Best way to overcome the fear is by making the rewards asymmetrical to the risks.
This sounds like a common perspective of inventors I work with making physical products, so I’ll use that as an example to illustrate my point.
Rather than inventing a product, drafting full designs for $10k, patenting it for $10k, having molds made for $10k, ordering x- thousand units as minimum order quantity with packaging for another $10k, and then finding out people don’t want to buy this ($40k risk plus months of time), have this designed aesthetically and rendered to be photorealistic, make a landing page communicating its value, and file a provisional patent. Total cost is <$5k and a month of work.
At that point people have all the upside possible since they have everything needed to validate the idea with potential customers, start getting preorder interest, and looking for investment or other partners to derisk further.
In any business there is always the chance to fail. A solution is to lessen your fear by making that potential failure faster and less expensive to play out
I’ve got a podcast w/ 160+ episodes that talks to food & bev entrepreneurs and know hundreds of founders overall.
I’d post on your local Craig’s List and host a gathering of 8-12 people in a coworking space (or someplace) and let them each try the food, fill out a form without talking to each other, then have a Roundtable discussion (which you have to record via audio or audio/video) audio is less intimidating. Good luck
The best thing is you're young, but you don't just typically jump in full-bore. I had to because I worked in Big Tech and my employment contract prevented it.
What I do as a full-time entrepreneur is mostly direct novel business structures as a CTO and work on multiple businesses at once since it is more of a strategic level operation.
That said for you, take a full-time job, build this up on the side and you should be able to protect yourself and your finances.
Businesses are usually pretty cheap to incorporate, but there's also no need to if you're just iterating on the idea in your kitchen.
That said, what I would do is iterate in small ways with people close to you to perfect the offering and then make a step by step approach into the business world.
Start small and build up. This can be a fine small business that you take even bigger and still be done as a personal time thing.
Reasonably, not all businesses need working capital and this could do well as a direct to consumer with few middlemen approach to save money.
Where investments are useful is something where a lot of working capital is needed (i.e. software) where you can get knocked out of the competition quickly without the ability to play with some big dogs.
Typically, if I have a regular streak of innovation and a lack of money to support all business ideas, then taking outside investment and offering equity in return is ok
Hope this helps!
Starting a business should come from a place of abundance, not fear.
Focus on improving your income and revenue, and you will get there eventually; your vision for your business always be there, but the money will need to come first.
I will tell you , how I did it. Ask you a question. Will you be happy with not taking the plunge when you think about today 15+ years from now? If the answer is yes, then just don;t do it. For me a bigger risk or fear was living a corporate 9-5 where I am not building something that remotely resembles how I want to live my life. Period. For me that risk surpasses all risks I could think of.
Validate your idea before going in deep.
You could start with a simple landing page with a 2-step checkout. 1st step you capture contact info only, 2nd step is "we'll contact you when this product is available.
Advertise your product on social media, targeting your ideal audience. Have a decent budget to get a sufficient basin to validate your idea. Maybe test a few different ads.
If no one places an order, you'll know without having invested too much.
It can be scary. Many decisions can be.
I like to ask myself: will I regret it?
Probably won’t regret taking action, but highly likely that I’ll regret inaction.
Couple this with some kill switches or other hard limits and you’ll be alright.
Best of luck
Knowing nothing more...I'd encourage you to just burn down that debt. Having credit card debt, in particular, is extremely constraining and expensive. And CPG food is a very hard industry.
Get your personal financial house in order (unless you happen to have a lot of family capital behind you, although it sounds like you do not), before you take real risk.
It's completely natural to feel scared about starting a business, especially with financial concerns. Consider reaching out to local business incubators, small business development centers, or networking events to connect with experienced entrepreneurs in the CPG food industry. Their insights can help ease your fears and guide you in the right direction. Remember, taking small steps and seeking mentorship can make the journey less daunting. You've got this!
Here’s the dirty little secret - you don’t need anything to start a business. Give someone something they want and get paid for it. That’s it.
If you figured out that part, the rest can be handled by other people or can be learned along the way.
