Starting your own business can feel intimidating and hard. But it doesn’t have to be. The right plan, mindset, and execution will empower anyone to build a business and even make it profitable—without experience or significant capital. In this guide, we break down the basic steps and share advice from an expert and their unique business experiences. Follow along for a detailed method to make your business ideals a reality.
Introduction: This new age of entrepreneurship is now upon us
Presently, we live in an era where starting a business is the most accessible it has ever been. Opportunities and technology have lowered barriers for launching a business, customers are more likely to try new brands, and information is vast. However, 90% of business start-ups fail in the first five years of existence—mainly due to poor planning, not understanding the market, or lack of proper financial management.
The positive? Finding your way to success and not being part of the high failure percentage. Guided by the right priorities, you can set your vision to succeed and grow.
Once you have validated your business idea, you can begin to build a profitable business with a lean mission-focused business model.
Step-by-Step Process to Starting a Profitable Business
1.Validate Your Business Idea Before You Build
Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of spending a lot of time and money building a product before validly confirming that someone actually wants it. Here are some ways you can validate your idea:
- Talk to your prospects (interviews, surveys, forums)
- Research competitors to see what has been successful for them
- Check demand on a search tool such as Google Trends
- Pre-sell a simple version of your product offering
Case Study:
To initially check if a product was something that customers wanted, Dropbox could have validated demand by having a very simple explainer video that showed the value of their product before they built it. The video generated over 75,000 subscribes to prove that there was demand.
2.Get a Lean Business Model
Once you have validated your business idea, you can begin to build a profitable business with a lean mission-focused business model.
Questions to answer:
- What problem am I solving?
- Who am I solving it for?
- Why would the customer select me over the competition?
- How will I monetize?
Expert Opinion:
Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, states, “The biggest risk you face as a startup is building something nobody wants!”
A lean business model ensures you are building something your market needs, not something you think they need.
3.Obtain Necessary Tools and Supplies Without Breaking the Bank
Starting from scratch usually means you are going to have limited resources. But there are plenty of successful businesses that have operated on a small budget.
- Common low-cost essentials that you might need:
- A basic website (a simple landing page is sufficient)
- Basic branding (logo, colors)
- Affordable marketing supplies (email, social, etc.)
- Outsourcing tasks instead of hiring full-time employees.
Example:
Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, started her billion-dollar company with a budget of $5,000 in savings, which simply shows that being resourceful matters just as much, if not more, than having resources.
4.Create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Your MVP is simply the most basic version of your product that is capable of providing value in some way.
.Why MVPs Work:
- Saves time and money
- Decreases your risk
- Allows you to accumulate actual data from customers
- Allows for improvements to be quickly made
Examples of MVPs:
A coaching business that starts with 1:1 coaching sessions An app that launches as a no-code prototype A product that is tested through preorder.
5.Establish a High-Powered Marketing Strategy
A terrific product will do you no good if no one knows it exists; you must get the right product message in front of the right audience and ensure they respond to it in a timely manner.
The following are effective and low cost ways to market your product:
- Content marketing (blogging, video, newsletters)
- Social media (Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn)
- Paid ads that require very small budgets
- Partnerships and collaborations
- Local marketing (event marketing, referral marketing)
Expert Opinion:
“People do not buy goods or services. They buy relations, stories, and magic.” – Seth Godin, marketing strategist. A key way to differentiate yourself is with authentic branding and storytelling.
6.Track your Finances and Make Adjustments for Profit
Any business that wants to be profitable must know its numbers, regardless of the size of the business.
There are several key metrics you should track:
- Acquisition cost (CAC)
- Customer lifetime value (CLV)
- Profit margins
- Break-even point
- Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)
Advice:
Consider starting with very basic tools like QuickBooks or Wave, or even a simple Google sheet.
7.Scaling Through Systems, Automation and Delegation
Now that you have a profitable business, it’s time to grow.
Common scaling strategies include:
- Automating common processes (CRM, emails)
- Offloading non-specialist tasks
- Adding additional marketing channels
- Implementing repeatable processes
- Enhancing the customer experience
As an example, Airbnb was able to scale because it automated the systems of booking and communication, and host management that allowed them to not do the manual work as demand grew.
In Closing Your Entrepreneurial Journey Starts
Building a profitable business on your own is not about luck. It’s about design, execution and ongoing refinement. It starts with an idea, then validate the idea, build it lean, market it strategically, and scale it effectively.
Every entrepreneur started with a first step. Today can be your first step.
