Well, guess what? It was one of my biggest mistakes. I should have just jumped right in and got at it. As a result of my inaction I wasted a lot of time because the majority (90%) of the research I did was never used. It meant absolutely NOTHING. Experience is the best learning tool you could ever have. That is why I constantly tell entrepreneurs to dive in head first and learn to swim.

Failure

People get immobilized when they think about failing. Some people cannot face failure head on, but successful entrepreneur’s can! Failing is a part of life. It’s a huge part of finding out what works and what does not work. That is why I tell entrepreneurs to fail as fast as possible so they can find out what is working. The more times you fail the faster you find out what works!

Change

There are few absolute guarantees in life and change is one of them. Many wannabe entrepreneurs fear change. Charles G. Koch, the founder of the worlds largest private company, Koch Industries, has continuously embraced change. He has learned to adapt his strategies to embrace change and lead his company to greatness. We encourage you to read more about Koch’s Market Based Management philosophy. He has also published a book about MBM which is a great read!

Economic Uncertainty

You probably think that right now is a bad time to be thinking about starting your own business. Don’t worry, many people feel this way. However, a poor economy creates several opportunity’s for entrepreneurs. In fact a lot of successful companies started and grew significantly during a recession or depression.

One of my favorite examples of this is Jim Koch, not to be confused with Charles Koch of Koch Industries. Jim Koch is the founder of Samuel Adams beer and the Boston Beer Company. He began his journey during the 1980’s recession, which just so happened to be perfect timing. There used to be 1,000’s of brewery’s in the United States but when the recession hit a lot of them flopped. Mr. Koch saw an opportunity and went for it. The recession was a perfect time to enter the marketplace.

Now, think about what business’s were in abundance before the recession and have rapidly declined because of the recession. The biggest one that comes to mind is banks. What else can you think of?

Your Business Will Consume Your Life

You want to start a business but you also want to have time to spend with your family and friends. Many people think that starting a business will disable them from having a social life. Well, this is preventable. Don’t let your business run you. You need to run your business!

The bet example I can provide is from Timothy Ferriss book The 4-Hour Work Week which is basically about increasing your efficiency as much as possible and then outsourcing the rest of the work. The principles apply to every type of business and the extent to which they can be applied varies across business’s. However, you will find it extremely useful.

Fear of Being Your Own Boss

When first starting out it can feel like you are wasting your time or that what you are doing is really not that important. It feels like you are running a lemonade stand on the corner of the busiest street in your town, no one is stopping in  and everyone is laughing at you. It can really be discouraging.

Furthermore, starting a company is not exactly going to provide you with a sense of security or stability. This is often really hard for people to deal with. I know it was for me as well. That is why it is important to set goals. Set goals that can be done in a short time period to give you confidence in yourself and in your new business venture. The absolute key to overcoming this fear is setting goals!

Determine Who Your Most Successful Competitor’s Are

This is actually the first step for many people before they venture into a new niche. However, the buck usually stops here. As a general rule of thumb I like to explore my competitor’s website about once a month. Why? You can see what it is they are doing. If they took something down it’s probably because it was not successful so don’t bother trying it. If you see them pushing a certain product a lot, than you know it’s probably profitable for them.

In addition to understanding their revenue streams you can also determine their overall strategy for their website. Are they trying to drive traffic? get people to sign up to their mailing list? are they doing a lot of product reviews? etc. You can get a firm grip on where they are heading.

It’s important to understand that your competition consists of big websites and smaller websites; you should look at both. Why? Well, usually the smaller sites don’t have the kind of budget or resources as the bigger sites. So, they need to differentiate themselves in some way. I challenge you to find out how they are differentiating themselves and find a way to differentiate yourself!

Browse Through Online Marketplaces

I make it a habit to browse through online marketplaces like Digital Point (DP) and Flippa.com. Mostly because I am looking for another site to expand my already time consuming life or find a website to flip (more on this later). When I am looking through the sites for sale I often come across sites for sale that are in my niche. So, I take a look at their listing and get extremely valuable information.

You can get earnings figures, sources of earnings and traffic figures. Those are really the three most important things to take away from your findings. You can then figure out ways to improve your site. Maybe they are using a method you never thought of or a source of traffic you never heard of.

Reaching Out To The Competition

Most of the time competition is looked as a negative influence on your business. It’s actually a positive. A lot of companies in the same niche will often times pool together resources to work on a project together. If they share a common goal then they are usually more than willing to help each other out.

This tactic works especially well if you or your competition offers a product or service that the other does not have. Contact them and see what kind of a deal you can work out.

What do you think about your competition? Do you ever do some research from time to time on what they are up to? Better yet, have you ever worked with your competition?