All great businesses began with a passion and drive. Even magnates like Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and Richard Branson started off at zero!

Nobody gets a perfect plan which maps their journey out for them. A combination of your passions, strengths, and a vision to create the ideal business for yourself as you go is all you need.

The most ardent, and the most successful, entrepreneurs are driven by more than just the almighty dollar: they are spurred on by the chance to live a fulfilled life.

Once you have figured out what it is you want to do, keep the following in mind as you begin your new business from scratch.

Research Your Market

Just knowing what your competition does won’t cut it. You’re going to have to go deep: dive in to your ideal market, and start studying it like an expert would.

Use keywords related to your industry to create Google searches, and don’t allow yourself to get discouraged, even if the market seems to be flooded. You can use this to your advantage. It means that this is working for other people, which makes it that much more likely it will work for you.

Searching AFL betting odds, for example, will reveal hundreds of results. That doesn’t stop punters and bookmakers from making a mint!

Make Your Financial Goal Tangible

Set new goals every six months or so, and make sure to always stretch your initial mark. Working backwards and figuring out what you need to get done each day in order to get where you want to be is always a good idea.

Make Your Website Content Shareable

It is a good idea to reference leaders in your space, but it’s vital that you create your own unique content when you’re developing your brand. Build a site that viewers and readers can refer back to for even more of your fantastic content!

Create a List

Email is the best form of online currency, and building a list of addresses is one of the most important parts of moulding your new business.

As you are developing your shareable site, start building a list of email addresses of the people who visit it, and then make sure you are continuing to provide them with value. These will translate in to buyers when your product or service launches.

Launch What You’ll Be Selling

In order to meet the financial goal that you’ve set for the next six months, you’re going to have to start selling something.

Take some time to figure out what kind of changes your audience is facing, and build your relationship with this in mind: create something that solves their problems.

Start Now, Improve Along the Way

Many people waste time as they work to make things perfect before their businesses get launched. We’re talking the site, the copy, the logo -everything. This is a waste of time.

Sell your product or service before it’s officially available with a pre-order, and focus on getting sales and attracting leads right from the get-go. Successful companies do not wait until they’re perfect to launch. They get to business and make sure to improve as they go along.