Entrepreneurs no longer spend months researching and writing up a long, written business plans before starting their business. Entrepreneurs such as Steve Blank and Eric Reis have taught us that the most important market data you can gather comes from your potential customers. So entrepreneurs have begun conversing those customers with a product or service already in-hand, ready to be purchased.
That said, this does not mean you should skip all business planning and simply jump directly from idea to production and sales. Instead, what you should do is spend enough time researching until you believe there is an opportunity worth pursuing, and build just enough to verify that belief. Then take what you’ve learned from those conversations to refine your plans, update your product, make more sales calls, and repeat this cycle repeatedly.
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