Experienced Dallas-based Entrepreneur, Trey Bowles talks about important questions to consider before starting a business.
I’ve heard people say that sometimes you just need to dive into entrepreneurship. Is that your view?
No. I like to tell people that entrepreneurship is like a pond, and you’re standing 15 feet away. A lot of people will run and dive in. And by diving in, I mean putting all of their time and assets into it — cleaning out their 401k, the whole bit. My advice is to walk over to the side and have a look in before you dive. Is the water clear? How deep is it? You can start by sticking your toe in. You don’t need to dive when it’s perfectly OK to jump in first. You might bruise your tailbone but you won’t break your neck.
What kind of people make great entrepreneurs?
The best entrepreneurs I know are courageous, persistent, and a little bit crazy. It takes a special kind of person to stick with things when they don’t go your way. You need a tremendous amount of persistence. Every day as an entrepreneur is a roller coaster. One minute you can be on top of the world, and an hour later you can think you’re going to fail. You have to be a special kind of crazy to get on that ride. So many businesses fail, and if you don’t have a tremendous amount of courage, it’s hard to overlook the odds.
You’ve started several businesses and counseled the founders of countless more. What’s the most important question to consider when starting a business?
The number one thing you need to ask yourself before starting a company is, “Is my idea actually a business?” It’s not enough to have a good idea. You have to have a market too. You need to be meeting a need that people will pay you to solve and there should be enough people who will pay you for it. A lot of times I see people that have a need and think that just because they would pay to solve it that there’s a market. A market requires enough customers to sustain your company.
What are the other things you need to ask yourself when starting a business?
The second question you need to ask yourself is “Do I have the right knowledge to start business?” Do you know what a balance sheet and a P&L are? Do you know how to legally structure a business or develop a marketing plan? I recently wrote an article on the Six Essential Elements to Crafting the Perfect Business Plan that might help. Consider the following questions to contemplate as you reflect on starting your business.
Do you have mentors to help you through the rough patches? I can’t stress how important this is. I’ve started 10-12 businesses myself. Do you know how much heartache I can save someone else because I already made the mistakes? Most businesses don’t fail because the ideas were bad. They fail because of mistakes the founders made. When you get advice from someone who already has war wounds, you can remove a lot of the obstacles that are in your way.
Are you operating in the right community? There’s something magical about being in the right community. Part of what we’ve done in the Dallas Entrepreneur Center is bring people together in common spaces and create opportunities for organic collisions. When you co-locate or network with peers, cool things happen. You might meet someone who offers to do your graphic design or can help you with financing.
How will you measure your success? For some people it’s about getting rich. For others it’s about freedom — doing what they want — or it’s about bringing their ideas to life. There are so many outside forces that determine your performance, so you need to know what you’re trying to achieve. It’s essential that you go into entrepreneurship understanding what success looks like to you.
Used with permission, originally published in Dallas Innovates by Trey Bowles on Aug. 30, 2019.
Trey Bowles is the CoFounder and President of InnoCity Partners LLC, a boutique consulting firm focused on supporting cities/municipalities, corporations, and innovators working to develop innovative solutions for their communities that support and create the best place for their citizens to live, work, and play. Trey cofounded and is now the Executive Chairman of the Dallas Entrepreneur (DEC) Center where he recently stepped out of his role as CEO. Trey launched an entrepreneurship department at SMU in the Meadows School of Arts where he still serves as an adjunct professor. Bowles, a serial entrepreneur, having built numerous organizations in both the for-profit and non-profit space, lives in Dallas, Texas with his bride and three kids.