I’m Evan Carmichael welcome to another
edition of ask Evan today we’re
continuing our challenge series with
Telus talks business where we’re
answering questions from you guys who
have a business and have questions
today’s question comes from one of our
Facebook friends from Telus talks
businesses in wins Jeremy and Jamie
wrote in great advice to Mark’s question
in my business mentor network I just
launched a pilot of a new platform
called mentor up how do I know when my
new product is validated to the point
where I’m ready to move out of the pilot
beta phase and start scaling so great
question Jeremy thanks for asking it I’m
going to give you three suggestions that
I hope will help you
number one get past survival the first
challenge for entrepreneurs in start-up
mode is getting past the survival stage
you need to find a way to bringing
enough money to pay your bills and put
food on the table you don’t have to make
a ton of money yet that may be the
eventual goal but it’s not what you need
right now most businesses fail and a big
reason is because entrepreneurs run out
of money too quickly it’s great to have
big ambitions to be optimistic about the
future that’s what we do as
entrepreneurs but you have to first find
a way to get to the point where you know
you’re making enough money so that you
don’t have to worry about going to get a
job in a few months now Jeremy I don’t
know where you are at financial with
your business at the moment but if
you’re not pass the survival phase worry
about that before thinking about scaling
invest your time and not your money into
making the model work and bringing
enough dollars in to support yourself
and your family get close to your
customers provide outstanding service
change your model as many times as you
need to in order to solve their problems
and you’re on your way to break in
through number to make one dollar bring
in more than one dollar once you’re past
your survival phase it’s time to start
investing some money into your business
in the early days of any business I’m a
big believer in bootstrapping only
invest money that you have from your
business and put it back into your
business you know from the survival
phase that you can turn your time into
money now you’ve got to turn money into
more money you have a model that works
on a small scale and it’s paying the
bills where can you invest some of your
dollars into growing the business is it
building a website investing in
advertising hiring a part-time employee
doing trade shows running contests try a
few different ideas that you think will
have a high payout and start on a really
small scale invest minimal dollars and
see if it generates a return keep
playing with the model until you find a
way to turn every one dollar of
investment into more than one dollar in
return you’ll find that some things work
well and others don’t maybe trade shows
bringing a lot of business but postcard
advertising dozen don’t invest big
dollars in anything until you’ve shown
that it can work on a small scale you
may get frustrated with the early
results but it’s important to stick with
it you’re building a model for rapid
growth and you need to know which levers
before you can scale number three use
proof of concept to scale if you
followed steps one and two you now have
a business that feeds you step one and
you know how to get more growth by
investing your dollar strategically step
two now it’s time to ramp up how big you
grow will depend on how big your
ambition is if you can turn one dollar
into more than one dollar in return then
you can either build slowly and continue
your growth organically or you can raise
capital to expand more quickly even
though I was in the venture capital
business I’m generally a fan of the
organic growth you make fewer mistakes
and build a more solid business just
keep plowing your profits back into the
systems that you know generate returns
along the way you have to think about
staffing and all the issues that come
with a growing business and I’m of the
belief that it’s better to tackle those
things one at a time you’re more likely
to get it right if you want to go more
quickly though this is the time to do it
since you know how to turn money into
more money it’s easier and much less
costly they get financial help you
during the form of a loan or equity
investor before you pass through steps
one and two your business is risky for
anybody to invest money with because
it’s riskier they’ll want higher
interest rates or bigger percentage of
your business once you get to step three
your business is more solid and it’s
easier to get favorable terms from
people how much money you need and when
you need it depends on how quickly you
want to grow thank you for joining me
for another edition of ask Evan if you
like the video you want to see more
please give it a thumbs up below it
makes you want to do more these videos
for you guys I’d also love to hear what
you have to think if you want to leave a
comment under the video or if you have a
question for your own business maybe
we’ll feature you in one of the upcoming
challenge video series so thank you and
you’ll see you on the next episode
you
you
