Offer What People Want to Buy
Interestingly enough, having a unique idea is often harder to make money with than something already necessary for consumers. Such as, if you can come up with a better way to harness the end of a shoelace, then you could make a fortune. Simple ideas can often be great, but creating a market where one does not already exist can be an uphill battle.
Start Cash Flow Without Delay
You may be thinking you need to establish your brand idea and develop leads and contacts before starting to sell anything. That is the wrong approach. Establish income immediately. You can do that by asking for a deposit up front for your work with the balance to be paid on delivery – tie that into the customer receiving a guaranteed delivery date and you add value to them for making a deposit. Alternatively, you can establish monthly membership for items that your customer might want to receive every month. For professional services, get a retainer. Focus on getting good customers who will return regularly for what you offer.
You might also need to keep working in your current job and doing your new business in your free time to ensure adequate funds for you and your family’s need.
Find New Ways to Keep Costs Down
Always keep searching for new ways to cut costs or reduce them. Never pay full retail price for anything and shop for used and gently used items to equip your office or workspace.
Always Overestimate Expenses and Underestimate Revenues
Once you have your financial planning in place, then add 30% to what your cost estimates are and deduct 30% from your revenue estimate. However, you want to do everything in your power to come as close to your original projection numbers. Just be prepared in advance for the difficulties you will likely hit along the way. The 30% helps you do that.
Be a Sales and Marketing Maniac
Your business goes nowhere unless you are selling what you offer. For that reason have many plans in place. Since personal recommendations will grow your business easiest, always ask for client referrals, offer free consultations to new referrals and possibly a finder’s fee if a customer sends in two or three referrals. Support local events, speak at industry gatherings and conferences. Whatever you can think of to keep your company name out there will benefit your business
Armed with your plan and these tips, you will be well on your way to a successful entrepreneurial experience.
Corporate PR & Corporate Communications
By Ronn Torossian2 min read
5 Tips to Succeed as an Entrepreneur
By Ronn Torossian2 min read
Offer What People Want to Buy
Interestingly enough, having a unique idea is often harder to make money with than something already necessary for consumers. Such as, if you can come up with a better way to harness the end of a shoelace, then you could make a fortune. Simple ideas can often be great, but creating a market where one does not already exist can be an uphill battle.
Start Cash Flow Without Delay
You may be thinking you need to establish your brand idea and develop leads and contacts before starting to sell anything. That is the wrong approach. Establish income immediately. You can do that by asking for a deposit up front for your work with the balance to be paid on delivery – tie that into the customer receiving a guaranteed delivery date and you add value to them for making a deposit. Alternatively, you can establish monthly membership for items that your customer might want to receive every month. For professional services, get a retainer. Focus on getting good customers who will return regularly for what you offer.
You might also need to keep working in your current job and doing your new business in your free time to ensure adequate funds for you and your family’s need.
Find New Ways to Keep Costs Down
Always keep searching for new ways to cut costs or reduce them. Never pay full retail price for anything and shop for used and gently used items to equip your office or workspace.
Always Overestimate Expenses and Underestimate Revenues
Once you have your financial planning in place, then add 30% to what your cost estimates are and deduct 30% from your revenue estimate. However, you want to do everything in your power to come as close to your original projection numbers. Just be prepared in advance for the difficulties you will likely hit along the way. The 30% helps you do that.
Be a Sales and Marketing Maniac
Your business goes nowhere unless you are selling what you offer. For that reason have many plans in place. Since personal recommendations will grow your business easiest, always ask for client referrals, offer free consultations to new referrals and possibly a finder’s fee if a customer sends in two or three referrals. Support local events, speak at industry gatherings and conferences. Whatever you can think of to keep your company name out there will benefit your business
Armed with your plan and these tips, you will be well on your way to a successful entrepreneurial experience.
Written by
Ronn Torossian
Ronn Torossian is Founder and Chairman of 5W, one of the largest independently owned public relations and digital marketing firms in the United States. Under his leadership, 5W is the AI Communications Firm — building the category around generative engine optimization (GEO), AI search visibility, and how brands earn presence inside ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.
Torossian founded 5W in 2003 and has scaled it across consumer, technology, financial services, healthcare, beauty, gaming, and crisis communications practices. 5W's research franchise — the AI Visibility Index Series, The GEO Reckoning, and The Missing Rung Report — has become the industry reference for measuring brand visibility inside AI-generated answers.
He is one of the country's foremost crisis communications experts and the author of For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results With Game-Changing Public Relations.
5wpr.com | 5W Research | ronntorossian.com
Work with 5W
5W is the AI Communications Firm, building brand authority across the platforms where decisions now happen — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews — alongside earned media, digital, GEO, and influencer channels. www.5wpr.com
Other news
See all
EPR Editorial Team · 05/12/2026
The GEO Stack: Schema, Entity, Citation, Authority — In That Order
The GEO Stack is a four-layered approach to building online visibility and authority for AI-era content. It emphasizes the importance of Schema, Entity, Citation, and Authority, in that specific order, for effective compounding and client-side scrutiny. This methodology, though relatively new, offers a clear framework for optimizing content to be understood and surfaced by search and AI engines.
EPR Editorial Team · 05/12/2026
Why Wikipedia, Reddit, and Substack Outrank Forbes in AI Retrieval
Forbes is the most coveted earned-media placement in B2B PR. In citation testing, Reddit beats it for ChatGPT brand citation share by a factor of 2.4x. This article explores why Wikipedia, Reddit, and Substack are outranking Forbes in AI retrieval and what it means for earned media strategy.
EPR Editorial Team · 05/12/2026
LLM Citation Audits: What We Found Across 100 Consumer Brands
A study of 100 consumer brands and four AI engines reveals how brand power is changing in the AI era. Legacy brands underperform digital challengers by 32% on Citation Share, highlighting the importance of structured presence across platforms like Wikipedia and Reddit.
Never Miss a Headline
Daily PR headlines, weekly long-form analysis, and our proprietary research drops — straight to your inbox.