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When I provide counseling at The Small Business Development Center at the College of Lake County I work with many people who want to start businesses. They come from all walks of life, all adult age groups, span the range of race and religion, range from poor to wealthy, and have one common goal: to turn an idea into income.
My goal is to help them succeed. My approach is to ask a series of questions: What, Why, Who, Where, When, and How. The intent of the questions is to help them focus on key success factors and plan. The same approach can, and should, be applied in existing businesses.
- What?
What is your idea and how does it relate to your background and capabilities? Having related experience and talent will improve the probability of success.
- Why?
Why do you want to do this? Do you have a goal or is this just a dream? Business is hard and your success will depend to a great extent on the passion and drive you bring to the table.
- Who?
Who is your target market? Without a clearly defined target market it will be difficult to market your product or service to the prospects you need to educate and convert customers. Not everyone needs, wants, or can afford what you have to offer.
- Where?
Where do your customers live, work, play, and shop? If you don't know where they are it's very difficult to get their attention. Marketing is all about getting their attention, so the better the focus the more effective the marketing and the less it costs per customer.
- When?
Most of us don't have unlimited funding, so at some point every successful business must move past breakeven and into profitability. Knowing how much it will cost to get your idea off the ground and making reasonable assumptions about sales revenue allows you to create a plan that gives you enough time to avoid running out of money.
- How?
With answers to the preceding questions it becomes much easier to create your personal roadmap to success. It will show your destination, your goal, and the things you need to accomplish along the way. It's your business plan.
Many of the people I work with have great ideas but don't know where to start. Many feel overwhelmed by the stuff required to bring an idea to reality. At its core, business is simple: get customers, make sales, make money, repeat. By breaking down any project into simple tasks, even the most complex idea can be implemented successfully. | 