edition of ask Evan today we’re
continuing our challenge series with
Telus talks business where we’re
answering questions from you guys who
have a business and have questions
today’s question comes from one of our
Facebook friends from Telus talks
businesses in wins Jeremy and Jamie
wrote in great advice to Mark’s question
in my business mentor network I just
launched a pilot of a new platform
called mentor up how do I know when my
new product is validated to the point
where I’m ready to move out of the pilot
beta phase and start scaling so great
question Jeremy thanks for asking it I’m
going to give you three suggestions that
I hope will help you
number one get past survival the first
challenge for entrepreneurs in start-up
mode is getting past the survival stage
you need to find a way to bringing
enough money to pay your bills and put
food on the table you don’t have to make
a ton of money yet that may be the
eventual goal but it’s not what you need
right now most businesses fail and a big
reason is because entrepreneurs run out
of money too quickly it’s great to have
big ambitions to be optimistic about the
future that’s what we do as
entrepreneurs but you have to first find
a way to get to the point where you know
you’re making enough money so that you
don’t have to worry about going to get a
job in a few months now Jeremy I don’t
know where you are at financial with
your business at the moment but if
you’re not pass the survival phase worry
about that before thinking about scaling
invest your time and not your money into
making the model work and bringing
enough dollars in to support yourself
and your family get close to your
customers provide outstanding service
change your model as many times as you
need to in order to solve their problems
and you’re on your way to break in
through number to make one dollar bring
in more than one dollar once you’re past
your survival phase it’s time to start
investing some money into your business
in the early days of any business I’m a
big believer in bootstrapping only
invest money that you have from your
business and put it back into your
business you know from the survival
phase that you can turn your time into
money now you’ve got to turn money into
more money you have a model that works
on a small scale and it’s paying the
bills where can you invest some of your
dollars into growing the business is it
building a website investing in
advertising hiring a part-time employee
doing trade shows running contests try a
few different ideas that you think will
have a high payout and start on a really
small scale invest minimal dollars and
see if it generates a return keep
playing with the model until you find a
way to turn every one dollar of
investment into more than one dollar in
return you’ll find that some things work
well and others don’t maybe trade shows
bringing a lot of business but postcard
advertising dozen don’t invest big
dollars in anything until you’ve shown
that it can work on a small scale you
may get frustrated with the early
results but it’s important to stick with
it you’re building a model for rapid
growth and you need to know which levers
before you can scale number three use
proof of concept to scale if you
followed steps one and two you now have
a business that feeds you step one and
you know how to get more growth by
investing your dollar strategically step
two now it’s time to ramp up how big you
grow will depend on how big your
ambition is if you can turn one dollar
into more than one dollar in return then
you can either build slowly and continue
your growth organically or you can raise
capital to expand more quickly even
though I was in the venture capital
business I’m generally a fan of the
organic growth you make fewer mistakes
and build a more solid business just
keep plowing your profits back into the
systems that you know generate returns
along the way you have to think about
staffing and all the issues that come
with a growing business and I’m of the
belief that it’s better to tackle those
things one at a time you’re more likely
to get it right if you want to go more
quickly though this is the time to do it
since you know how to turn money into
more money it’s easier and much less
costly they get financial help you
during the form of a loan or equity
investor before you pass through steps
one and two your business is risky for
anybody to invest money with because
it’s riskier they’ll want higher
interest rates or bigger percentage of
your business once you get to step three
your business is more solid and it’s
easier to get favorable terms from
people how much money you need and when
you need it depends on how quickly you
want to grow thank you for joining me
for another edition of ask Evan if you
like the video you want to see more
please give it a thumbs up below it
makes you want to do more these videos
for you guys I’d also love to hear what
you have to think if you want to leave a
comment under the video or if you have a
question for your own business maybe
we’ll feature you in one of the upcoming
challenge video series so thank you and
you’ll see you on the next episode
you
you
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