This is the first day, week, month, and year as an entrepreneur.
It has been a long time coming. I have had the idea to go on my own, but lacked the confidence to overcome the fear of it. It is one of the most interesting experiences I have had in life so far. The emotions are:
- Excitement,
- Fear,
- Energize,
- Can’t Sleep,
- Scared,
- Optimistic.
At the moment, I am mostly excited and optimistic. From what I have been able to tell, this is pretty much how all entrepreneurs start out with fear and scared taking centre stage at sometime in the near future. I can see why.
Let me talk about my venture.
I founded a company based upon my passions, Business Model Edge. These passions are innovation, creative problem-solving, collaboration, and strategy. It is a management consulting practice where I will teach the many tools I have used and studied as well as partner with companies to help build the strategy and execute on their vision.
My primary market segment will start as medium to enterprise organizations as well as working with venture capitalist firms to improve start-ups in their early execution. Basically help them improve their business model, business cases, and presentation style for their pitch.
These segments and the value proposition are currently being tested. This would be the scary part… what if you build it, and no one comes!
There is hope of course.
I have made some great connections already and I have a plan set out to get my message out there to people I know and see if there is opportunity for contract work in the fall. I will also continue to build and promote the website through social media and free webinars. Finally, I also planned out enough financial cushion to give the business time to develop and I decided to sell my “fun” car to raise more capital to get going.
I am also exploring my other passion, to build products (mainly software).
I’m taking time in my schedule to learn iOS programming and I have a few simple applications I want to build to get going. I’ll also be doing customer development and joining a local incubator this fall to see what I can bring together to start a company around.
In the end, I love to create, explore, and learn. For me, I felt that was most possible as an entrepreneur then as an employee.
I will continue to blog my journey in the hopes it inspires others. If you want to connect, give me advice, or do business together, please contact me!
Cheers,
Aaron