For so many of us, becoming our own boss is the ultimate dream. We crave the creative control, flexible hours, and freedom that come with being anentrepreneur.
But there’s a lot of work involved behind the scenes, and much of becoming an entrepreneur is about planning, strategy, and dedicated execution. If you’ve always wanted to get into the game but haven’t been sure how, we’ve created this resource as a jumping off point.
Learn to become an entrepreneur
How to become a entrepreneur
- Find a profitable business idea
- Develop a product
- Validate your product
- Write a business plan
- Secure funding
- Launch your business
- Manage the business
We’ll walk you through the seven essential steps you need to take to become an entrepreneur, figuring out such things as what you’ll sell and how you’ll create inventory.
1. Find a profitable business idea
The product category you choose is at the core of your online business and will be one of the most important decisions you’ll make.
Although the “perfect" product may not exist, there are definitely ways to minimize risk bychoosing a product and nichethat have more working for it than against it. Use the criteria below as a guideline that can help you better understand the pros and cons of the product you’re considering—and hopefully increase your overall chances of success.
Does your product serve a passion or solve a problem?
It’s always an advantage to sell products that serve a passion or solve a problem. An additional benefit is that when you sell products that satisfy one of these requirements, your marketing costs tend to be lower sincenew customersare actively seeking out a solution as opposed to you having to heavily market your product to find them.
It's always an advantage to sell products that serve a passion or solve a problem.
Is this a trend, fad, or growing product category?
Riding a fad can be dangerous. A trend can be lucrative. Stable markets are safe and growing markets are ideal. Understanding where your product and niche lay can play a huge role in your success or failure.
To better understand the differences, let’s look at the conceptual growth curves and then go through a real world example for each type.
Fad
A fad is something that grows in popularity for a very short period of time and fades out just as quickly. A fad can be lucrative if your entry and exit into the target market are timedperfectly, but this can be difficult to predict and a recipe for disaster—it’s better to build your business on a more solid foundation. Remember fidget spinners? The handheld spinning toys were all the rage in 2017, peaked in popularity, and then became irrelevant almost overnight.
Trend
A trend is a longer term direction that the market for a product appears to be taking. It doesn't grow as quickly as a fad, it lasts longer, and it generally it doesn’t decline nearly as quickly.
Trending productscan sometimes also develop into long-term growing markets, although this can be difficult to predict. There have been severaltrends that have popped up during the pandemic: with the amount of time we’re all spending at home, household items like kitchen towels and storage containers have become increasingly popular.
Stable
A stable market is one that generally is immune to shocks and bumps. It is neither declining nor growing but maintains itself over long periods of time. Tea pots, for example, have maintained a stable level of popularity for the past 15 years.
Growing
A growing market is one that has seen consistent growth and shows signs of a long-term or permanent market shift. Theathleisure market has been growingsince the end of 2014, but the pandemic seemingly added to its growth. Now, the market (and the demand for it) is so big that it’s not likely to go anywhere anytime soon.
What does the competitive landscape look like?
What does thecompetitive landscapelook like for your selected product and niche? Are you first to market? Are there already a few competitors or is the market saturated with people selling the same product or targeting the same niche?
If you’re first to market, you’ll want to do a lot of market research to determine that there is in fact a market interested in your product. If there are a few competitors already in the space and they seem to be doing relatively well, this could be a good sign that the market has been validated.
If there are many competitors in the market, it’s also a sign that the market has been validated. However, you’ll likely have to determine how you can differentiate your brand and products from the sea of competitors in order to carve out your own spot.
Free: The Big List of Business Ideas
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2. Get your product developed
Once you decide what you’ll sell, there are several options for product development. You can make your own products by hand, like the artisans atHeath Ceramics. You can find amanufacturing partnerwho will develop your product idea to your specifications, like the team atWest Pathdoes for their Mexican blankets.
