More on The Three M's...

Let's dig into The Three M's just a little bit more.

I am not going to spend much time on Management for right now. Some small business people are great at management...some are not very good. I work with a lot of technician entrepreneurs. If they can manage their own time, anyway, they can successfully run a microbusiness. At least they might be able to provide self-employment, if not a thriving, employee-hiring, growing business. As their skills improve, they can grow. 'Nuff said.

Market is a tricky little bastard. Most prospective entrepreneurs tend to assume they will have a market. They are passionate about their idea. Their supportive friends and family usually pat them on the back and tell them how great the idea is and how they'll be their first and biggest customer.

I know a lot of bitter small business people...bitter because their friends and family didn't support the actual business the same way the supported the idea.

But maybe they wouldn't be so bitter if they had done actual market research instead of just relying on feedback that is basically biased to be good. If I had a dime for every person who showed up in my office assuming that their product/service was so good it would more or less sell itself, I'd be retired and on the beach right now.

Market is the M most likely to cause an entrepreneur great anxiety in the early days of business. Far, far more often than not, REVENUES for a start-up or early-stage ventures come in significantly BELOW the projections.

We'll talk more about revenues soon. Oh, yes...yes we sure will!