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Starting a Business: your first useful steps

Test demand and cash needs before committing to recurring costs.

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Describe a narrow customer problem.

Ask potential customers about their current workaround.

Collect quotes for essential setup costs.

Separate one-time costs from recurring bills.

Map when customer cash may actually arrive.

Fictional worked example

A fictional service starts a week with $2,000, expects $600 of collections and has $900 of payments, ending at $1,700. If the $600 receipt slips a week, the first week ends at $1,100. A $500 startup purchase would reduce that delayed-receipt result to $600. Carry the actual ending amount into the next week rather than resetting to the original cash.

One action before the next payday

Write the action, who will do it, and when you will check the result.

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