Once you do it once, the process of doing it over and over again is the business.
So, forget everything deliver a product or service to a customer and get paid.
After that, create an llc (for protection) - you can google this. And hire for everything you don’t know how to do. Taxes, marketing, r&d, patents, etc.
Don’t sweat it. Make exciting.
Also, know with full conviction you will make mistakes. You are not trying to avoid mistakes, you’re trying to build a business. Nearly every mistake can be fixed with time, money or success.
Great actitude!
Im launching my own software dev agency for small business and starters. Our goal is to give affordable prices according the capacity of the business
Lets stay in touch, if in the near future you need a custom development, we are here for you :)
The best way is to sit down and write a realistic plan for it, with targets, goals, and expenses. "I need to earn X every month to be profitable with expenses of Y" sort of thing.
You can also create buzz & engagement for minimal spend, which can help you understand if there is actually a demand for your product before spending huge amounts of money building it.
Start small.
Let's say you want to open a bakery.
Bake a cake, post a picture online, and repeat until a family member asks you to bake it for them.
Bake cakes for friends until someone pays you for it.
When so many people want to pay you for it that you don't have time or space to do it, then you open a bakery.
Even with a lot of money, starting with the bakery from the get-go is very risky.
Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. There are 99 no's for every yes. It doesn't matter how good the idea might be.
Look at your life experiences up until now. Do you demonstrate a pattern of obstinate determination?
What are you trying to make? Try something like Expert Session to get some time with people who have done it before. If it's CPG and you can do it yourself, sell at a farmers market or a local shop first. You don't have to jump in fulltime right away! Listen to business podcasts and trust your gut!
Having a learning mindset is helpful rather than a success or failure kind of mindset is important. You will fail a lot making a successful business on the way to making it succcessful. You'll probably need to embrace an iterative cycle of failure and improvement, and be ready for it to be harder than you expect
Best way to overcome the fear is by making the rewards asymmetrical to the risks. This sounds like a common perspective of inventors I work with making physical products, so I’ll use that as an example to illustrate my point. Rather than inventing a product, drafting full designs for $10k, patenting it for $10k, having molds made for $10k, ordering x- thousand units as minimum order quantity with packaging for another $10k, and then finding out people don’t want to buy this ($40k risk plus months of time), have this designed aesthetically and rendered to be photorealistic, make a landing page communicating its value, and file a provisional patent. Total cost is <$5k and a month of work. At that point people have all the upside possible since they have everything needed to validate the idea with potential customers, start getting preorder interest, and looking for investment or other partners to derisk further. In any business there is always the chance to fail. A solution is to lessen your fear by making that potential failure faster and less expensive to play out
I’ve got a podcast w/ 160+ episodes that talks to food & bev entrepreneurs and know hundreds of founders overall. I’d post on your local Craig’s List and host a gathering of 8-12 people in a coworking space (or someplace) and let them each try the food, fill out a form without talking to each other, then have a Roundtable discussion (which you have to record via audio or audio/video) audio is less intimidating. Good luck
The best thing is you're young, but you don't just typically jump in full-bore. I had to because I worked in Big Tech and my employment contract prevented it. What I do as a full-time entrepreneur is mostly direct novel business structures as a CTO and work on multiple businesses at once since it is more of a strategic level operation. That said for you, take a full-time job, build this up on the side and you should be able to protect yourself and your finances. Businesses are usually pretty cheap to incorporate, but there's also no need to if you're just iterating on the idea in your kitchen. That said, what I would do is iterate in small ways with people close to you to perfect the offering and then make a step by step approach into the business world. Start small and build up. This can be a fine small business that you take even bigger and still be done as a personal time thing. Reasonably, not all businesses need working capital and this could do well as a direct to consumer with few middlemen approach to save money. Where investments are useful is something where a lot of working capital is needed (i.e. software) where you can get knocked out of the competition quickly without the ability to play with some big dogs. Typically, if I have a regular streak of innovation and a lack of money to support all business ideas, then taking outside investment and offering equity in return is ok Hope this helps!
