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First Things First - One Step At a Time - The secret for building pyramids

My Grandfather was famous for being able to draw plans and projects for all of us at various stages of our life, but Grand-Ma was nearby to calm things down with her legendary: "One day at a time, Henry !"

When we build up projects in our life and become enthusiastic about it - would it be the next holidays, buying a new home or setting up a business- we have this incredible tendency to not focus on what is essential. We take the good points and dream about it. That's a good feeling I would admit, I do that everyday.

Envisioning what your life would be in a near future is good. That helps you to get the necessary motivation to put things on the move and accomplish what you dream.
Self development books are full of quotes about dreams. Dreaming is a way of travelling in the future at no cost... but not at no risks.

Keep you head in the sky but your heels dug in the ground.

Echoing yesterday's post about the importance of planning, this post is about the importance of remaining realistic and not going too quickly. Keep the horses on the right side of the cart!

Building pyramids didn't happen in one day, nor a month or even a year. However, it certainly started with a first stone laid and a last one.
Throughout the whole building phase, not a single stone was put before another.
That sound silly written like that, but we are all doing the opposite in our everyday life.

Projecting yourself in the future doesn't mean you have to jump into the role you wish to be then. In the same way, don't choose the color of your Ferrari before even having registered your business!

Those used to watch the BBS show Dragon's Den (the UK version of the Shark Tank) would know what I'm talking about. I have lost count of the entrepreneurs, or self nominated entrepreneurs, who dared to come to pitch the millionaires with nothing more than a business concept, a notional business plan, a company freshly registered the week before and sometimes even a patent pending, and valuing their business what it would worth if it was successful in 5 years.

Sell on your projections but purchase on your sales.

Too many entrepreneurs focuses on what they like instead of what is needed in their business.
Like a building a pyramid, a business need to be constructed in the right order if you want it to be strong and successful.

It needs a solid foundation. That's intentional that we talk about "customer base". Customers acquisition should be the main goal of a business. Without customers, you have no business.

Some people who want to build a business pays sometimes a lot just to have a nice website, business cards, fancy offices in a trendy area, nice fixtures in the place, assorted uniforms, etc and so forth... but as long as they have no customers, they have no business, as simple as that.

Give free goods or service to someone doesn't make him a customer.
Get someone paying less for something than it costs to you to produce still don't make him a customer, because he is the one benefiting of the transaction, that makes him your supplier and you're the customer.

Get cash paying customer before anything else is key. You don't need to get goods or service ready as long as you could still order it after you've collected one sale.

Having a customer paying for what you're producing in your business is key, because it validates the fact that what you supply is what they need.

If you want to build a business, think of the great builders of the Past who erected cathedrals and pyramids: they've laid the first stone at the right place. Then they've carefully put each stone in the right order.

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