Startup Stepping Stones: Actions and Resources for Launching a Viable Business

After 30+ years of starting businesses and helping thousands of other aspiring entrepreneurs to launch their businesses, I've learned three critical things:

First, startup success does not happen in leaps and bounds. It happens in little hops. It's a series of Stepping Stones. You will find in this guide the important hops. Your job is to hop from one stone to the next, then to the next...and the next....until you find yourself in business. But not just any business. A viable business. There's a difference between starting a company and a viable business.

Second, just about everything you need to launch a viable business has been created. Just reach out and take them. Leverage the knowledge, tools, and short cuts that others have already blazed for you. Too many first-time entrepreneurs try to go it alone and reinvent the wheel. I've assembled for you herein the links to many of those resources. Take a deep dive off the steps you need more help with. Surface, then take the next step.

Third, the single biggest MISTAKE most first-time entrepreneurs make is working on the wrong things in the wrong order. They don't focus on the most important and immediate next step. They try to jump too far ahead. They waste time, money, and energy on the wrong tasks. This guide presents the right steps in the right order.

Each Stepping Stone is presented in an easy to read format:

Quote: Sage advice from experts to reinforce the importance of the step.

Introduction: Offers some advice based on years of real-world experience. It sets the stage for what you should think about, decide, and then do.

Things to Think About and Decide: Offers suggestions on how to take the step. Think, Decide, Do.

Things to Do and Avoid: Offers a list of tasks and common traps to avoid. Also covers some best practices you may not have thought about.

Recommended Readings and Resources: Offers links to best-in-class books, tools, templates, web sites, and services that can help you start and build your business. This is the real value of this guide. These are your short cuts. Mix and match the readings and resources to create your personal blueprint for success.

This guide contains advice and more than 200 links to the best resources to successfully navigate each of the 12 steps to launch a viable business.

1. Validate the Idea
2. Incorporate the Company
3. Form the Team
4. Conduct Primary Market Research
5. Develop and Test Product Prototype
6. Scrub Business Plan and Projections
7. Secure Intellectual Property
8. Create Name and Brand Strategy
9. Outsource Ancillary Functions
10. Draft Guerilla Marketing and Sales Plan
11. Capitalize the Company
12. Operate the Company

This guide was written to be used over-and-over again. Many startup ideas don't work out. Most successful entrepreneurs had several failures before hitting on the one that took off. You will find this guide just as valuable when you start your second and third business, as you do for the first. Enjoy the journey!