Broke, Inexperienced, and Working a Full-Time Job? You Can Still Become an Entrepreneur?

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Have you felt it? That demoralizing feeling of failure? You’re not alone. So many aspiring entrepreneurs have struggled to get their businesses off the ground—or even to begin working on them—because they’re tied up in a full-time job.

If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you too have tried to balance a startup while working full time, but each time you found yourself not having the time, money, or knowledge necessary to build something from the ground up, to drive traffic to your website, and to convert interest into paying customers.

Or maybe you’re stuck with an idea and an untouched to-do list, failing to take those first few steps due to lack of resources, end-of-day exhaustion, or a feeling of being lost.

It’s frustrating, and for some of us, it’s a recurring experience.

Failure after failure, all your hopes and dreams of achieving freedom of time, location, and financial independence feel as though they are slipping further away. Maybe you’re just not meant to be an entrepreneur, you think to yourself.

Don’t worry, this kind of disappointment is not your destiny. For all of our false starts, many entrepreneurs launch their businesses while working full time, and go on to find great success. Heck, Foundr is one of them!

Another example? Me. Not only did I successfully start a business while working a full-time job, but I also did so after previously failing, multiple times. How many times, you ask? Eleven. But eventually, with a change of mindset and a good plan, I got it together.

To help you reach a happy ending similar to mine, I’ve outlined in this article exactly how I stopped making the same mistakes, charted a new path to success, and became the entrepreneur I always wanted to be.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE UNIQUE CHALLENGES FACING AN ENTREPRENEUR WORKING FULL TIME

EVALUATING PAST FAILURES & IDENTIFYING ROOT CAUSES

ROOT CAUSE 1: FINANCIAL HARDSHIP

ROOT CAUSES 2 AND 3: MY FULL-TIME JOB AND LACK OF TIME

ROOT CAUSE 4: LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

CHANGING MY MINDSET

HOW YOU CAN IMPLEMENT THIS IN YOUR OWN LIFE

The Unique Challenges Facing an Entrepreneur Working Full Time

When I started the journey of launching a startup while working full time, I made many mistakes, but one of the biggest was listening to online “gurus” who had no knowledge of my particular situation and treating their words as gospel.

The advice I blindly followed came from successful entrepreneurs with amazing stories, but their stories were not like mine. They did not launch a successful startup while working a day job. It was impossible for them to advise me accordingly, because they had never walked in my shoes.

I’m sure their advice worked for some, but for me, it led to a path of constant failure, increased financial distress and a minor case of depression. Neither the gurus nor I understood that I wasn’t in a mental or financial position to invest thousands of dollars into business ventures that could be destined to fail.

One day, I realized I needed to take a step back, analyze my entire life and build a plan that worked for me.

This is how it started…

Evaluating Past Failures & Identifying Root Causes

Seven years after I set a goal for myself of starting my own business, I found myself right back where I had started, and I wanted to know why.

Why had I failed to successfully launch a startup 11 times?

In order to find out the “why,” it was necessary to break each of my failures down and attempt to find the single point of failure for each business. Doing so allowed me to define several factors that were holding me back from true success.

Identifying these problems also helped me establish a long-term, goal-oriented plan to eliminate such factors, which would in turn allow me to become financially independent, maximize my time, and leverage my full-time job to fund and launch a new business without repeating my mistakes.

The process I used is called aroot cause analysis. I completed the process for each of my failed businesses. Below is one of my actual analyses:

An Example of Root Cause Analysis

Problem Statement: I started a business which consisted of a blog, podcast, online courses and a mentorship program. After eight months, I was forced to close this business.

1. Why were you forced to close the business?

Because it wasn’t earning enough to cover the monthly costs and I couldn’t afford to keep it operational.

2. Why was it not earning enough and why couldn’t you afford to keep it operational?

Because I didn’t have the time to consistently create new content and my earnings from work were tied up with bills.

3. Why didn’t you have time to create content and why were your earnings tied up with bills?

I was working 60 hours per week and I had just purchased a small airplane which was more expensive to fly and maintain than I originally estimated.

4. Why were you working 60 hours per week and why did you buy an airplane?

Because I needed the extra money to pay for the airplane and the airplane was something I always dreamed of owning. I am a pilot after all.

5. Why did you need the extra money to pay for the airplane and why did you dream of owning an airplane?

Because I underestimated the cost of owning an airplane and I really thought it would be fun to own an airplane. Maybe I shouldn’t have purchased an airplane.

Wait, you may be asking, you bought an airplane? It’s true. And you can clearly see from this example that the reasons I initially blamed for causing my business to fail (work, time, and money) were not the underlying, root causes of this failed business.

The real cause was my own poor decision-making, which caused unnecessary financial hardship on myself and my family. Work, time, and money were all simply results of my personal decision-making regarding my own finances.

I did this same root cause analysis with each of my other 10 failed businesses and found similar results.

Here are the four main reasons I found that my businesses failed:

1. Financial hardship
2. My full-time job
3. Lack of time for my business
4. Lack of knowledge

Each of these four stemmed from my same poor decision-making and mindset, which meant I had some real work to do.

The real problem was always me and my way of thinking.

I needed to fix my decision-making process and mindset, but I also needed to solve all the problems I had created for myself over the last decade. You see, my initial problem (me) created long-term festering problems such as financial hardship that would haunt me and my business ventures for years to come. It was necessary to go into repair mode, if I wanted to ever to be able to successfully fund a startup while working full time.

This is a process and is not meant to be a quick fix, but rather a long-term and deliberate plan for success that can be used by anyone, to not only get their life in order, but to set them up for success in the entrepreneurial world.

While I understand that these are my results from my personal risk analysis, I have come to realize over time, that they are the most common problems associated with being an entrepreneur while working full time today.

Below, I’m going to analyze each of my root causes and develop solutions for each.

Root Cause 1: Financial Hardship

Before you can begin to think about how to keep your day job and start a business, you must first start working toward financial independence and increasing your monthly cash flow.

Any business you decide to start is going to have at least somestartup costs. Even businesses that are 100% online are going to require fees to set up legal structures, web and graphic design fees, monthly or yearly web hosting fees, and more than likely advertising costs.

In order to grow a business, you must be able to invest in the business with both time and money, which is why this process starts by leveraging your full-time job to prepare financially for the world of entrepreneurship.

If you want your business to grow, you need to feed your business.

Realizing Debt and Cash Flow Were My Biggest Hurdles

After my risk analysis, I realized that half of my businesses failed because I simply couldn’t afford to keep them operational long enough to build them.

I knew that if I was ever going to be successful, I needed to get a grasp on my finances. So, I initially did a few things that I would consider quick fixes, but were also important steps that gave me the ability to get out of debt and launch my next startup while working full time.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, you can use these steps as a guide.

1. I started using tools like thispersonal cash flow statement to help me track and get a visual on where I stood financially. The severity really doesn’t hit you until you see it written down.
2. After realizing how bad my situation was, I started analyzing each monthly expense and determining what was necessary and what needed to go. Over the next few months, I started selling airplanes, vehicles, and anything else that had a monthly payment, but was unneeded. If it was a luxury and not a necessity, it was gone. I even went to the extreme of taking out a $10,000 personal loan so I could sell items that were not worth what I owed on them. I realized that over time, I would still be saving a large sum of money and that my cash flow would be much higher even with the loan payments.
3. At the end of this process, my monthly cash flow was much better, but I still had lots of small payments that added up to a large amount. So I started doing research onDebt Consolidation. Eventually, I took out one of these loans and consolidated all my small bills into one larger one. I even ended up having a better interest rate than many of credit cards and bills that were included in the consolidation.

This process was a lot of work, but it was worth the effort. I ended up increasing my monthly cash flow by over $2,000 per month. This gave me a little breathing room, but certainly did not fix the problem.

It did get me started and led me to a long-term plan.

Rethinking My Budget and Setting Business Goals

After making some risky moves to increase my monthly cash flow, I knew I’d need a long-term plan to get out of debt. Becoming debt free was an essential part of my plan to start a business.

Never again would I fail because I couldn’t afford to pay for web hosting.

I did temporarily put all my entrepreneurial efforts on hold to focus on getting out of debt. This may seem counterproductive, but it’s not.

My goal was to work for myself, so being debt free meant a few things for me:

1. I had more available income to invest in my business.
2. It was possible to work fewer hours at my full-time job and invest more time into my business.
3. My transition from employee to full-time business owner could happen sooner, because the income I needed to live on was much less.

As you can see, becoming debt free before you start a business can be very beneficial to both you and your business. Personally, I recommend at least paying off all credit cards and vehicles prior to launching a business.

At the time, I didn’t know much about budgeting or working toward getting out of debt, so I turned to the expert, Dave Ramsey. I used his7 Baby Steps process and it worked like a charm.

Leveraging My Full-Time Job to Speed Up the Process

One of my best subjects is math, so it didn’t take me long to figure out that if I could make more money, I could get out of debt faster and ultimately start my next business sooner.

I could have asked my current employer for a raise, but I knew that I would have only gotten a 2-3% raise, which really doesn’t help that much in the grand scheme of things. However, a few years prior, I had read an article about people who change jobs every one to three years and that they sometimes came out with much larger increases in pay, since each time they were offered a new position with a new company, they were able to negotiate.

I didn’t use this method myself, but have personally seen other people use it and get up to 15% pay increases. So, it’s certainly something worth considering.

The major change that helped me get out of debt very quickly is similar, but comes with some risk. I applied for, was offered, and accepted a position working in a designated combat zone supporting the military. I was able to increase my salary by over 300% with this position. I come from a military background, so this wasn’t that big of a deal for me, but clearly it may not be for everyone.

