I’m reading Michael Masterson’s book, Ready, Fire, Aim and learning about his four stages of business growth. Of course, having never started a business, I’m having trouble even fathoming the $1million up to $100million in sales that companies are capable of producing.
Having worked for a few small entrepreneurial ventures, a start-up comedy theater in particular, I see the huge error that I’m all-to-often prone to make. Masterson describes it in the first stage of a company, and it’s the tendency to not focus on sales. He says that sales should account for 80% of your time as a small business start-up.
When I came onboard at the theater I mentioned above, I was one of three employees. I was thrilled to be a part of a small venture where I was able to call some of the shots. What were the first things I did? Well, I spent a ton of time fantasizing about what we could/would do when business was booming: Food & Drink menu, arcade games, patio, and bowling alley (?!).
More sinister time wasters were the countless redesigning of business cards and flyers that seemed productive, as well as thoroughly cleaning the theater and beginning “remodelling” projects on the exterior of the building we had rented. These weren’t quite as important as getting out there selling the theater. I probably actually went out one afternoon per week to sell/promote.
I think the heart of the issue is that selling (at least for me) is terrifying. To have to set myself up for potential rejection, or at least to have my convictions about my product and motives for allying myself with it challenged. So these will be the hurdles that I’ll have to overcome again if I want to make something happen in the entrepreneurial realms.
