The Entrepreneur’s Trap: Why You Don’t Need The Perfect Plan To Start
Why Entrepreneurs Fail Before They Even Start
Why do most entrepreneurs fail? Overpreparation and not enough true action.
Wait, isn't planning taking action? … Yes, it is taking action, but at a certain point, you need to take action that actually leads to results.
Let’s use a lemonade stand as an example.
The Lemonade Stand Lesson
So you get this grand idea to set up a lemonade stand on your street.
Day one you spend coming up with a name, “Logan’s Lemonade Stand”. But maybe you think that’s too neutral and not unique enough, so you spend a few more days thinking about it.
Then you finally have the name you like, so you start designing the layout of your stand, maybe figuring out your colour scheme and you go nuts and design a logo, another week has passed.
You still haven’t worked on the main product, the Lemonade. So you spend another week or two testing recipes, trying out your own special mix and so on.
All the while, someone else just grabbed a table, a large sheet of white paper, wrote “Lemonade for Sale $5.00” and poured some Lipton’s. They’ve been selling lemonade the past four weeks, building brand recognition, trust in the community, and more importantly making money they can reinvest into their company.
Now don’t get me wrong, going all in, guns blazing on an idea isn’t great either. But I’m a firm believer that there’s a tipping point where action will beat preparation every time.
Why My Over-Planned Businesses Died Out
I’ve attempted to build many businesses. Only a few have succeeded.
Funny enough, the ones that have worked out were the ones that I had so much excitement for that I just dove in on.
The others, where I was in the research and planning phases for weeks, or months, they just died out.
I over prepared and lost interest (because life happens).
I talked myself out of it, convincing myself the idea was stupid.
I asked too many people their opinions, and they shot it down. (We’ll get into this one in another post, trust me).
Momentum is Everything
Take my own example. (also known as starting a business without a plan)
I built a marketing company back in 2016. Which was kind of odd considering I had been a realtor at this time for eight years and despised marketing in real estate.
But I had spotted an underserved market and I dove straight in.
Day one: I got a url and built a terrible GoDaddy template site.
Day two: I started pitching clients to use my service.
Insane? Absolutely. What did I actually have…. Practically nothing.
But clients signed on. They believed in the vision. That gave me the momentum to push further.
Momentum is everything.
If you roll a ball at a foam wall and it’s on ground level with no momentum, even a foam wall can stop the ball. But if that ball is rolling downhill and smokes the wall at maximum speed, the wall doesn’t stand a chance.
Hell, maybe the wall stays standing, but the ball might bounce around and roll around it.
It’s momentum like this, and a mindset like this, that built my businesses. I’ll either crash through the wall or find a way around it.
Failing Forward is Better Than Standing Still
So in short, yes preparation is important. But it’s not as important as taking the steps that lead to results.
It’s okay if you fail during that process, reiterate and move forward.
It’s okay if you get shut down, learn how to better pitch your product or idea.
It’s okay if you discover the item you’re making has a flaw, fix it and keep moving.
That’s all part of the business process.
Better all of that failure than you never knowing whether it could have worked at all.
If you’re stuck in the planning phase (entrepreneurship perfectionism) and need help breaking into action, that’s exactly what I work on with my clients, let’s talk.