Sacrificing in Syria to meet my goals

Here are a few things you need to know about this method.

1. It’s not just for ex-military. There are positions like this for cooks, nurses, construction workers, laborers, lawyers, and many other fields. Whatever you are doing now, there is probably an opportunity working in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and various other countries.
2. The pay is typically much more than similar opportunities in non-combat zones.
3. This opportunity isn’t only for United States citizens. There are many people from many different countries working in these types of positions.
4. I can’t speak for any other countries, but for United States citizens, there are major tax breaks for people working in designated combat zones. Please speak to your accountant prior to making any life-altering decision based on this alone.
5. While working in these positions, you are not paying for food, fuel, and many other daily necessities. Over time, this adds up to a large sum of additional income.

Here are a few companies that continually hire for positions like this in various fields.

1. Constellis
2. Leidos
3. Northrop Grumman
4. L3 Technologies

There are many more places to find positions like this. It may take some time, but with a little dedication, you could likely do the same.

I wanted to point this method out because it allowed me to speed up my debt payoff by approximately two years. But I also want to emphasize that is not for everyone, and I’m not saying the key to starting a business is necessarily to go work in a combat zone.

The point here is merely to ask yourself what possibilities you have within your grasp that could substantially increase your cash flow, consider what you would need to sacrifice to pursue them, and decide if it’s worth it to you.

Balancing Debt and My Startup

Once I realized the importance of being debt free and having a respectable cash flow before launching a startup, I decided that I wasn’t going to start another business until I had met my financial goals, or was at least close.

However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t do anything. During this entire debt payoff period of my life, I knew what my next business was going to be.

So this is what I did while I was waiting:

1. Analyzed my competition and conductedmarket research
2. Planned my marketing campaign in detail
3. Created social media profiles, started sharing content and building a following
4. Started building an email list of potential customers
5. Interviewed people from my industry, pitched my business idea and adjusted my business based on feedback
6. Took courses in accounting, marketing, and sales

While I hadn’t launched my business, I was still working on and improving my future business and myself. Most everything I did was either free or very cost effective. The best part about all of this was that it was easy to balance these activities with my full-time job because I wasn’t in a hurry and could do these things on my own time.

I wasn’t in business, but when it came time to launch my business, I was more prepared than ever, and not just financially.

Root Causes 2 and 3: My Full-Time Job and Lack of Time

Starting a business or side hustle can be an overwhelming task and most of us have the burden of completing this task while maintaining a full-time job.

For me, this wasn’t a choice, it was a mandatory requirement. As you saw above in the Financial Hardship section, I was living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to pay my essential bills and was in debt up to my eyeballs. Leaving my job was not an option.

So, I thought to myself, “How can I use my full-time job to my advantage and make more time for my business?”

This is how I did it.

Setting Boundaries at Work

Most of us want to be rock stars, to be valued, to be the go-to person at work.

To do that we have to become “yes men or women.” You must become the person that always answers the call of duty, regardless of the situation. If it’s a short notice work trip or an alarm going off at the office at 3 a.m., you must be there.

A successful business requires a significant time investment and that requires us to be available. As much as you’d like to be a rock star at work or in your business, it’s not possible or at least not ideal.

You must decide what’s more vital to you personally. Is it your job or your business? If it’s your business, taking the necessary steps to ensure you are available to work on it is priority number one. That means setting boundaries.

Here are some tips on setting boundaries at work:

1. If possible, have an open and honest dialog with your manager. Let them know your personal and professional goals, stress the fact that you are a loyal member of the team, but going above and beyond normal working hours is very difficult for you due to the obligations you have outside of the office. You won’t be the go-to person anymore and you probably won’t get that next promotion, but you’ll still have a job and you will also have time for your business.
2. Stop volunteering for new work. Many of us have the habit of immediately raising our hand or jumping in line when additional responsibilities come up at work. Resist the urge. Sit quietly until someone else takes on the additional duty.
3. Avoid being issued company computers, phones, and other electronics. These devices make companies feel like it’s OK for them to reach out to you anytime they feel like it.
4. Take your company email off your phone! This one is huge. Stop checking, reading and responding to emails outside of working hours. When you do this, you are working for free and taking time away from your family and your business.
5. Use the clock. While there are times that staying late is necessary, most of the time it is not. Stop worrying about what others think about you and when it’s time to go home, go home. Take the walk of shame, go home to your family and work on your business. Stop staying late just because the boss is.

Taking Advantage of Free Time During Working Hours

There are many aspects of a business that need attention. Some of them are very in depth and complex and some of them only take a few moments of our time.

Personally, I have worked in many different fields ranging from working in an office setting as an accountant to working as a pilot in a combat zone overseas. I have never once had a job where I didn’t have some free time throughout the day.

Even if it’s just a few minutes at a time, there are always small things that can be accomplished that can be valuable to your business.

Here are a few examples:

1. Posting on social media
2. Writing a short article or blog post
3. Sending news, recent developments, or even coupons to your email list
4. Answering emails or returning phone calls

As you can see, there are always small things that can be accomplished in a short amount of time during working hours or during a lunch break. While other employees are gossiping by the water cooler, focus and do some of the small things that only take a few moments.

A good practice is to make a list of five items that you feel are important to your business and can be accomplished in a small amount of time. Each day when you find yourself with a little free time, complete one task.

Don’t overdo it, and be wary of anything that might get you fired, but all these little moments add up to a significant amount of work over the course of a year. 

Recruiting Coworkers: Trading My Skills for Their Time

While working a full-time job, you get to know coworkers well. Many times, you become good friends and learn about their families, their hobbies, and even their life goals.

At some point, your entrepreneurial spirit and your business ventures are going to come up. Some coworkers will think it’s silly and others will take genuine interest.

Typically, people take a genuine interest because it’s something they have always wanted to do themselves. Like you, they have higher aspirations. However, as with many people, they have probably never started or ran a business and don’t really know where to start or how it all works.

This is your opportunity to take them under your wing and teach them the basics of how your business runs. In return, you get some much needed and appreciated help. All you have to do once someone takes a genuine interest, is ask the question and pitch your proposal.

Like this: “Brad, I noticed you seemed very interested in my business. I’d be happy to teach you more about it. If you work with me for a few months, you’d probably learn most of what you’d need to know to start your own in the future.”

The point is, ask the question. Based on my experience, one in five will be excited about the opportunity.

This situation is a win for everyone. You get much needed help within your business for free and your coworker gets to see the inner workings of a real business and gains valuable knowledge and skills that will help them succeed in the future.

There are always people who are willing to trade their time to better themselves. Seek out people like this, become a mentor to them, and build relationships that will last for years to come.

Using Employee Benefits

Employee benefits vary by the job, but I can say for certain that there are many benefits that go underutilized. It’s your personal responsibility to do the research necessary, find the benefits that can help you the most, and apply for them through your employer.

Companies like Boeing, McDonalds, Starbucks, and Amazon offer a range ofcontinuing education, retraining, and student loan repayment programs. Programs like these offer the opportunity to learn more about business, management, and other various subjects that can be beneficial to you and your business. In addition, the student loan repayment programs can help to speed up your debt payoff.

That being said, there are benefits that are somewhat universal to every business:

1. Paid time off
2. Sick time
3. Remote working opportunities

Paid Time Off

Most people use their paid time off for vacations. They take two weeks all at one time for some relaxation in the sun and it’s all gone. Instead, use this benefit to both fund and build your startup while working full time, by following this model.

1. Skip the vacation and use the funds you were going to spend on “fun in the sun” and invest it into your business.
2. Spread out your vacation days by using one or two at a time in conjunction with weekends and holidays. This will allow you to have more three and four day increments here and there to focus solely on your business.

You will have plenty of time for fun in the sun once you hit your goals.

Sick Time

Sick time is typically only used when you are sick. However, most workplaces have a policy that only requires you to show proof of a sickness when you have missed three consecutive days or more.

Take advantage of this benefit, and if you really need to get something done within your business, call in sick. If you don’t use these days, they’re benefits left on the table.

Remote Working Opportunities

Remote working opportunities are available in most fields these days, but they can take some work to set up. Tim Ferris outlines an amazing method to achieve remote working opportunities with your current employer in chapter 12 of his bookThe 4-Hour Workweek, which is not free, but in my opinion, is a must read. Personally, I prefer the audio version as I can listen to it on the go.

This article by Victoria Yershova also does a good job showing how to obtain remote working opportunities in a practical application.

Once you’re able to free up some time to work remotely, this will benefit your business in a couple of ways. For one, if you can increase your productivity while at home, or you’re otherwise able to complete your duties early, you can work on your business with the leftover time. There will also be more opportunities to fit in small tasks, as described above. And finally, by eliminating the commute, the average employee can gain around two additional hours a day.

Just don’t let your productivity at work slip, or your remote working opportunity will be short lived. As with all of these tips, use caution, as your full-time job is a very important asset when it comes to launching your startup. Do not risk losing it.

Even if this is something you can only achieve for a few days a week, it’s still a massive benefit and worth working towards.

Root Cause 4: Lack of Knowledge

When I first decided to launch a startup while working full time, I honestly had no idea what I was doing. I was paying web designers, graphic designers, marketing agencies and a host of other people and was honestly, receiving low-quality work.

The first website I ever paid someone to build cost me $500. It was a simple, one-page WordPress website. It was red and black with a dragon for the logo, which I thought was amazing. Like most new entrepreneurs, once the website launched, I thought I was done. I was now in business. All I had to do was wait for the sales to start pouring in.