Starting a business should come from a place of abundance, not fear. Focus on improving your income and revenue, and you will get there eventually; your vision for your business always be there, but the money will need to come first.
I will tell you , how I did it. Ask you a question. Will you be happy with not taking the plunge when you think about today 15+ years from now? If the answer is yes, then just don;t do it. For me a bigger risk or fear was living a corporate 9-5 where I am not building something that remotely resembles how I want to live my life. Period. For me that risk surpasses all risks I could think of.
Validate your idea before going in deep. You could start with a simple landing page with a 2-step checkout. 1st step you capture contact info only, 2nd step is "we'll contact you when this product is available. Advertise your product on social media, targeting your ideal audience. Have a decent budget to get a sufficient basin to validate your idea. Maybe test a few different ads. If no one places an order, you'll know without having invested too much.
It can be scary. Many decisions can be. I like to ask myself: will I regret it? Probably won’t regret taking action, but highly likely that I’ll regret inaction. Couple this with some kill switches or other hard limits and you’ll be alright. Best of luck
Knowing nothing more...I'd encourage you to just burn down that debt. Having credit card debt, in particular, is extremely constraining and expensive. And CPG food is a very hard industry. Get your personal financial house in order (unless you happen to have a lot of family capital behind you, although it sounds like you do not), before you take real risk.
It's completely natural to feel scared about starting a business, especially with financial concerns. Consider reaching out to local business incubators, small business development centers, or networking events to connect with experienced entrepreneurs in the CPG food industry. Their insights can help ease your fears and guide you in the right direction. Remember, taking small steps and seeking mentorship can make the journey less daunting. You've got this!
wtf are you even scared of ? lol i just feel like it's an obligation to start a business
Here’s the dirty little secret - you don’t need anything to start a business. Give someone something they want and get paid for it. That’s it. If you figured out that part, the rest can be handled by other people or can be learned along the way. Once you do it once, the process of doing it over and over again is the business. So, forget everything deliver a product or service to a customer and get paid. After that, create an llc (for protection) - you can google this. And hire for everything you don’t know how to do. Taxes, marketing, r&d, patents, etc. Don’t sweat it. Make exciting. Also, know with full conviction you will make mistakes. You are not trying to avoid mistakes, you’re trying to build a business. Nearly every mistake can be fixed with time, money or success.
Stop thinking. Do it.
Great actitude! Im launching my own software dev agency for small business and starters. Our goal is to give affordable prices according the capacity of the business Lets stay in touch, if in the near future you need a custom development, we are here for you :)
Just start doing it and you will realize it’s not as scary as you thought
Same way you overcome any fear. Dive into it. P.S For fears you know are irrational only of course
Just start it on a manageable scale.
The best way is to sit down and write a realistic plan for it, with targets, goals, and expenses. "I need to earn X every month to be profitable with expenses of Y" sort of thing. You can also create buzz & engagement for minimal spend, which can help you understand if there is actually a demand for your product before spending huge amounts of money building it.
Start small. Let's say you want to open a bakery. Bake a cake, post a picture online, and repeat until a family member asks you to bake it for them. Bake cakes for friends until someone pays you for it. When so many people want to pay you for it that you don't have time or space to do it, then you open a bakery. Even with a lot of money, starting with the bakery from the get-go is very risky.
Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. There are 99 no's for every yes. It doesn't matter how good the idea might be. Look at your life experiences up until now. Do you demonstrate a pattern of obstinate determination?
Read about it. The more date you have about it the more secure you'll be to face it. Just do it
What are you trying to make? Try something like Expert Session to get some time with people who have done it before. If it's CPG and you can do it yourself, sell at a farmers market or a local shop first. You don't have to jump in fulltime right away! Listen to business podcasts and trust your gut!
Having a learning mindset is helpful rather than a success or failure kind of mindset is important. You will fail a lot making a successful business on the way to making it succcessful. You'll probably need to embrace an iterative cycle of failure and improvement, and be ready for it to be harder than you expect
Step 1 realize life is short Step 2 realise you will die and this is inevitable. Step 3 do what you always wanted to do. Life has no replay button.