There’s also the option to buy your product wholesale, which means you’ll purchase pre-developed items from a wholesale marketplace. Our marketplace,Handshake, is a great option for this.
If you’d rather not hold inventory, you can look intodropshipping.Dropshippingis when a customer purchases an item from you and you, in turn, buy that item from a third party. The third party then ships the item directly to the customer so you never have to store, handle, or ship any products.
If you create your own designs for t-shirts, art prints, mugs, etc., a similar option is to offer printing on demand. Printing on demand is where you partner with a supplier to print your own designs on white-labeled items that are only created when a customer purchases them. This way you sell only as much inventory as there is demand for and never have to store or ship the products yourself.
3. Validate your product
The next step is tovalidate your product idea. This is the process where you figure out if you’re selling products that customers really want. Real product validation happens when you make your first few sales. So, before investing too much money or time into your new product line, it’s helpful to do a few low-cost tests.
You can build acoming soon pageto drum up excitement. Or set up pre-orders to see if you get any interest. The owners ofJaswant’s Kitchen一家商店,销售自然印度香料和厨师ing kits, validated their products by first selling at in-person shows.
Once you make a few sales, you’ll be better able to validate demand for what you’re selling.
Real product validation happens when you make your first few sales.
4. Write your business plan
有一些多,needed product validation, it’s time towrite a business plan. A business plan is a document that outlines essentially everything about your business. Core ideas it will include are: who you can reach and market to, yourbusiness model, what you’ll charge for each product, the product lines you’ll start with, and your marketing strategy.
Though it may seem exciting to start with the fun stuff like setting up your social media accounts or creating your logo, a business plan ensures that you’ll stay on track and that you have a solid, well thought out strategy going forward. Use our freebusiness plan templateto guide you through the process.
5. Secure the funding you need
Businesses cost money, especially if you plan on selling your own product. While you can reinvest early profits back into your business, many businesses need cash flow of some kind. Here are a few popular options:
- Self funding.If you have the means, you can fund your own business. Just make sure that you’ll be able to shoulder the cost for a while. While some businesses become profitable quickly, depending on the business, it can take some a few years to see a return on investment.
- Take out a business loan.Another option is totake out a small business loan.Shopify Capitalis an option for those who qualify, and it’s based on your sales.
- 从已经得到的钱nture capitalists.Capital investment comes in the form of an angel investor or venture fund. These accredited investors provide funding for startups and early stage companies. In return for their investment, they receive equity ownership or convertible debt, which is a loan that can be converted into equity in the future.
- Float your monthly spend with a credit card.If your supplier requires you to pay cash for all of your inventory, you can maximize how far your money goes every month by using a tool likePlastiq. Plastiq lets you pay vendors that don’t accept credit cards by sending them the funds in the form that works best for them (check, automated clearing house, or wire). That allows you an additional 30 days (or 60 days, depending on your credit card) to pay for inventory.
Shopify research shows that in their first year of business, entrepreneurs spent the most amount of money on product costs (raw materials, inventory, supplier, manufacturing, patents, etc.).
Learn more:How to Write a Compelling Elevator Pitch That Sticks (Plus 3 Templates You Can Steal)
6. Launch your business
Don’t overthink things: you’ll become an entrepreneur through action and hard work.Set up a store launch checklist对啊pening day. You’ll also want to make sure any launch day marketing activities, like organic social posts, are set up and ready to go. And you should have a plan for customer support or at least an easy way for customers to contact you if they need help.
在那之后,你所有的时间和精力花在getting your first sales. You can expand your acquisition efforts later.
7. Manage your business and keep learning
You’ll learn more about business by managing a business than you will through any business class. But,successful business ownersalways become students of entrepreneurship.
As Mathilde Collin, CEO and co-founder ofFront,wrote:
“Experienced startup leaders generously share their stories in the hopes of pushing the industry forward.…Advice from other founders, investors and tech leaders has been invaluable to me in my career so far. Their stories and learnings have helped me skip over hurdles where they stumbled and guided me through my own obstacles along the way.”