They never did.

I then thought the website needed more, but of course I couldn’t get the designer to call me back, so I did my own research, took a course and started building. At the end of the first day I had added four additional pages to my website—About Me, Services, Blog, and Contact Us. It was beautiful. I was proud of myself and I knew it would make people want to contact me.

It didn’t.

The fact was that I basically didn’t exist, because no one could find me. I wasn’t showing up on Google searches or maps, I had no social media profiles, and I wasn’t advertising anywhere. Of course, this business was a complete failure, but I learned a valuable lesson.

I needed to learn and become a student of business and online marketing. This realization hit me hard once I realized how expensive it was to launch a business. I couldn’t afford to pay others to do everything for me. Being an entrepreneur while working full time is not a great recipe for success, unless you are willing to put in the time, invest in yourself, and learn.

Investing in Myself

A large part of business is simply being found. Search engine optimization, social media, influencer marketing, content marketing, Google AdWords, and Facebook Advertising are all basic and essential tools that most businesses use.

Each one is either about being found or tracking people who have found us, so we can find more like them.

Hundreds of thousands of people and business sell their products and services on sites like Amazon, eBay, Fiverr, Freelancer, and Jet.com. They do this because these sites have a built-in audience, meaning they can more easily be found. They save work, but even these sites have their own built-in algorithms and advertising platforms that you must learn and navigate.

The point is, if you want to be a successful business owner, you need how to learn to be found. You can pay others to do these tasks for you, but there’s a major problem with that.

If your plan is to keep your day job and start a business, I can only assume you are doing this for financial reasons. That was my reason—I had bills to pay. That means people in our position likely can’t afford to pay freelancers or professionals to do this work for us.

We must learn to do it ourselves, at least in the beginning.

This realization hit me after I had already wasted thousands of dollars that I did not have to lose.

One more time for the people in the back row. You must learn! Become a student of the field.

I’m going to leave you with the first five things that I learned that allowed me to launch new businesses in the most cost-effective manner possible.

• Adobe Illustrator (Graphic Design)
• Web Design viaWordPress
• Search Engine Optimization
• Facebook Advertising
• Google AdWords

With these skills, even at the basic level, you’ll be able to design a logo, build a website and send traffic to your site both organically and with paid advertising. It won’t be easy, it will take some practice, and unless you use these skills consistently over many years, you’ll never become an expert. You will however, be able to create a brand and launch an online business in a cost-effective manner.

Here are some resources you can use to start learning these skills.

1. YouTube – This is free and has courses and tutorials on all the above tasks. Complete a simple search and find what you are looking to learn.
2. Udemy – Courses cost around $11 but are very detailed and include step-by-step instruction. There are courses available for all the topics above.

While these sites may not be new or exciting services, they are the most detailed and cost-effective websites I have found to learn new information.

Once you have a basic knowledge, here are a few places you can go to practice these skills as a freelancer. While you can earn some additional income on these sites, this process is about practicing and honing your skills, not earning. All you need do is sign up and start doing simple projects for others. Practice makes perfect. I used these websites for two years, simply to learn, practice and perfect my new skills. I didn’t earn enough to even make it worth my time, but I did get very good at building online businesses from the ground up, which is what this exercise is all about.

Use these websites as your playground and training ground, not a source of income:

• Freelancer
• Upwork
• Fiverr

After some time and lots of practice, you’ll be ready to build your own online business without a large financial investment.

The most important tip I can give you once you’re reached this point is this: Never stop learning and investing in yourself.

Mentors and Coaches

Launching a startup while working full time is a difficult task and there are times when we all need a little motivation, technical guidance, or just help from a friend. There are plenty of online mentors, coaches, and groups you can join, but finding the right one could mean the difference between success and failure.

I mentioned in the beginning of this article that some of the advice I received from trusted sources (mentors) led me to failures and additional financial constraints. It wasn’t their fault though—it was mine for not doing the proper research and finding a mentor or coach that was right for me.

Mentors and coaches can be huge assets, and I recommended everyone starting out in the business world seek out and find someone to guide you. Articles like this are certainly valuable, but there is no interaction or dialog, which can leave unanswered questions, confusion, and an unclear path forward.

I’m going to share with you what I found to be the most important aspect of a good mentor or coach, but first, let’s make sure we have a clear understanding of the difference between the two, in the context of the advice I can offer.

Mentoring, historically, is an informal professional relationship in which a more experienced person gives periodic advice to someone earlier in their career. In this form, there’s no handshake or contract that makes someone your mentor. You simply develop this connection over time. There’s a lot out there on how to find a great mentor, including Foundr resources here, here, and a post on how Nathan Chan found his own mentor here.

One increasingly popular way mentoring is done today is within a larger group, focusing on big picture topics. This is the form of mentoring I’ll be advising on (although some of these principles are valid in any search for a mentor). A great example of this is the popularAsk A Millionaire mentoring program, which is run byShawn Thomas. This program is run through a Facebook group that consists of approximately 250 mentees and seven mentors, all with different specialties. The mentors conduct weekly live streams where mentees can ask specific questions and gain advice based on their own business needs. There is very little, if any, one-on-one interaction.

Coaching is where you have one-on-one interactions geared toward you and your specific business needs. For example, the mentees of the Ask A Millionaire mentoring program have the option of paying any of the mentors for additional coaching. Coaching is almost always a professional relationship, meaning you hire someone, and is typically much more expensive and billed at an hourly rate. There are, however, a bunch of online platforms out there to help find a coach.

Disclosure: I have been a member of the Ask A Millionaire mentoring program before, and this is neither a recommendation or review of this program, but simply an example to explain the difference between coaching and mentoring.  

The most important aspect of a good coach or mentor (outside of prior success) is that they have a similar background to you. Someone who has walked in your shoes and overcome the challenges you are currently facing can advise you better than anyone. When looking for a coach or mentor, you should be looking for someone who can understand what you are dealing with on a deep level.

I once took on a mentor who had overwhelming success, but I failed to notice that he started out with an inheritance of over a million dollars and did not build his business while working a job. He advised me based on his own prior knowledge and did not understand the specific struggles I was dealing with.

This led me to make bad decisions in my business, take on more time-consuming ventures than I could maintain, and make a larger financial investment than I could afford. I still recommend finding a mentor or coach, but it’s crucial that you seek out someone who has been where you are currently.

Finding a Mentor Using Social Media

I have found that one of the best places to find a mentor is on Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social media sites. As you can see in the image below, a simple search on Instagram for “mentor” gives results for business owners currently interested in providing mentorship to aspiring entrepreneurs.

This search works on most social media platforms. Here is my process for picking a new mentor using social media:

1. Most important—stop following people who do not have an entrepreneurial background similar to yours. It’s a waste of time.
2. Spend some time searching and start following 20 to 30 mentors that you are interested in and have similar backgrounds.
3. Take a few months, this is an important decision and should not be rushed. Watch their live streams, view their content and engage with them over the course of two or three months.
4. Based on your interactions, narrow these mentors down to seven after your first 30 days.
5. Continue to engage these seven mentors, and at the 60-day mark, you should have no problem naming your favorite three. Narrow it down again.
6. Most of these mentors more than likely already have an existing mentoring program. You can typically find a link to their mentorship website listed on their social media profiles. If any of them have free trials listed on their websites, try one or all of them out. Reach out to past participants if you can and ask for honest reviews of their experiences. If no website is listed on their social media profiles, simply send them a direct message and ask about their program. It’s important to note the some of better programs are not openly advertised and a direct message may be necessary.
7. Finally, if there are no free trials and you can’t pick a clear winner, go with the cheapest for one month. Odds are the three different programs you have remaining are similar in nature and will all provide you with similar value.

Social Media is not the only place to find mentors. Here are a few sites that provide excellent, reasonably priced or free mentoring.

1. The Muse
2. Micro Mentor
3. Score

For even more on this topic, we also have a free ebook here that teaches you how to find a trusted, experienced mentor.

Changing My Mindset

Hopefully you’ll find this article is packed with information, processes, and tips on launching a startup while working full time. I know this topic can be overwhelming. Being an entrepreneur while working full time is not for the faint of heart. If it were easy, everyone would do it.

It’s no secret that I struggled my entire journey. The longer I let myself and my way of thinking be the problem, the longer it took me to fix all the issues I had made for myself. In order to break out of my cycle of failure, I needed to accept that I was the problem, and change my mindset.

When I failed over and over, I always told myself these things:

• I don’t have enough money.
• I don’t have enough time.
• I don’t know how.

Eventually I realized I had to stop falling back on these excuses, stop looking for quick fixes to my problems, and start working on long-term solutions. That meant making a plan to get out of debt, changing the way I approached my day job, and investing in my own knowledge.

Every day, I am grateful that I had this realization this and put a stop to this cycle. It took me one amazing epiphany, then another two years to fix all the problems my mindset had created for me.

And then I launched.

Today, I run a website calledFlyer Jobs, I have a private label physical products brand, I’m writing a book, I do consulting work for Department of Defense contractors, and I have a private mentoring program.

With any luck, this is just the beginning, and it’s all because I took the time to fix myself first.

ATTENTION: Consulting/freelance businesses are low cost and easy to start if you have expertise in a particular subject. If you want more information on how to start and scale a consulting/freelance business, Sabri Suby walks you through the exact steps he took to scale from a bedroom-based consultancy to a $10 million agency, in our course Consulting Empire.

Become your own boss! Click here to learn more about our Consulting Empire course.

