twenty years of studying high performance and coaching
business leaders to achieve new levels of effectiveness, it’s clear to
me that most of us sit atop a deep well of energy and potential that
is never fully tapped.

Honestly assessing your interests and needs in five domains—
each of which can work in your favor, boosting your focus and per-
formance, or work against you, diminishing or distracting your focus
and performance—will help you to bring your best effort and energy
to your startup challenge.

FINANCIAL NEEDS AND GOALS – What minimum personal income do you need
to earn on a monthly basis over the first twelve to thirty-six months to be able
to pursue your venture? What are your longer-term personal financial goals in
pursuing this venture?

Most of us bring a minimum income need to our startup journey.
As psychologist Abraham Maslow laid out in his hierarchy of needs,10
unless and until our basic survival and safety needs are met, we won’t
give our full attention to higher goals and aspirations. If at all possible,
take your income issue “off of the table” by identifying how much
money you need to make during your startup process and then de-
veloping a game plan that will meet this need.

How you determine your income needs, and at what level you set
them, is a highly personal decision that depends on many factors. The
ideal scenario in launching a new business is to have minimal or no
needs for near-term income, but this is rarely a sustainable situation.
When he launched his first venture, Mark Kahn was prepared to op-
erate for many months with no personal income. Several years later,
when seeking funding for his second venture, he was in a different
frame of mind. “Maybe it is both age and having kids and a family to
support,” he said, “but I made it clear to investors that I would be leav-
ing a job that pays me well, and I needed to figure out how to finance
the business up front so it worked for me on a personal level.”

Longer-term financial goals are also important to identify. Are you
looking to reach a consistent, stable level of income over time? Are you hoping
to create an exit event after five or ten years that represents a large payout to
cover your early financial sacrifice and create financial independence going

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