The more time you dedicate to learning, especially from those who have blazed the trails before you, the more you’ll be able to avoid costly mistakes and innovate where others haven’t. You might choose to work with a mentor, readbooks for entrepreneurs, takecourses, listen tobusiness podcasts, or even subscribe to email newsletters. Choose whatever method works best for you, but just make sure that you never stop learning.
Want to work on your marketing and ecommerce skills?Google’s Digital Marketing & E-commerce certificatewill help you develop and hone skills every entrepreneur should know.
Where to find entrepreneurial support
The world of entrepreneurship can be tough. But there are resources and groups available to you to get the help, tools, and advice you need.
Resources
- Shopify.Many entrepreneurs don’t have a formal education, they took the leap and made it up along the way. This is why it’s important to build intentional learning into your business practices. Shopify offers免费的企业家资源, including courses and video resources, you can use to build your skills and knowledge andreach your goals.
- Small Business Administration. Get information and resources to help start your small business. You can also find SBA-guaranteed loans.
- SCORE.SCORE helps youfind a mentorso you can get free counseling and advice, in person or online. Its mentors are successful entrepreneurs looking to help other small businesses owners become stronger and more successful.
- Small Business Development Centers.Tap into the expert advisers for free at SBDCs to help you with starting and growing your business.Contact your local SBDCfor no-cost business consulting and training.
- Small Business and Self-Employed Tax Center.Can’t forget about paying taxes! Stay compliant with the IRS with the latest tax news and forms for your business.
- FindLaw Small Business Center.Find legal forms, get answers to legal questions, and find small business lawyers on this site.
- International Franchise Association.Entrepreneurs don’t always start a business from scratch. The International Franchise Association (IFA) helps you find franchises for sale.
- SeedInvest.Find potential investors for your business using SeedInvest. You’ll discover angels who will invest in your business in exchange for equity.
Groups
- Shopify Entrepreneurs.Shopify Entrepreneurs is a free Facebook group consisting of over 100,000 Shopify store owners, developers, and service providers. You can find discussions about everything from Shopify app recommendations to marketing and sales questions, as well as tips for improving your Shopify store.
- Entrepreneur’s Organization. The Entrepreneur’s Organization is a global support network with over 14,000 entrepreneurs and leaders. The EO offers mentorship and networking opportunities perfect for new entrepreneurs.
- Vistage.Founded in 1957, Vistage is a mentoring membership program for CEOs and business owners. It has 24,000+ members globally and offers coaching and peer advisory services to entrepreneurs.
- Startup Grind.Startup Grind is a global community built to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. The group hosts many events that bring over 3.5 million entrepreneurs together to connect, learn, teach, build, and belong.
- Young Entrepreneur Council.This group offers support from vetted entrepreneurs aimed to help overcome challenges and grow your business. While it has tight restrictions to get into the community, it’s a good place to network and find potential business partners.
- International Council for Small Business (ICSB).The ICSB was the first non-profit membership program dedicated to small business growth worldwide. It brings together educators, researchers, and practitioners from around the world to share insights through programs, workshops, training sessions, and more.
Becoming the best business owner you can be
Starting a business is not easy. Growing it is even harder. You may feel like you’re not ready to own a business, but if you’ve made it this far, you are. It all starts with an idea, one that you are connected with and passionate about. If you can turn that idea into something that solves real-world problems, you’re on your way to becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Illustration by Gracia Lam
Ready to create your business? Start your free trial of Shopify—no credit card required.
Entrepreneur FAQ
How do I start to become an entrepreneur?
- Find a profitable business idea.
- Develop your product.
- Validate your product.
- Write a business plan.
- Get funding.
- Launch your business.
- Become a student of entrepreneurship.
What are the qualities of an entrepreneur?
- Passion
- Grit
- Ambition
- Drive to solve problems
- Desire to bring ideas to life