How You Can Implement This in Your Own Life

Many people have dreams of starting a side business while employed, or launching a startup while working full time, and it’s all possible. Face up to the core problems that are in your way, make a long-term plan, and use your job as an asset to work through them.

Follow the Plan:

1. Change your mindset. The problem is probably you.
2. Evaluate yourself and find the things that are truly holding you back. (finances, time, and knowledge)
3. Set long-term goals to fix each of the things that is holding you back.
4. Use your full-time job to get out of debt. This is essential if you want to start a real business and give yourself the best opportunity to succeed.
5. Make time for your business by setting boundaries at work.
6. Recruit coworkers to help you. Teach them in return for their services.
7. Become a student of the field. The time to start learning is now. Start learning and never stop.
8. Get help. Find a mentor

Leverage your full-time job to help you accomplish each of these, work hard, and prepare to launch a successful business.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve had when trying to start a business while working a full-time job? What’s holding you back? Share in the comments below!

fashion retail business

Hello. I'm Abdul. Welcome to my Page Motivation syringe.

The Complete 35-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs Starting a Business

This hot pick.

Starting a business entails understanding and dealing with many issues—legal, financing, sales and marketing, intellectual property protection, liability protection, human resources, and more. But interest in entrepreneurship is at an all-time high. And there have been spectacular success stories of early stage startups growing to be multi-billion-dollar companies, such as Uber, Facebook, WhatsApp, Airbnb, and many others.

In this article, I give an overview of 35 key steps for entrepreneurs who are starting a business, with links to additional articles addressing some of the topics in more depth.

1. Understand the Commitment and Challenges Involved in Starting a Business

Starting a business is a huge commitment. Entrepreneurs often fail to appreciate the significant amount of time, resources, and energy needed to start and grow a business.

Here are some of the biggest challenges to starting and growing a business:

• Coming up with a great and unique product or service
• Having a strong plan and vision for the business
• Having sufficient capital and cash flow
• Finding great employees
• Firing bad employees quickly in a way that doesn’t result in legal liability
• Working more than you expected
• Not getting discouraged by rejections from customers
• Managing your time efficiently
• Maintaining a reasonable work/life balance
• Knowing when to pivot your strategy
• Maintaining the stamina to keep going even when it’s tough

2. Protect Your Personal Assets by Forming the Business as a Corporation or LLC

Never start a business as a “sole proprietorship,” which can result in your personal assets being at risk for the debts and liabilities of the business. You will almost always want to start the business as an S corporation (giving you favorable flow through tax treatment), a C corporation (which is what most venture capital investors expect to see), or a limited liability company (LLC). None of those are particularly expensive or difficult to set up. My personal preference is to start the business as an S corporation, which can then easily be converted to a C corporation as you bring in investors and issue multiple classes of stock.

Many business owners, however, are under the mistaken impression that they are completely protected from personal liability by filing a Certificate of Incorporation for a corporation. This is not true. The mere process of incorporating does not completely protect the business owners. To lessen the likelihood of such personal or shareholder liability, you should make sure to adhere to certain procedures:

• Always use the corporate name. The name of the corporation should be used in full, including “Inc.” or “Corp.” on all contracts, invoices, or documents used by the corporation. This clearly indicates the existence of the corporation as a separate entity.
• Always use proper signature. This means that you will sign on behalf of the corporation, using the name of the corporation and your title. You should typically use the following format when signing contracts on behalf of the corporation:

CORPORATION NAME

By: ___________________________________

Your name – authorized signing officer and corporate title

• Follow all corporate formalities. This includes following bylaws, issuing stock properly, holding meetings of the Board of Directors, recording the meeting minutes, and following other corporate formalities.
• Make sure to keep funds separate. Corporate funds and the funds of individual shareholders should not be in the same accounts or combined for any reason.
• Make sure to keep taxation separate. The company taxes should be paid entirely from corporate accounts and separate tax returns filed for the corporation.
• All transactions made by the corporation should be clearly separate from any individual transactions. Essentially, by never blurring the line between individual shareholders, owners or the Board of Directors, and the company (which stands as a separate entity), you run less risk of any personal liabilities for the debts of the business.

See An Overview for Incorporating a Business and 10 Key Issues in Setting up an LLC.

3. Come Up With a Great Name for Your Business

Selecting the right name for your startup can have a significant impact on your business success. The wrong name could result in insurmountable legal and business hurdles. Here are some basic tips on how to name your startup:

• Avoid hard-to-spell names.
• Don’t pick a name that could be limiting as your business grows.
• Conduct a thorough Internet search on a proposed name.
• Get a “.com” domain name (as opposed to “.net” or another variant).
• Conduct a thorough trademark search.
• Make sure you and your employees will be happy saying the name.
• Come up with five names you like and test market the name with prospective employees, partners, investors, and potential customers.

For more advice, see 12 Tips for Naming Your Startup Business.

4. Focus on Building a Great Product—But Don’t Take Forever to Launch

When starting out, your product or service has to be at least good if not great. It must be differentiated in some meaningful and important way from the offerings of your competition‎. Everything else follows from this key principle. Don’t drag your feet on getting your product out to market, since early customer feedback is one of the best ways to help improve your product. Of course, you want a “minimum viable product” (MVP) to begin with, but even that product should be good and differentiated from the competition. Having a “beta” test product works for many startups as they work the bugs out from user reactions. As Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook has said, “Done is better than perfect.”

5. Build a Great Website for Your Company

You should devote time and effort to building a great website for your business. Prospective investors, customers, and partners are going to check out your site, and you want to impress them with a professional product. Here are some tips for building a great company website:

• Check out competitor sites.
• Start by sketching out a template for your site.
• Come up with five or six sites you can share with your web site developer to convey what you like.
• Be sure the site is search engine optimized (and thus more likely to show up early on Google search results).
• Produce high-quality original content.
• Make sure your site is optimized for mobile devices.
• Make sure the site loads quickly.
• Keep it clean and simple; visual clutter will drive visitors away.
• Make sure you have a Terms of Use Agreement and Privacy Policy (and comply with the European GDPR rules).
• Make the navigation bars prominent.
• Obtain and use a memorable “.com” domain name.
• Make the site visually interesting.
• Make sure it’s easy for site visitors to contact you or buy your product.

6. Perfect Your Elevator Pitch

An “elevator” pitch is intended to be a concise, compelling introduction to your business. You should be able to slightly modify your elevator pitch depending on whether you are pitching to prospective investors, customers, employees, or partners. Here are a few tips for developing and delivering a great elevator pitch:

• Start out strong.
• Be positive and enthusiastic in your delivery.
• Remember that practice makes perfect.
• Keep it to 60 seconds in length.
• Avoid using industry jargon.
• Convey why your business is unique.
• Pitch the problem you are solving.
• Invite participation or interruption by the listener—this shows they are interested and engaged.

7. Make the Deal Clear With Co-Founders

If you start your company with co-founders, you should agree early on about the details of your business relationship. Not doing so can potentially cause significant legal problems down the road (a good example of this is the infamous Zuckerberg/Winklevoss Facebook litigation). In a way, think of the founder agreement as a form of “pre-nuptial agreement.” Here are the key deal terms your written founder agreement needs to address:

• How is the equity split among the founders?
• Is the percentage of ownership subject to vesting based on continued participation in the business?
• What are the roles and responsibilities of the founders?
• If one founder leaves, does the company or the other founder have the right to buy back that founder’s shares? At what price?
• How much time commitment to the business is expected of each founder?
• What salaries (if any) are the founders entitled to? How can that be changed?
• How are key decisions and day-to-day decisions of the business to be made? (by majority vote, unanimous vote, or are certain decisions solely in the hands of the CEO?)
• Under what circumstances can a founder be removed as an employee of the business? (usually, this would be a Board decision)
• What assets or cash does each founder contribute or invest into the business?
• How will a sale of the business be decided?
• What happens if one founder isn’t living up to expectations under the founder agreement? How will it be resolved?
• What is the overall goal and vision for the business?
• If one founder wants to leave the business, does the company have the right to buy back his or her shares? At what price?

8. Obtain a Tax ID

In most instances, you will need to get a tax ID from the IRS for your company. This is also known as an “Employer Identification Number” (EIN), and it’s similar to a Social Security number, but for businesses. Banks will ask for your EIN when you open a company bank account. You can get an EIN online through the IRS website.

In some states, a state tax ID may be necessary as well (for example, California, New York, and Texas require a state ID, which can be obtained online).

9. Set Up a Good Accounting and Bookkeeping System

You will need to set up a bookkeeping/accounting system to keep track of your finances—income, expenses, capital expenditures, EBITDA, profit and loss, etc. This is important in order to understand your business’s cash flow situation and also for tax-filing purposes.

There are a number of online software solutions that can be helpful in this regard, such as QuickBooks, Zoho, FreshBooks, and Xero.

10. Perform a Comprehensive Reference Check Before You Hire an Employee

Many employers conduct a limited and incomplete reference check when interviewing job candidates, which can result in hiring people who are unable to perform their required duties or who don’t work well with others. A comprehensive reference check includes:

• Verification of job titles and dates of employment
• Verification of educational degrees and dates of attendance at schools
• Verification of starting and ending salary
• Verification of prior job role and responsibilities
• Inquiry as to why the applicant left the prior employer
• Conversations with prior supervisors as to the applicant’s strengths and weaknesses
• Inquiry as to the applicant’s ability to get along well with other employees and customers
• Inquiry as to the applicant’s ability to take on the new role
• Inquiry as to punctuality or absenteeism issues
• Reference checks with other people not listed by the applicant as a reference

The purpose of these checks is to make sure that the applicant will fit into the company’s culture and to ensure that they have been truthful and accurate in their resume and employment application. However, the process is carefully regulated by the federal government (through the Fair Credit Reporting Act) and the laws of many states; failure to follow the highly technical process can lead to class action lawsuits. Consider consulting legal counsel and, for general information, see the EEOC’s Background Checks: What Employers Need to Know.

