A successful business isn’t defined by its net worth but by how it became today. A towering Redwood began its life cycle as a network of tiny roots, with a single, vulnerable leaf with an avid and sincere yearning for sun and water.
That’s where most businesses begin, and many do not survive the first drought. The first key to starting a business is understanding and accepting that it may fail, knowing that your resolve will only harden.
Rod Jao began his life in a lower, middle-income family with his feet firmly planted in the developing country of the Philippines. He sold comic books and candy for extra money before converting that into a profitable marketing business with stopwatches through high school as a small boy.
He has since risen to become the CEO and co-founder of Allysian Sciences. That was only after a young life rife with significant success in the business of marketing and marketing strategies.
It begins somewhere for everyone, and your startup business doesn’t have to be anything more than candy and comic books to have the potential to swell into a behemoth profitable and economic prowess.
The Risks Of Starting A Business
We start with risks because that’s where a business inevitably begins.
When starting a business, you have to know your customer, and knowing your customer informs you what shape your product will ultimately take. Customers have a problem, perhaps not in the traditional sense, but a product that the customer seeks solves that problem.
Whether that problem is a faulty pipe underneath the sink, psychological, painful joints, or even plain old greed, a customer is looking to solve that problem. You are the solution, or rather, your product is.
If you understand your customer and their problems, then your product risk is a controllable one. Research and a complete understanding of both the customer and the product minimize product risk.
Marketing Risk
You know the customer and the product, but how do you convince the customer that you have the product that will solve their problem? Rod Jao understands marketing from the multi-level perspective of network marketing.
However, you may not have the luxury of building a network of people to push sales. Marketing is everything. You can know the customer and product, but you can get overwhelmed if you can’t bridge the connection between your customer and the product.
Financial Risk
Financial risk is an obvious one. Rod Jao had the force of his personality and genuine likeability. Thankfully, you’ll have crowdfunding and networking. This ties directly into marketing and product risk because, to get the funding, you need customers excited about your product.
Kickstarter is an outstanding potential resource, along with family and friends and venture capital. Rod Jao began his business adventure at the age of five through family and friends, and that’s where you should begin too.
Even if family and friends aren’t a source of funding, they can form the core of a crucial marketing structure that not only brings in potential customers but markets the products you provide to solve their problems.
Team Risk
No matter what you believe, teamwork is essential in your business startup venture. It doesn’t even have to be fellow entrepreneurs but just friends and family. It ties in nicely with your marketing and crowdfunding undertakings
Team risk is the risk you take when you don’t put together the best people that are reliable, driven, and every bit as goal-oriented as you are. Rod Jao’s resume is replete with the word “participated.” That’s because Jao understands the importance of teamwork and having the right people at your side.
Your team’s goal is your goal, to get your business across the finish line by marketing and selling your products, leveraging social media, canvassing the neighborhood, and doing whatever it takes within ethical boundaries to succeed
A great team is also a potent reservoir of new ideas or a repository of branching pathways in which you can all take your business to new heights. They are great for getting together and brainstorming problems, and conjuring solutions.
Execution Risk
According to Rod Jao, “It is only when you take a leap of faith that you will get to the other side. The side that most people in our society can only dream of.” You have to take that leap of faith and pull the lever when your strategy is in place The Manufacturing Industry in Mexico.
It’s so easy to completely encapsulate yourself in details and the subtle algorithms of business structure, financial prospects, marketing endeavors, and product perfection. The most eye-opening thing about the above five risks is how neatly they all tie together with one big bow.
When you’ve avoided the four risks above, it’s time to take a leap of faith. As Rod Jao is fond of expounding upon, there is no such thing as failure unless you quit and walk away.
All Things Considered
Starting a new business, whether you are an independent contractor freelancing, getting a massive loan to start production, or leasing your first official site, is a frightening prospect. However, Rod Jao lays it out nicely if you’re willing to study his methodology.
He maintained his humility, started small, never gave up, and built a life for himself, his family, and many friends that most can only dream of. Stop dreaming and never accept defeat. Do that, and your business is already across the goal line.
