Back in October, I wrote Post your big vision and watch it come alive to encourage people to write in their dreams for becoming an entrepreneur. A dear reader Ryan wrote in today and shared his vision:
I will create a form of business that helps those in need while allowing me to work for myself, love doing it and more than prosper.
Now that Ryan has a great broad vision, it is time to define it much more concretely so that he increases his chance for success. Questions to answer:
- What form of business will you create? Will it be just you, or will you have employees or partners? Will it be a physical store, a virtual business or something else?
- Who exactly are "those in need?" Children with grave illnesses? Elders in big cities without any kids nearby? Men in their 50’s who were just laid off from big corporations? Visitors to the New York City Food Bank? My mentor Suzanne Falter-Barnes says to define your niche an inch wide and a mile deep. We usually do the opposite and wonder why it is overwhelming knowing how to market to "your people."
- What does "more than prosper" mean exactly? In dollar terms, is it $75,000 per year? $750,000? $7.5 million? When you set a concrete financial target, all of a sudden you have a measure for your product or service sales projections. How many widgets would you need to sell to reach your target?
Good luck to you Ryan as you make this vision a reality. Please write in and tell us how it is going!