It is also useful to require all prospective employees to complete an employment application.

11. Use a Good Form of Employee Offer Letter or Employment Agreement

Oral agreements often lead to misunderstandings. If you plan to hire a prospective employee, use a carefully drafted offer letter, which the employee should be encouraged to review carefully before signing. For senior executives, a more detailed employment agreement often makes sense. A good offer letter or employment agreement will address the following key items:

• The job title and role of the employee
• Whether the job is full time or part time
• When the job will commence
• The salary, benefits, and any potential bonuses
• Whether the position is “at will” employment, meaning either party is free to terminate the relationship at any time without penalty (although employers may not terminate employees for legally prohibited reasons, such as for age discrimination or retaliation from sexual harassment allegations, etc.)
• Confirmation that the “at will” agreement may not be changed unless signed by an authorized officer of the company
• Confirmation that the employee will need to sign a separate Confidentiality and Invention Assignment Agreement (described below)
• If the company chooses, a statement that any disputes between the parties will be resolved solely and exclusively by confidential binding arbitration (also discussed below)
• Any stock options to be granted to the employee and the terms of any vesting (details usually laid out in a separate Stock Option Agreement)
• The supervisor to whom the employee will report
• Protective language stating that the offer letter constitutes the entire agreement and understanding of the parties with respect to the employment relationship, and that there are no other agreements or benefits expected (unless additional provisions are laid out in a handbook, which should be referenced if applicable)

Companies should ensure that the employee and the company sign the letter, the Confidentiality and Invention Assignment Agreement, any Stock Option Agreement, and any first-day paperwork (such as the IRS W-4 Form for withholding and the I-9 form mandated by law).

For a good sample employee offer letter, see 13 Key Employment Issues for Startup and Emerging Companies.

12. Make Sure All Employees Sign a Confidentiality and Invention Assignment Agreement

Companies pay employees to come up with ideas, work product, and inventions that may be useful to the business. Employees have access to a good deal of their company’s confidential information, which can be very valuable, especially in technology companies.

One basic way to protect proprietary company information is through the use of a Confidentiality and Invention Assignment Agreement. This type of agreement deals with confidentiality issues, but can also ensure that the ideas, work product, and inventions the employee creates that are related to company business belong to the company—not the employee.

A good Employee Confidentiality and Invention Assignment Agreement will cover the following key points:

• The employee may not use or disclose any of the company’s confidential information for their own benefit or use, or for the benefit of others, without authorization.
• The employee must promptly disclose to the company any inventions, ideas, discoveries, and work product related to the company’s business that they make during the period of employment.
• The company is the owner of such inventions, ideas, discoveries, and work product, which the employee must assign to the company.
• The employee’s employment with the company does not and will not breach any agreement or duty that the employee has with anyone else, nor may the employee disclose to the company or use on its behalf any confidential information belonging to others.
• Upon termination of employment, the employee must return any and all confidential information and company property.
• While employed, the employee will not compete with the company or perform any services for any competitor of the company.
• The employee’s confidentiality and invention assignment obligations under the agreement will continue after termination of employment.
• The agreement does not by itself represent any guarantee of continued employment.

Venture capitalists and other investors in startups expect to see that all employees of the company have signed these kinds of agreements. In an M&A transaction in which the company is sold, the buyer’s due diligence team will also be looking for these agreements signed by all employees.

A sample form of Employee Confidentiality and Invention Assignment Agreement can be found at the Forms & Agreements section of AllBusiness.com.

Similarly, it will be appropriate that all consultants of the company also sign a Confidentiality and Invention Assignment Agreement. See Key Issues with Confidentiality and Invention Assignment Agreements with Consultants.

13. Consider the Steps You Should Take to Protect Your Intellectual Property

It is important to protect your company’s intellectual property (IP). Ever wary of minimizing burn rate, startups may be tempted to defer investment in intellectual property protection. To those who have not tried to protect intellectual property, it feels complex and expensive. Too often, startups end up forfeiting intellectual property rights by neglecting to protect their ideas and inventions.

Some simple and cost-effective techniques can minimize the anxiety, yet help protect core assets.

Companies sometimes think that patent protection is the only way to protect themselves. Technology startups frequently ignore the value of non-patent intellectual property. While patents can be incredibly valuable, it does not necessarily ensure that a company’s product is a good product or that it will sell well. Trade secrets, cybersecurity policies, trademarks, and copyrights can all be forms of IP that can be protected.

Here is a summary of the types of intellectual property protections available:

• Patents. Patents are the best protection you can get for a new product. A patent gives its inventor the right to prevent others from making, using, or selling the patented subject matter described in the patent’s claims. The key issues in determining whether you can get a patent are: (1) Only the concrete embodiment of an idea, formula, or product is patentable; (2) the invention must be new or novel; (3) the invention must not have been patented or described in a printed publication previously; and (4) the invention must have some useful purpose. In the United States you obtain a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, but this process can take several years and be complicated. You typically need a patent lawyer to draw up the patent application for you. The downside of patents is that they can be expensive to obtain and take several years,
• Copyrights. Copyrights cover original works of authorship, such as art, advertising copy, books, articles, music, movies, software, etc. A copyright gives the owner the exclusive right to make copies of the work and to prepare derivative works (such as sequels or revisions) based on the work.
• Trademarks. A trademark right protects the symbolic value of a word, name, symbol, or device that the trademark owner uses to identify or distinguish its goods from those of others. Some well-known trademarks include the Coca-Cola trademark, American Express trademark, and IBM trademark. You obtain rights to a trademark by actually using the mark in commerce. You don’t need to register the mark to get rights to it, but federal registration does offer some advantages. You register a mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
• Service Marks. Service marks resemble trademarks and are used to identify services.
• Trade Secrets. Trade secrets can be a great asset for startups. They are cost effective and last for as long as the trade secret maintains its confidential status and derives value through its secrecy. A trade secret right allows the owner of the right to take action against anyone who breaches an agreement or confidential relationship, or who steals or uses other improper means to obtain secret information. Trade secrets can range from computer programs to customer lists to the formula for Coca-Cola.
• Confidentiality Agreements. These are also referred to as Non-Disclosure Agreements or NDAs. The purpose of the agreement is to allow the holder of confidential information (such as a product or business idea) to share it with a third party. But then the third party is obligated to keep the information confidential and not use it whatsoever, unless allowed by the owner of the information. There are usually standard exceptions to the confidentiality obligations (such as if the information is already in the public domain). See The Key Elements of Non-Disclosure Agreements.
• Confidentiality Agreement for Employees and Consultants. Every employee and consultant should be required to sign such an agreement, as discussed above.
• Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. If you are a company that conducts its business on the internet, it is important to have a terms of service agreement that limits what users can or cannot do on your website and with the information on your site. Closely related is your Privacy Policy, which sets forth what privacy protections are available to your users. The new European GDPR rules may also need to be addressed.

14. Become a Strong Salesperson

If the business is to become successful, you must become a great salesperson. You are going to have to learn how to “sell” your business—not only to customers but also to prospective investors and even to potential employees.

It’s important to be positive, trustworthy, and to learn how to listen. You must practice your sales pitch, get feedback from a variety of people, and then refine your pitch. Even if you are not naturally an extrovert, you need to show confidence, follow up, and ask for the sale.

15. Understand Financial Statements and Budgets

It’s important to keep on top of your expenses and learn how to thoroughly understand financial statements and budgeting. Many startups fail because the entrepreneur isn’t able to adjust their spending to avoid running out of cash. Establishing a detailed, month-by-month budget is crucial, and this budget must be reviewed regularly.

Understanding your financial statements will also help you answer questions from prospective investors. Here are some financial statement questions you can expect to get from investors:

• What are the company’s three-year projections?
• What are the key assumptions underlying your projections?
• How much equity and debt has the company raised, and what is the capitalization structure?
• What future equity or debt financing will be necessary?
• How much of a stock option pool is being set aside for employees?
• When will the company get to profitability?
• How much “burn” (losses) will occur until the company gets to profitability?
• What are your unit economics?
• What are the factors that limit faster growth?
• What are the key metrics that the management team focuses on?

16. Market Your Business Like Crazy

To succeed in business, you need to continually be attracting, building, and even educating your target market. Make sure your marketing strategy includes the following:

• Learn the fundamentals of SEO (search engine optimization) so that people searching for your products and services online might find you near the top of search results.
• Use social media to promote your business (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.).
• Engage in content marketing by writing guest articles for relevant websites.
• Issue press releases for any significant events.
• Network continually.

17. Use Consultants and Freelancers to Supplement Your Team

At the early stages of your startup, you will likely want to have a small employee team to minimize expenses. A good way to fill in for specialized expertise is to use freelancers or consultants. That way, you avoid taking on employee costs and benefits payments. And there are a variety of sites that can help you access freelancers, such as Freelancer.com, Guru.com, and Upwork.com.

18. Have a Great Investor Pitch Deck

Startups frequently prepare a “pitch deck” to present their company to prospective angel or venture capital investors. The pitch deck typically consists of 15-20 slides in a PowerPoint presentation and is intended to showcase the company’s products, technology, and team to the investors.

Raising capital from investors is difficult and time consuming. Therefore, it’s crucial that a startup absolutely nails its investor pitch deck and articulates a compelling and interesting story.

