From Zilch to Zillions: The Step-by-Step Blueprint for Turning Your Business into a Raging Success

Starting a Business? Or Don’t Know Where to Start?

I know, being a first-time entrepreneur (even calling yourself that in the beginning can sound weeeeeeeird, can’t it? but you are – I promise) can be overwhelming.

What should you focus on first?

What’s the successful entrepreneur ‘map’ you should follow?

Can someone just hand over a list of to-do’s that you can check off that’ll get you from making little to zilch to comfy cushion of mega dollars in the bank?

I know I was desperate for such a blueprint when I was first starting out.

And though I can’t promise that these steps will equal success for you, I think they might be a good place to start.

The Ultimate Step-By-Step Blueprint for Becoming a Successful Business Owner… starting from zilch

STEP ONE: Figure Out What Business You’re In

If you truly are starting from zilch, you’ll have to start with the idea and who you want to serve.

How do you figure that out? There’s no better resource than Ramit Sethi’s Idea Generator Kit which you can grab here: http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/insiders-kit/find-a-profitable-idea/

Ramit walks you through not only how to do an inventory of your skill set but how to slash that list down into skills that will serve a profitable market. Translation? Ca-ching.

STEP TWO: Get Your First Clients

Before we can call this thing a business, you can need to grab yourself a client or two or three so you can test drive this whole business concept and figure out if this is something people are actually going to pay for and that you’re actually going to enjoy doing.

How do you find these first clients you ask?

• You could…. dominate an existing marketplace like Elance
• You could… be better than everyone else trying to find work on Craigslist
• You could… get inspiration from these 60+ stories on how these entrepeneurs got their first 3 clients

STEP THREE: Be Awesome at Serving Those Clients

How can you be awesome at serving your first clients?

• You could…. be excellent at client service.
• You could… try these 10 tips from Six Revisions
• You could… follow these 7 rules from Laura Roeder

But make sure you don’t… use a one-size fits all approach.

So you can…

STEP FOUR A: Get Repeat Business

Did you know that it costs 6–7 times more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one? According to Bain and Company.

Click to tweet that: Did you know that it costs 6–7 times more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one? http://bit.ly/1kUww3r via @lizlockard

To help get more business from the same customer,

• You could… get inspired by these 5 retention email strategies from Crazy Egg
• You could… try these strategies for pitching add-ons or upsells to your customer
• You could… avoid being obnoxious when trying to sell more

and/or

STEP FOUR B: Get Referral Business

To help get referrals from happy customers,

• You could… know when is the right time to ask for one
• You could… follow these four tips for how to ask for them like a pro
• You could… make sure you don’t lose those referrals by having a solid follow-up strategy in place

But then what?

What Next?

Once you have yourself up and running, you might find it useful to…

• Set up a basic website to be your 24/7 sales machine where people can contact you (and you can track what’s working to grow your business)

  • DIY with Nathalie Lussier’s Websites Made Easy course

  • Have a pro handle it – a pro like Suzi

• Get Your Legal Stuff Handled

  • DIY with The Middle Finger Project’s Small Business Bodyguard course

  • Have a pro handle it – a pro like Elizabeth Potts Weinstein

• Start collecting email addresses so you don’t have to work so hard to find each new client

  • Get started with these tips from DIY Themes

  • Then get started with a free account from MailChimp (affiliate) or paid one with AWeber

• Refine your business model or your pricing

  • Steal these perfect pricing strategies from Jenny Shih

  • Check that you have the right business model with this advice from Tara Gentile

• Start driving more traffic to your 24/7 sales machine (your website)

  • Social media (which platform are your customers on?)

    • Twitter – Alicia Cowan has you covered.

    • Pinterest  – check out these ideas from Launch Grow Joy

    • LinkedIn – you might want to check out these tips from Lewis Howes

    • Facebook – Amy Porterfield has you covered.

    • YouTube – check out these tips from James Wedmore

    • Google Plus – follow Yifat Cohen on G+ for how to use the platform for business

  • Search engine optimization

    • DIY – do SEO the simple way with my own Your SEO Roadmap course

    • Have a pro handle your strategy – a pro like me

  • Advertising, like

    • Facebook Ads – check out these tips from Marveo – an agency that offers both DIY and Done for You ad campaigns

    • Google Adwords – Perry Marshall is someone to check out if you’re looking for Google Adwords training

  • Public relations

    • DIY  – Brigitte Lyons runs an expert DIY course on how to do your own media outreach

    • Have a pro handle it – a pro like Brigitte or Maggie Patterson

What About You?

What advice would you give to the newbie entrepreneur? What do you think is a must first step to take in your entrepreneur journey? Anything you’d add to this list?

Are you just starting out? Did you find this post useful?

Let me know in the comments!

Liked this post? 

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• Ask The Experts: Where Do You Find Your Customers Online? Part 1
• Ask The Experts: Where Do You Find Your Customers Online? Part 2
• How to Make $21,000 in Six Weeks