Now, think. What is the most important thing you need to focus on as an entrepreneur?
It is raising capital, getting a good accountant, writing a great business plan, looking for export opportunities? Arguably, no.
Of course all of these are necessary and I would be remiss to downplay them. All of these are required. The issue is what you should focus on first whenever possible. What might this be?
Management gurus will support what I am about to tell you. The most important thing to focus on as soon as you possibly can is GETTING A CUSTOMER. The rest will follow. With a customer, you will get access to financing, you will not be required to write a business plan that addresses whether you have a saleable product, and you will have the money to hire a good accountant.
Of course this is not a universal general rule. It has some bells and whistles attached to it.
For example you may first need to create your product, for instance if you're in a technology sector. In this case you of course have nothing to sell right now and customers will not buy on spec. Of course in this case you will initially need to focus on seed capital and you will need to write the infamous business plan that satisfies an outside investor that you are not a total lunatic in your vision of the world.
But even if you need to first create a product and finance this, please focus on my rule as soon as possible. I have seen too many entrepreneurs who seem to be for ever in the product development mode to make their product perfect. Perfection is a curse in business. While you may wish to have the best product in the world in your field, this should not detract you from trying to generate sales (or cash) along the way. This may be when your product is adequately developed to gather some initial interest. Or it may be from your second best product idea which may be faster to market and can be sold in tandem.
People will buy into your vision at the beginning if it is compelling. Please do not disappoint them by being an idealist. You will lose the friends and family who initially financed you and you will discourage investors from continuing to believe in you.
Nothing counts more than sales. Do not forget this.