Too many startups make a number of avoidable mistakes when creating their investor pitch decks. Here is a list of general do’s and don’ts to keep in mind:

Pitch Deck Do’s

• Do include this wording at the bottom left of the pitch deck cover page: “Confidential and Proprietary. Copyright by [Name of Company]. [Year]. All Rights Reserved.”
• Do convince the viewer of why the market opportunity is large.
• Do include visually interesting graphics and images.
• Do send the pitch deck in a PDF format to prospective investors in advance of a meeting. Don’t force the investor to get it from Google Docs, Dropbox, or some other online service, as you are just putting up a barrier to the investor actually reading it.
• Do plan to have a demo of your product as part of the in-person presentation.
• Do tell a compelling, memorable, and interesting story that shows your passion for the business.
• Do show that you have more than just an idea, and that you have gotten early traction on developing the product, getting customers, or signing up partners.
• Do have a soundbite for investors to remember you by.
• Do use a consistent font size, color, and header title style throughout the slides.

Pitch Deck Don’ts

• Don’t make the pitch deck more than 15-20 slides long (investors have limited attention spans). If you feel you need to add more information, include it as an appendix.
• Don’t have too many wordy slides.
• Don’t provide excessive financial details, as that can be provided in a follow-up message.
• Don’t try to cover everything in the pitch deck slides. Your in-person presentation will give you an opportunity to add and highlight key information.
• Don’t use a lot of jargon or acronyms that the investor may not immediately understand.
• Don’t underestimate or belittle the competition (and never say “we don’t have any competition”).
• Don’t have your pitch deck look out of date. You don’t want a date on the cover page that is several months old (that is why I avoid putting a date on the cover page at all). And you don’t want information or metrics in the deck about your business that look stale or outdated.
• Don’t have a poor layout, bad graphics, or a low-quality “look and feel.” Think about hiring a graphic designer to give your pitch desk a more professional look.

For additional advice and a sample pitch deck, see How to Create a Great Investor Pitch Deck for Startups Seeking Financing.

19. Drive Traffic to Your Website

While entire books have been written on this topic, the key ways to drive traffic to your website are as follows:

• Pay Google, Bing, Yahoo, or other search engines to send you traffic (such as through the Google Adwords program).
• Build a great site with lots of high-quality, original content that is search engine optimized.
• Have a smart social media plan to drive traffic from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other free social media sites.
• Get links to your site from high-quality sites.

20. Make Sure Someone Hasn’t Already Invented Your Great New Idea

Here are the key things to do if you have a great new invention idea:

• Do a Google search on the keywords associated with your invention.
• Do a search online of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at uspto.gov.
• If nothing comes up and you want to get a patent for your idea, hire a patent lawyer.

But keep refining the concept of the invention, as version 1 of your idea probably can be improved and enhanced through version 2 and version 3.

21. Don’t Go Overboard on a Business Plan

It’s useful to come up with a business plan to think through what you want to do for the development of the product or service, marketing, financial projections, and more. And you should then get input from trusted business and finance advisors. But don’t go overboard with a 50-page business plan. In reality, many startups have to deviate from their plan as the business develops.

22. Secure Capital to Finance Your Business

Here is a summary of the most effective sources of business capital:

• Personal funds
• Credit cards
• Friends and family
• Angel investors (see Angel Investing: 20 Things Entrepreneurs Should Know)
• Crowdsourcing sites such as Indiegogo.com and Kickstarter.com
• Bank loans/SBA financings/online lenders
• Venture capitalists
• Equipment loan financing

One of the biggest mistakes made by startups is not raising sufficient capital.

23. Determine Which Permits, Licenses, or Registrations You Will Need for Your Business

Depending on the nature of the business, you may need the following permits, licenses, or regulations:

• Permits need for regulated businesses (aviation, agriculture, alcohol, etc.)
• Sales tax license or permit
• Home-based business permits
• City and county business permits or licenses
• Zoning permit
• Seller’s permit
• Health department permits (such as for a restaurant)
• Federal and state tax/employer IDs

24. Set Up Appropriate Books and Records for Your Business

You will need to keep multiple books and records for your business, including:

• Financial statements (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow)
• Employee records
• Board and stockholder minutes and consents
• Stock and options ledger
• Tax filings and records (federal, state & local income, sales and property taxes)
• Secretary of State filings (Certificate of Incorporation, annual filings, etc.)
• Invoices & contracts
• Bank accounts
• Creditor records

25. Properly Insure Your Startup

If you are going to go through the time and effort to start a business, you need to protect it by purchasing appropriate insurance coverage.

Your first order of business should be to determine your specific insurance needs based on the nature of your business. Ask yourself what risks must be covered and how much coverage will be sufficient. Then find and evaluate insurance providers or insurance brokers to determine which companies handle the types of coverage that suits your needs.

While shopping for insurance, you will want answers to these types of key questions:

• What are the deductibles?
• Are the coverage limits high enough?
• What items or occurrences are excluded from coverage?
• Are there any gaps in the coverage?

Here is a list of the types of insurance that may be appropriate for your business:

• General liability insurance
• Product liability insurance
• Professional liability insurance
• Property insurance
• Worker’s compensation insurance
• D&O (directors & officers) insurance
• Health insurance for employees
• Business interruption insurance
• Commercial auto insurance
• Data breach/cybersecurity insurance
• Key man life insurance

26. Determine How to Divide Equity Among the Startup’s Co-Founders

There is no one right answer to the question of how equity should be divided among a company’s co-founders. But everyone involved should discuss this issue and come to an agreement up front to avoid misunderstandings later on. If you are the original founder and brains behind the idea, a good argument can be made for more than 50% ownership. The split should take into account the following:

• The relative value of the contributions of the co-founders
• Vesting dependent upon continued participation in the business (you don’t want to give away 25% of the company to someone who leaves after a few months)
• The amount of time to be committed to the business
• The cash compensation to be paid as an employee
• Whether the co-founders will be contributing cash as an investment in the business
• Whether one person wants to maintain control over decision-making

27. Understand These Key Points About Seeking Venture Capital Financing

Startups seeking financing often turn to venture capital (VC) firms, which can provide capital; strategic assistance; introductions to potential customers, partners, and employees; and much more.

Venture capital financings are not easy to obtain or close. Entrepreneurs will be better prepared to obtain VC financing if they understand the process, the anticipated deal terms, and the potential issues that will arise.

To understand the process of obtaining VC financing, it is important to know that venture capitalists typically focus their investment efforts using one or more of the following criteria:

• Specific industry sectors (software, digital media, semiconductor, mobile, SaaS, biotech, mobile devices, etc.)
• Stage of company (early-stage seed or Series A rounds, or later-stage rounds with companies that have achieved meaningful revenues and traction)
• Company location (e.g., San Francisco/Silicon Valley, New York, etc.)

Before approaching a venture capitalist, try to learn whether his or her focus aligns with your company and its stage of development.

The second key point to understand is that VCs get inundated with investment opportunities, many through unsolicited emails—almost all of those unsolicited emails are ignored. The best way to get the attention of a VC is to have a warm introduction through a trusted colleague, entrepreneur, or lawyer friendly to the VC.

A startup must have a good “elevator pitch” (as discussed in point #6) and a strong investor pitch deck (as discussed in point #18) to attract the interest of a VC.

Startups should also understand that the venture process can be very time consuming—just getting a meeting with a principal of a VC firm can take weeks; followed up with more meetings and conversations; followed by a presentation to all of the partners of the venture capital fund; followed by the issuance and negotiation of a term sheet, with continued due diligence; and finally the drafting and negotiation by lawyers on both sides of numerous legal documents to evidence the investment.

VCs usually want to see that your business has made some progress and gotten some traction in the market; they will typically not fund a very early stage company or just an idea. For that, you are better off seeking angel investors.

Most venture capitalists won’t agree to sign an NDA, so don’t bother asking.

For a comprehensive article on the venture capital financing process, see A Guide to Venture Capital Financings for Startups.

28. Pay Attention to Your Business Contracts

Business contracts are legally binding written agreements between two or more parties. They are an important part of business and such agreements need to be created and/or negotiated carefully.

While smaller businesses will often conduct business based on informal handshake agreements or unspoken understandings, the more that is at stake, the more essential it is to have a signed contract. A contract serves as the rules that must be followed by both parties. It presents each party with the opportunity to:

• Describe all obligations they are expected to fulfill.
• Describe all obligations they expect the other party (or parties) to fulfill.
• Limit any liabilities.
• Set parameters, such as a time frame, in which the terms of the contract will be met.
• Set terms of a sale, lease, or rental.
• Establish payment terms.
• Clearly establish all of the risks and responsibilities of the parties.

A contract is, in essence, a written meeting of the minds. While it is typically drawn up by one party and favors the needs and requirements of that party, protecting them from most (if not all) liabilities, it should initially be thought of as a work in progress that changes and grows as each party contributes prior to signing, after which it becomes an official document. “Consideration,” whether it is monetary or a promise to do work or provide a service by a specified date, is at the root of a contract.

The term “standard contract” is more myth than reality, and too often people simply sign on the dotted line without reading or negotiating the terms of a contract. A startup has to make sure it is comfortable with all of the terms of the contract, and depending on the deal dynamics, almost any term is negotiable.

Consideration, compensation, ownership rights, liability, and risk are all areas that need to be worded carefully. You should seek out help from a qualified attorney who is experienced in contracts to make sure you have covered each of these areas in a clear manner.

The contract itself should stipulate how it shall be enforced and what actions can be taken if one party fails to meet their obligations. It is often to the benefit of smaller businesses to have a confidential binding arbitration clause to resolve any disputes.

