Go Big or Go Home? Not Necessarily

 

 

If you’ve ever watched an Olympic race, you will know that slow and steady doesn’t win races; racing smart wins races. Michael Dell started his company, Dell Inc., eight years after Apple produced their first computer, but that didn’t stop Dell from growing into a huge success. Apple may be leading the way, but Dell has had its fair share of races won.

 

 

Even Apple isn’t always as innovative as they claim. Since their beginning, they have borrowed or bought idea after idea and (for the most part) claimed it as their own. The difference is the way they present these ideas. Apple may be the most successful tech company out there, and it is because they take ideas and turn them into masterpieces. Speaking of tech giants, Google wasn’t the first search engine, and now ‘Google’ is a verb.

 

 

Just because you didn’t go to school for business doesn’t mean you are out of the running for making it big. In fact, some of the biggest names in the tech industry didn’t even finish school. Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg all dropped out of college to start their billion dollar businesses.

 

This is not to say “drop out of school,” but to make the point that if you have a great idea to run with, start running. You can’t wait until you are in “a good position” to start—most of the big tech companies started in garages or dorm rooms.

 

 

Many entrepreneurs struggle because their business isn’t growing very fast, if at all. But even Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t an instant success. While at Harvard, Zuckerberg came up with the idea of Facemash, which was shut down by Harvard shortly after. He then altered his website and created Facebook, which is now the top social media network on the web.

 

 

 

Every business has to start somewhere. Here are some quick tips to get you started:

 

• As ideas pop into your head, don’t automatically push them out. Even if that idea has already been created, if there is something you can do that is different, then it is a viable idea. Explore your idea and if it sticks, run with it.
• Research similar small businesses within your niche and gain ideas. This isn’t to say take their product idea but to look at their marketing and business techniques (how they use social media, how they promote outside of their website and social media, etc.).
• Experiment at the beginning. “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”  –Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn Co-Founder). You can always modify later or even completely change your idea if it seems necessary. 
• Don’t be afraid of being unsuccessful, go out there and make something of your idea! Every entrepreneur makes mistakes, but a successful entrepreneur must learn from their mistakes.

 

 

As you begin your venture, remember that you don’t have to come up with a completely new idea. Don’t be intimidated from the already successful businesses within your niche, you can get there someday. Your business might be growing slowly, but even slow growth is growth. And now, it’s time to take those small steps that lead to great things.