Often times after a radio show or podcast has become popular there is a desire to release a book and How I Built This fits into the pattern. There is a podcast called How I Built This by Guy Raz which resulted in a book published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, NY, 2020. The podcast is Guy Raz interviewing entrepreneurs about their journey to become successful. In the book, Mr. Raz groups the answers into categories and as a journalist adds stories around the theme of the chapter.

At its most basics, an entrepreneur has an idea of a problem that needs to be solved. The entrepreneur then tells the world and the world or some part of it pays for the solution. In everyday life, you will encounter some problems and often times be able to fix them. The overwhelming majority of times, you will move on, but once in a while you could say is the problem only affecting me or does it affect others? If the answer is others, will people pay to fix it? Do I want to be the one offering the product or service? Will people pay for the service and can I earn income from it?

The first step is relatively simple but complex. you will need to be open to ideas. The easiest process is to begin with what you are making a living doing. The more time you work there, the more time you can see how the industry is structured and what opportunities are available. Ask yourself, if you were to improve the existing, what would you do? if you were to reinvest the existing what would you do? Try to come up with one idea per month on what changes you would make. The first month and second month should be relatively easy. The third month will be harder, because you have removed the low hanging fruit, now you have to think about the process and alternatives.

If you believe you have a very good idea, the next step is to explore it. Now days, if it is a product, you can use Amazon or Shopify’s websites to help sell the product or let the world now you have a product to sell. The terrific part of using the above companies’ website is you do not have to give up your day job right away. You can wait and continually adjust the content till it pays you money that you make in your day job. If you watch a show like Shark’s Den, the Sharks or investors will ask are you all in? or what is your time commitment? Once you have achieved a level of success, then you can jump off the cliff into making your idea a thriving business. Part of starting a business means there will be costs involved, until you have sales to cover the costs, some of the costs will be borne by you, sometimes it is good to keep a safety net or the day job for insurance.

Mr. Raz says one of the things which makes him go wow is the amount of research the founders did or have done in order to launch their business. You will likely have heard people say this new industry will be worth billions, if you can receive 1%, you will be successful. You need to ask, why you? Why does your idea work? why does your product work better than everyone else? what customers will buy and be repeated customers? Why can you deliver it better or how would it work? In the past few years, new ideas came in with apparel, ice cream, footwear and luggage. There is nothing special about these industries that made them uniquely suited for new entrants or for disruption, but it is possible. Before jumping into your industry, do your homework.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when you invest in companies, the same principles of starting a business apply, just to a different level. You are investing in a going concern, you need to see or hear or understand the passion the company has for its products and services. Why this company other its alternative? does it deliver great products and services? how does it do it and continually make a profit to pay dividends?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.