Watch this and become an entrepreneur today

Start a business alongside your job if you want to test your entrepreneurial dream without giving up your salary on day one. Here, I share my thoughts from 2013 about small experiments, shoes online and a nail salon at the hairdresser’s.

The time for excuses is over. Yes, you need more education, more money and all sorts of other things to start a business. But you have slept long enough now 🙂 Have a great weekend. Best wishes, Martin

 

Start a business alongside your job and put yourself to the test

I have been in Horsens giving a talk to a lot of Post Danmark customers. Among other things, we talked about starting a business, which got me thinking again about people who want to be entrepreneurs but never get started.

I am not saying everyone should be an entrepreneur. But if you have a little dream of it, I think it is a shame never to try. Perhaps you could build a business that exports and brings money into Denmark. Perhaps you will employ some people too. Here in the video from March 2013, I put particular emphasis on exports and earnings.

Is it impossible, or are you afraid?

It is natural to feel nervous about starting something new. A lot can go wrong. But sometimes we protect ourselves by imagining a scenario that cannot work.

Imagine having a full-time job paying DKK 35,000 a month and already feeling money is tight. Then you tell yourself you need DKK 200,000–300,000 to start, while your salary disappears. Of course that looks impossible, and you imagine your house being repossessed and all sorts of problems for your family.

But why is that the particular model you have to start with? Why must it be one big leap, putting everything on the line from day one?

I think it is worth admitting to yourself if you are afraid. That is not strange. You are about to try something unfamiliar. Perhaps it is also excitement you are interpreting as fear. The two feelings can be hard to separate.

You can keep saying you first need to save money or get more education. Then the money goes on a holiday or something else, and there is no time for the education. Suddenly, a lot of time has passed, and the dream is still only a dream.

Keep your job while you find out whether it works

If you have a full-time job, keep it. Keep your salary and do a proper job at work. You can explore a business idea on the side, so you do not have to give up all your income at the outset.

I talk about Zappos and how I remember the shoe business starting. I am unsure of several details in the video, including the founder’s other work at the time. The point is the small, practical test of the market.

As I tell the story, he put photos of shoes in an online shop. When someone bought a pair, he went to a shoe shop, bought the shoes, packed them and sent them to the customer.

He probably did not earn much from that model, and perhaps he lost money. I do not know. But he tested whether people would buy shoes online and whether he could run that sort of business.

A small test can answer many questions

Along the way, you can learn how to pack the goods, whether customers pay and how the whole process works. You can also find out whether you enjoy the work yourself.

If you discover that particular shoes sell, you can start buying some of them wholesale. You might then earn money on those products. At the same time, you can still offer a wider range where you only obtain an item once a customer orders it.

It is a way to begin without first buying a large stock or investing in a huge shop. In the video, I use an example of a cheap online shop at perhaps DKK 500 a month and total start-up costs of around DKK 5,000. Those are my approximate examples from 2013, not prices or a budget that apply to every business.

The important thing is to find a small way to get started that gives you real experience. You do not need the finished, large business in place before taking your first order. Read also Iværksætter til jeg dør for more of my experiences of getting started as an entrepreneur.

Show what you can do before asking for money

After six months or a year, you might have something concrete to show a bank or investor. I use a hypothetical example of an online shop that has reached sales of 20 pairs of shoes a day.

Perhaps you still do not earn enough because you buy the shoes at a high price. But if a deal with a supplier could give you a better purchase price, you can explain how the business could start making money. Then you have something more to offer than an idea for a shoe shop.

I also mention Amino Kapital, which, according to me at the time, has 187 investors. They do not simply invest in your thoughts. What matters is that you can show customers, sales and a business model where more money could make growth possible.

I am very optimistic in the video about the chances of finding funding once you have shown the model works. That was my view at the time, not a promise that a bank or investor will say yes. But my argument is that you are in a stronger position with something already up and running.

A nail salon inside a hair salon

I have also talked about a girl I met while giving a talk at a school. She had started her own nail salon even though she was still at school and did not have much money.

As I remember it, she spent her confirmation money, around DKK 20,000, on equipment. I do not know exactly what the machine did. She then went to the local hairdresser and asked if she could be there every Saturday.

The hairdresser gained an extra activity in the salon and perhaps more customers too. I do not know the specific financial arrangement, but it let her get started without renting and fitting out an entire clinic herself.

She saw an opportunity within the resources she had. That is the same thinking I focus on in the shoe story.

Get started, or consciously decide against the dream

When you get started, you gain momentum. You get experience, confidence and a network. You can show others you are capable, and you can discover whether you even want to be an entrepreneur.

If you are sitting on the sidelines wanting to do this, try to find the first step you can actually take. I put it very directly in the video: just bloody get started.

If more education, fewer working hours and more savings keep becoming reasons never to do anything, they may be forms of procrastination. You protect yourself from the unknown, but you never test the dream either.

And if you end up deciding against the entrepreneurial life, admit it to yourself and live a good, happy life as an employee. There is nothing wrong with that. I just think it is a shame to stay stuck in a dream you never give a chance.

My hope is that your entrepreneurial heart blossoms and you find a way to start. I think both you and Denmark deserve that.