6 Steps to Making it Happen (pt 2)

(Continued from last entry)

Step #4 – Check the Weather Reports

How feasible is your idea? Is it realistic? Do your research, is it the right timing? You don’t want to rush into things and find out that your new frozen yogurt joint has 2 new competitors opening down the block.

Well in my situation, I was set to go to Hong Kong and China sometime mid June, approximately about a month ago. I was going to live and run my business in Hong Kong, and then I was going to handle all manufacturing and production in China. Most of my business contacts and partners lived in Hong Kong, so I would have been traveling back and forth, which would require getting a multi way visa to China (HK to China is only a train ride away). Unfortunately for me, I found out during the middle of May that the China Embassy was no longer issuing multi way visas till after the Olympics.

Possible Reasons Why China is Not Allowing Entry:

  1. Beijing reached its capacity for the months during the Olympics
  2. Over capacity = Drunk Dude Fights (A lot of Country Pride)
  3. Drunk Dudes + Tibetan Protesters = Beat down by China Riot Patrol
  4. China Riot Patrol = Bad Media Coverage, which is bad for Business

With the new change of events, this lead me to the development of my next idea.

Idea #3 Start a Call Center in the Philippines

(will post more info later)

Step #5 Make it Happen

The hardest part of creating a business is not coming up with the idea, but making the business happen. I’ve had hundreds of friends come up to me and pitch me their ideas, but very few of them (I’d say less than 5%) actually go through with it. It’s easy to talk, but how many of us can actually take that leap of faith, actually go out there and start something new? I always tell people that once you start your first business, you’ll realize how easy it is. I also tell them that now is the time to take a risk because in a few years from now, when you are married and have kids, its probably not going to happen (This is for the people within my age, around 24-28).

A few steps that I like to do during this phase is:

  • Make a business plan
  • Create a financial budget
  • Get your permits and licenses
  • Do your research (check out your competitors, read books, survey the market)
  • Get advice (a great place to get free advice is your local city Small Business Association. Also check out score.org for a free online consultant)

Step #6 Hire the Best People

The concept is simple, by hiring the best, brightest, and hard working people, your business will grow at an alarming rate and will eventually run itself. Easier said than done right? It’s not so hard if you follow my three principles.

  1. Hire People Better than You – My mom always told me to never hire people better than you because they will steal your ideas and start their own business. That way of doing business is the Chinese way, and I think it’s wrong. Although your superstar employee might possibly start his own business, he won’t right away. Chances are, he will help improve your business with new insights and ideas and will benefit you for many years, long after he has left. The average employee might do a good job and work really hard, but will not teach you, motivate or challenge you to improve your business. Also, if the outstanding employee has any respect for you as a boss, friend, or mentor, he probably wouldn’t feel too right becoming your direct competitor.
  2. Never settle – Within the first week, if you know that the person you hired is never going to be the best man for the job, fire him. No mediocre, no above average, only the best, simple as that. By hiring the mediocre, you potentially infect your employees with the thought of incompetence. Harmful effects of the group can be lowered production rates, a decrease in quality, group conflict and second-rate acceptability.
  3. Hire the Talent, not Need – A big mistake I see a lot of people making is hiring out of desperation. They would lose an important part of their company and would rush to fill the need with an average level worker (see point #2)). Instead of hiring out of need, hire the most talented (whether you need him or not). The very talented are usually very rare and when you do find them, you have to keep them. By hiring the best of the best, you not only put pressure on your staff to step up their game, you motivate yourself to develop and improve your business. After all, you will have another salary to pay for.

I hope you guys enjoyed my 6 points, this is merely a rough draft and I will be updating it frequently within the next few weeks. If you have any questions or anything to add about any of the points I made, feel free to leave me a comment. Ill try to answer them as best as possible.

July 13, 2008 · Filed Under Other

Comments

2 Responses to “6 Steps to Making it Happen (pt 2)”

  1. Benjamin Chen on July 15th, 2008 9:55 am

    i like the blog. a lot of good points here.

  2. admin on July 16th, 2008 1:28 am

    thanks for the compliment ben, ill try to put more info about what im actually doing out here to give you guys an idea of what kind of business im starting. I saw that I finally got one blog subscriber… is that you ben?

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