The key contracts that a startup should have as its own form of “standard contract” (drafted in the startup’s favor) include:

• Sales or service agreement
• License agreement
• Offer letter to employees
• Consulting agreement with any independent contractors (you want to make sure that you will own the intellectual property rights for anything they develop for your business)
• Confidentiality and Invention Assignment Agreement for employees and independent contractors
• Non-disclosure agreement

See 10 Key Contracts for Small and Growing Businesses.

29. If You Plan to Lease Office Space for Your Business, Focus on These Key Issues

Leasing office space is one of the largest expenses a startup can incur. Negotiating the best lease possible can save your company enough cash to hire a few more employees or launch a new marketing campaign.

Keep in mind that your ability to negotiate an office lease is dependent on how much leverage you have. Do your homework. Are other companies vying for the same space? Has the space been vacant for a long time? Factors such as these may mean the difference between you calling the shots, or a landlord insisting on onerous terms throughout the lease process.

Because no lease is standard, here are some suggestions to help you become a little more lease-savvy and negotiate a favorable office lease for your startup:

• Length of lease term. Landlords are typically willing to make concessions for longer-term leases. However, your company’s needs may change and you could find yourself locked into a lease for an office space that is too small, too big, or with rent that is above-market if demand for space subsequently declines. Try to negotiate a shorter-term lease with renewal options—a two-year lease with a two-year renewal option, for instance, rather than a four-year lease.
• Tenant improvements. Your new space may need some improvements or alterations (a new paint job, new carpeting, a reconfiguration of the space). Which party will pay for these improvements depends on how tight the commercial office space market is in your city. Most form leases stipulate that the tenant can’t make any alterations or improvements without the landlord’s consent. Ask for a clause that says you can make alterations or improvements with the landlord’s consent, and that the consent won’t be unreasonably withheld, delayed, or conditioned. Often, you are able to negotiate a “tenant improvement allowance,” which is an agreed-upon sum of money that the landlord will provide for the improvements and alterations you would like to make.
• Rent and rent escalations. Some landlords will give free rent for the first month or two of a lease. Fixed rent over longer-term leases is relatively rare. Sometimes landlords insist on annual increases based on the percentage increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). If your landlord insists on rent escalations, try to arrange for a CPI rent increase that does not kick in for at least the first two years of the term. Then, try to get a cap on the amount of each year’s increase. If you have to live with a rent escalation clause, try to negotiate a predetermined fixed increase; for example, a rent of $5,000 a month the first year that would only increase to $5,200 a month the second year and $5,400 a month the third year.
• Repairs, improvements, and replacements. Be aware of a clause that says that at the end of the lease you must restore the premises to their original condition. Try to negotiate a clause that states the following: “The premises will be returned to the Landlord at the end of the tenancy in the same condition as at the beginning of the tenancy, excluding (1) ordinary wear and tear, (2) damage by fire and unavoidable casualty not the fault of the Tenant, and (3) alterations previously approved by the Landlord.”
• Assignment and subletting. Startup companies should negotiate enough flexibility in the assignment and subletting clause to allow for mergers, reorganizations, and share ownership changes. Watch out for a clause that says a change in more than 50% of the company’s stock ownership will be deemed an assignment that is prohibited without the landlord’s prior approval. As your company grows and new people invest in it, this clause can be inadvertently triggered.
• Try to avoid one-sided lease provisions. Landlords use form lease agreements that can be very one-sided. Be on the lookout and negotiate on these types of provisions that are heavily landlord-favorable:
  • The landlord is given the right to pass on to the tenant, without limit, increased operating costs such as property taxes, building repairs, or insurance premiums.
  • The landlord tries to lease the premises “as is” or tries to disclaim responsibility for compliance with environmental laws (e.g., asbestos issues) or the Americans with Disabilities Act.
  • The landlord tries to require the tenant pay any tax increases resulting from a sale of the property.
  • The landlord tries to reserve the right to terminate the lease at the landlord’s convenience.
  • The landlord tries to prohibit the possibility of subletting or assignment.
  • The landlord insists on personal guarantee of the key shareholders of the company.
• Consider using a tenant broker. A good tenant broker can be invaluable and will represent your company’s best interests. He or she will educate you on the current market; locate spaces that meet your stated parameters; arrange tours and accompany you to view these available spaces; and then prepare offer letters and negotiate with landlords for all spaces that work best for your company.

See How to Negotiate the Best Office Lease for Your Startup.

30. Thoroughly Research Your Competition

Make sure you are thoroughly researching competitive products or services, and keep on top of new developments and announcements from your competitors. One way to do this is to set up a Google alert to notify you when any new information about those companies shows up online.

Expect that prospective investors in your company will ask questions about your competitors. Any entrepreneurs who say that “we don’t have competitors” will have credibility problems. So anticipate these questions from investors:

• Who are the company’s principal competitors?
• What traction have those competitors obtained?
• What gives your company the competitive advantage?
• Compared to these other companies, how do you compete with respect to price, features, and performance?
• What are the barriers to entry in your market?

31. If You Are Seeking Angel Investing Financing, Know These Important Points

In reviewing a prospective investment, angel investors especially care about:

• The quality, passion, commitment, and experience of the founders
• The market opportunity being addressed and the potential for the company to grow to become very big
• A clearly thought out business plan and early evidence of early business traction
• Interesting intellectual property or technology
• A reasonable valuation for the company
• The likelihood of the company being able to raise additional financing in the future if progress is made

Angel investors will want to initially see the following from a startup:

• A clearly articulated elevator pitch for the business
• An executive summary or investor pitch deck
• A prototype or working model of the company’s product or service
• Early adopters, customers, or partners

There are a variety of ways to find angel investors, including:

• AngelList
• Venture capitalists
• Investment bankers
• Lawyers
• Accountants
• Other entrepreneurs
• Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarterand Indiegogo

The best way to find an angel investor is through a warm introduction from a colleague or friend of an angel. Using LinkedIn to ascertain mutual connections can be helpful.

See Angel Investing: 20 Things Entrepreneurs Should Know.

32. Consider Adopting a Stock Option Plan to Attract and Motivate Employees

Stock Option Plans are an extremely popular method of attracting, motivating, and retaining the best employees, especially when the company is unable to pay high salaries. A Stock Option Plan gives the company the flexibility to award stock options to employees, officers, directors, advisors, and consultants, allowing these people to buy stock in the company when they exercise the option.

Stock Option Plans permit employees to share in the company’s success without requiring a startup business to spend precious cash. In fact, Stock Option Plans can actually contribute capital to a company as employees pay the exercise price for their options.

The primary disadvantage of Stock Option Plans for the company is the possible dilution of other shareholders’ equity when employees exercise their stock options. For employees, the main disadvantage of stock options in a private company—compared to cash bonuses or greater compensation—is the lack of liquidity. Until the company creates a public market for its stock or is acquired, the options will not be the equivalent of cash benefits. And, if the company does not grow bigger and its stock does not become more valuable, the options may ultimately prove worthless.

Thousands of people have become millionaires through their stock options (Facebook being one famous example), making this form of benefit very appealing to prospective employees. The spectacular success of some Silicon Valley companies and the resulting economic riches of those employees who held stock options have made Stock Option Plans a powerful motivational tool for employees to work toward the company’s long-term success.

Here’s a general explanation of how stock options are granted and exercised:

• XYZ, Inc., hires employee John Smith.
• As part of his employment package, XYZ grants John the option to acquire 80,000 shares of XYZ’s common stock at 25 cents per share (the fair market value of a share of XYZ common stock at the time of grant).
• The options are subject to a four-year vesting period with one-year cliff vesting, which means that John has to stay employed with XYZ for one year before he gets the right to exercise 20,000 of the options. The remaining 60,000 options then vest at the rate of 1/36 a month over the next 36 months of his employment.
• If John leaves the company or is fired before the end of his first year, he doesn’t get any of the options.
• After his options are “vested” (become exercisable), he has the option to buy the stock at 25 cents per share, even if the share value has gone up dramatically.
• After four years of continued employment, all 80,000 of his option shares are vested.
• XYZ becomes successful and goes public, and its stock trades at $20 per share.
• John exercises his options and buys 80,000 shares for $20,000 (80,000 x 25 cents).
• John turns around and sells all 80,000 of his shares for $1.6 million (80,000 x the $20 per share publicly traded price), making a huge profit of $1,580,000.

For a comprehensive article on this topic, see How Employee Stock Options Work in Startup Companies.

33. Focus on Offering Exceptional Customer Service

Companies such as Zappos and Virgin America became hugely successful because they focused on providing excellent customer service and support. You want your early customers to give referrals and sing your praises to their friends and colleagues. Thank your customers personally by email. Go the extra mile to show your appreciation.

34. Hire an Experienced Startup Attorney

You need a savvy business lawyer for your company, one who has regularly formed and advised many other entrepreneurs and who specializes in startups. An experienced startup lawyer can help you:

• Incorporate
• Draw up contracts with any co-founders
• Prepare key agreements for the business
• Set up a stock option plan for employees
• Guide you through potential HR landmines
• Prepare protective offer letters to prospective employees
• Help you negotiate terms with prospective investors
• Limit your potential legal liabilities
• Protect your ideas and inventions (through copyrights, patents, and non-disclosure agreements)

In a misguided effort to save on expenses, startup businesses often hire inexperienced legal counsel. Rather than spending the money necessary to hire competent legal counsel, founders will often hire lawyers who are friends, relatives, or others who offer large fee discounts. In doing so, the founders deny themselves the advice of experienced legal counsel who could potentially help them avoid many serious legal problems.

