Are You a Toilet Paper Entrepreneur?

In garages, basements, spare rooms and even dorm
rooms all across America, hard-working dreamers are
launching businesses right this minute. The thought
of this really gets me going.

I’m all about the underdog, the passionate entrepreneur
with small amount of cash and a huge heart. I refer to
these people as Toilet Paper Entrepreneurs. The resourceful
men and women who can get by on three sheets. They find
a way to make it happen, even if they are at the end of
their roll.

The best ideas come from having precious few resources,
and yet so often people see this as lack, an obstacle
to their success. On the flip side, many businesses
throw money at problems the very second the cash
starts flowing in, thereby eliminating the magic
of necessity.

Toilet Paper Entrepreneurs work miracles with just
three sheets –or less – even when they have a
warehouse full of stockpiled toilet paper. Here’s how you
can too:

1. Cultivate a Powerful Foundation of Enabling
Beliefs
Your most important assets are your beliefs.
Firmly held beliefs that support your goal are more
valuable than an Ivy League education, or even a pile
of cash.

2. Work in Your Field of Passion
Building a company is not for wimps. You will need a boatload
of passion for your business in order to stick with
it long enough to succeed. The competitors who are
in your industry just to get rich quick, will give up
when the going gets tough. The passionate ones will
stick it out, and achieve the ultimate success.

3. Slant Toward Premature Action
Do not wait for the perfect conditions to start or expand your business. Taking action early is better than taking action too
late. With the economy the way it is right now, I can’t
think of a better time to start. With all the folks
waiting until the economy is ripe, the startup competition
is almost non-existent.

4. Be Extremely Great at Extremely Little
Exploit a select few of your top strengths, and outsource everything you dislike or can’t knock out of the park.

5. Use Ingenuity Over Money
Having enough money can be a hindrance, covering up potentially disastrous problems. Use ingenuity and a razor-sharp focus
rather than money to create, launch, and troubleshoot.

6. Dominate a Niche
Identify a market in which you can provide better or different products or services, and then dominate it.

7. Marry Long-Term Focus with Short-Term Action
Know your destination, but don’t plan out every step
of the journey beforehand. Instead, plan out the next
quarter and then track your progress.

8. Be a Little Crazy
Whatever you do, don’t play by the rules. It’s the risk takers, the odd balls, who make opportunities and grasp achievement.

You don’t need angel financing, a college degree,
or any experience to build the business you envision.
Heck, you don’t even need a garage.

So many myths about launching and running companies
hold people back from taking the next step. My goal
in writing The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur was to bust
through every last one of them, arming the underdogs
with essential “three-sheeting” advice that will help
them launch their business. And more importantly, grow
that business into a multi-million dollar dream-come-true.