The title’s play on words tells it all: the mentality you need for a startup is a bit arrogant, bold, nervy, and forward–in both thinking and action. You’ll get nowhere, Donna Fenn (www.upstartsrock.com) argues, if you haven’t got the moxie and drive to get started–today.
Those who want to start a business or even start themselves up need to keep their eyes open and look for the opportunities in other people’s or program’s (businesses, technologies, agendas) pain. In pain, people seek relief. Look for painful issues and see if your plan, your company can remove the pain and give the client pleasure.
And don’t delay. You don’t have to have it perfect to get started. Launch it. Whatever it is, start it up and get in going. You can always keep improving and rolling out new iterations.
Fenn packs Upstarts with a wealth of great advice–from how to “disrupt the status quo” to urging you to market “fast and furiously” to how best to build your brand.
One way to do that is to show people what you’ve got and what you know. Start a forum with your business: “establish yourself as a trusted and knowledgeable source of information.” Tell your story and, by all means, “call in the reinforcements” when you need them.
Fenn practices what she preaches, having already written the wildly successful Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business Can Become a Leader of the Pack. If you’re in business and need more business, or starting a business and want to launch it fast and right, read Fenn’s books. She’s got game.