Many times you may be half way along this process and find out that the market has changed, a new competitor has entered, or the idea needs reworking. Often when you get the voice of the customer it may indicate that the niche you thought was your low hanging fruit is not as applicable as you thought in the beginning. At that point its back to the drawing board.

Additionally cultivating a novel idea is a time exhausting process. By the time the product or service is ready for distribution the idea will likely have changed many times since its original incarnation.

A big one that should be on this list is #3.5 Protecting your assets. Going headfirst into a market without patents and/or a way to protect your intellectual property is a great way to dig yourself an early grave and scare away potential investors. You would be surprised at the number of blocking patents large corporations hold that could put a stop to your idea at the get go. Investing some time and money in a patent search/lawyer would be well advised before sinking more effort into a idea that someone already owns the rights to.

In the end starting a business is more about a never give up attitude than anything else. Don’t expect this process to take any set amount of time and especially don’t expect it to take a month. Additionally be prepared to go back to square one and start over until something works.

Alot of the points gbravo makes are great but if you aren’t willing to put in 16 hour days until well after step #9, and be prepared to live on a non-existent or unsteady income for a period of time you might want to consider a career somewhere else. It takes alot more will power to start a business than some might think.

That’s why they have a special name for it, ‘entrepreneurship’, and its full of a bunch of insane people who are gluttons for punishment, workaholics and all around whack jobs.