Get recommendations for lawyers from other entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Make sure you have a good rapport with the attorney. Meet with several potential attorneys before you make a final decision (those first meetings should be free). And check out 10 Big Legal Mistakes Made by Startups.

35. Get Comfortable With Public Speaking

The ability to communicate effectively can be critical to landing customers, inspiring employees, and pitching to investors to raise capital. Most people are not very good at public speaking and many are even afraid of it. You must strive to overcome this fear. Consider working with a public speaking or business coach to improve your public speaking skills. Some of the most recognized entrepreneurs, such as Apple founder Steve Jobs, were known for being great public speakers.

5 Time management tricks

Hello Readers Welcome Back to my Page MOTIVATION SYRINGE. Today I’m going to share you something valuable, almost Everyone Needs this in their busy running life.

5 Time management tricks that is actually helpful for those who are unable revise thier time in the busy working life, So.

Let’s Start…

1. Write it

Write down anything that distracts you such as Google searches, random thoughts, new ideas, whatever it is. The point is that if you write them down, they will stop Bubbling up when you are in the zone. It will help you remember the things easily, as part of writing the Great scientist Elbert Einstein said that write down as much things you can it will help you remember it better

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2.Put the reminder

Get the reminder app for everything to set you up for your Routine work & also helps you to extract extra pinning time from you everlasting work, the best reminder apps that you can actually use and is effective is Time blocks do not trust your own brain for everything, our brain observes lot of stuffs around us & also scientist says that we almost forget the things if our atmosphere switch.

3.Set ends

Set the ends dates for stressful & intense activities for the time you can possibly save your yourself, everything ends at some-point you should put up your fix routine end that you can actually follow. Set the end like the employee have it’s off time from the office work that is fix. Like they start working from 10.00 to 06.00, However it is essential to do so cause in the Human behavior we actually get bored. 

Time is very Precious of all that one can actually have.

this Proverbs is been said by someone & that someone is me, Lmao. But it is true as for the talk about time it is better for us to manage it well.

4.Set deadlines

Set deadlines for everything, it will be beneficial for us that it will help us to be more productive and better operator of our respected time. Always assure your plan before your do start put deadline, Do not Indefinite with your plannings. Start early-finish early.

5.Break tasks

Break the unreasonable tasks into the reasonable chunks, that is any long term tasks of or intensive tasks do not try it to do it by once, make a slices & work on it one by one. A big goal is only achieved when every little thing that you do everyday gets closer to thst goal. 

5 Top rules of Success- Elon Musk

“5 Rules of Elon Musk How he became Successful”?

Hello Readers, This Is Abdul!. I welcome you to my Blog page Motivation syringe, I’m new & trying to create the beautiful contents for Readers

An ambitious person in the history is Elon Musk, As everyone know about Elon! Who He was? What He did? & What He s doing?

I think it is possible for Ordinary people to choose to be Extraordinary. – Elon Musk 

I’m going to give you little Overview about his Life(Elon’s Biography).

In Today”s Time’ Elon Musk’ is listed 24th Richest man in Forbes 400 list, With the Net-worth of $20 billion Within Five Years He can be the Richest person in the world. How? lets see

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“Elon Musk is known as as Iron Man of Real World”. His Mind,Love for Technology & behavior about Money, In fact Robert Downey Jr. took Inspiration from ‘Elon’ for his IronMan series role.

Let’s Begain.!!

It is said that after Steve Jobs the next revolution in the Technology in the History will be Lead by Elon Musk. Elon is among Inspiring & Successful person & today I’m going to Share you 5 main point & reason which made ‘Elon’ to Achieve his Goal, If anyone of you try these tips & apply at-least 10% of what He did,You will at-least become A millionaire.

Elon Musk has been through very Rough times in his Childhood Where his Parents had Divorced & He used to live with the Father, His father has torchered him many times also In his School times School children used to beat him, One Day they Beat him so cruelly that he was been Hospitalized for a Weak. Almost no one knew that ‘Elon’ will be so Successful.

Elon had one Quality he used to read a lot.

1. Read like A Crazy.

Elon  had the Habit of reading books, From his Childhood he used to read a lot of books, Not school books but the books of his Interest. His Mom says “Elon has the habit of reading 5-10 hours a day.”

Habit of Reading

even He used to complete 2 books every weekend, everytime his mom used to find him in nearby two libraries. he had completed reading so much books in the Library that there was no enough books for him to read, So Elon used to ask Librarian to Bring New books!. Elon has completed reading Encyclopedia and Britannica. Once Musk partner asked him “How you have so much knowledge about Rockets, Energy, Planets, etc.?” Musk Replied “I read lot of books” 

Read books, gain knowledge It is the very common habits of successful people. It will make you Capable of anything, So you must read & listen to Podcast/Audible.

2.Proactive Creator

It was not like Elon just used to read and not create anything. Infact at the age of 12 he learned coding by reading books, Unlike other kids he love playing Games, So he coded his own game blaster for which he was rewarded $500 prize, One google software engineer realed it and published on google which you can search & play.

However I said you before that he loved games, So with his brother he decided to open Arcade game store where setup they did it by themselves, from Leasing agreement, store papers & Arcade game provider all was set but they required game permit for that they required the signature of the adult but they were teens, Their plan was stopped because where parents did not liked their Idea.

 

Elon Musk born in South Africa but he did not liked the government so it was impossible for him to work in military for Government that was compulsory at that time, So he moved to Canada were he struggled alot then he shifted to U.S.A & completed his Basics & Business degree. At that time Internet was on boom also he was unable to find a job, So he thought to start his own Internet based company. The idea was to put all the information of Business from Yellow pages book to Internet were people will not need Yellow page book for the business information In Easy words Local business to the internet it was actually became successful because afterwards ‘Zip2‘ was bought by compaq in $307 million in cash & $34 million in Stake in this Deal Elon got $32 million at that time he was 28 years old.

3.Never settle on just good.

He could have blamed government for not been good but instead he stayed active & created things, He took actions for whatever he wanted to do. We should also become Proactive. After becoming millionaire at the age of 28 he could have spent Lavish life, But No! He wanted to achieve more, He wanted to achieve big from that actually he could change the world.

So he jumped into Finance sector where he saw there was no new inventions in Finance, there was difficulty in sending money from one place to other, So he decided to work on company which brought revolution in Financial market & became leading payment system in the world which today is known as Paypal. It was bought by Ebay in 2002 in $1.5 billion in which Elon got $180 million, with these money he could have spent lavish life but he didn’t instead he took his profit and Invested creating such company that can save humanity. It was SpaceX , Tesla, Solarcity & The Boring company.

If you want to do great like Elon do not settle for good, always challenge yourself take actions and grow. Go from good to best.

4.Solving huge problems

Most of people may think Elon was Greedy, who only wanted to earn more & more & more & that after earning so much he didn’t stopped, But It is not true my friend.

Truth is from Childhood Elon loved reading books & comics, He dreamed to do something that can change the world, save the world, same as Hero saves in the comic world, that is why he formed SpaceX in 2002 with the aim that one day we can send normal people to mars, so that we can make mars our home, Because in future anything happens to Earth as it is possible we can survive. Yet no one had a faith in his Dream so alone he invested $100 million in SpaceX & rest is History. In 2006 he saw we are 100% dependent on fossil fuels that is the biggest cause for pollution & big companies profit portfolio, Solarcity aims that with the sunlight we can produce pollution free electricity so it can solve problem. In 2003 Elon Musk started Tesla he desired to use electric cars in future with no pollution & In Style. So instead of basic cars he designed awesome sporty looking cars that is Environmental friendly, Musk dreams every car runs on electricity  he will avail free lifetime charge to Tesla consumers so that no one needs to spend money on fuel. The other big companies do not want Elon to succeed  If he succeed a lot of big oil & energy companies & countries will suffer a loss.

So my friend set a vision so high that can solve real big problems of the world & your life will not remain ordinary.

Elon is a visionary man he has dreamed of lot of problem solving vision. today he execute more than Three A billion dollar company where running 1 company is a challenge for people. He invests almost all of his time. In interview he was asked “how can he manage his all time, what motivates him doing this all everyday?” He replied “whenever I think about future I feel great, something good is going to happen with us in future & creating such a future motivates me everyday in my low times.” There was a time around 2007-08 Elon was divorced and his 3 company was in loss, market was crashed, starting 3 rockets of SpaceX was failed  Tesla was on the verge to be closed because company ran out of funds at that time he had two option either to close it down or invest all of his remaining savings because no one wants to invest in Tesla. Guess What! He invested all of his remaining earning & saving from Paypal in the Tesla & because of his courage Tesla bounced back into the profits & doing well since then also SpaceX fourth Rocket launch was successful after which NASA signed deal worth $1.5 Billion, Tesla received order worth $40 million & $50 million of investment gaining 10% of stake from same company & Tesla had also received loan from government of $465 million which now has been paid with interest, The Solarcity has became America’s biggest service provider company.

Even today companies faces lot of challenges and difficulties But people supports Elon’s dream so it is very much possible that one day Elon will solve all the problems hopefully..

At last all of the above “Tell me what will be the fifth lesson which can help others to become like him,” So comment down what will be the 5th lesson.

This Awesome lesson was from ‘The Elon Musk by Ashley Vance’. If you want this free E-book comment below.

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Thank you for reading, hope you liked it, support me by commenting below also share your opinion How can I make my Blog better?

 

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The steps ahead

Thanks for joining me!

“I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be Extraordinary.” – Elon Musk