1. Listening

Businesses often fail in the early stages because the founders fell in love with their idea and didn't listen to what the market actually wanted. Stop guessing and go ask them. Don't ask people if they like your business idea, ask about them. Get in a room with your prospective buyers and find out what their biggest problems are in the area you're helping with and what would they love their life or business to look like in this area if they could wave a wand?

2. Problem hunting

We spend money when we have a problem. That can either be a difficult situation we want to get out of (we're unhappy with how unfit we are or we're worried about the staff turnover in our business) or something we desire but something's in the way of us getting it. Perhaps we want to upgrade our wardrobe but we don't have a strong sense of style or we want to expand our business into another country but we don't have any connections there and don't speak the language. All these are problems people regularly pay to solve.

What problem can your business solve for people? I'm sure you've heard this advice before but are you really crystal clear what is happening in your customers' heads? When you are, your offers and your marketing hit the target again and again.

3. Standing out

It might seem strange to think of standing out as a skill but it often goes against what we learned in school and in jobs. Those that make a strong statement about what their business stands for - and what it stands against - win far more attention than the mass of dull lookalike businesses. How is your approach different to others in your field? Be vocal about it even if some will dislike it. Those that do resonate with you will feel even more strongly drawn to your business.

4. Understanding PMF

PMF stands for Product/Market Fit and it's an essential concept to understand in the early stages of your business. Finding Product/Market Fit is about taking your skills and knowledge and pouring it all into a specific solution that perfectly suits a particular kind of person or business. You'll know you've achieved PMF when your prospects take one look at what you do, see the value, and quickly move towards working with you or buying from you.

Rik Spruyt quit his job to start a professional network for people in logistics. He put up a simple Wordpress website and told people he knew in the industry that he would help connect them with the best logistics contacts around the world for an introductory offer of $2,000 per year. Within a few weeks he had made tens of thousands of dollars he knew he had Product/Market fit. Now CrossTradesOBL is a 7-figure business.

5. Making yourself visible

Don't be your field's best kept secret. Get into the habit of sharing about your business journey every day. Focus on the social networks where your target client or customer is most likely to be. Be helpful, share anything you think will be useful or entertaining to them. And that includes your own business journey. I get as much engagement in my posts about my search for the perfect office chair as I do for the advice I share.

6. Focus

Think big, start small. Do what matters most. Can you avoid spending weeks creating the perfect website for the time being and just go win your first clients from your own network?

Don't try to be all things to all people. Choose something that you can do better than others and focus on that first. When Charlie and Harry Thuillier had the idea to create the world's first healthy ice cream, they focussed initially on just two things - creating a healthy ice cream full of superfoods that tasted amazing and getting into a high-end supermarket. When they got Oppo ice cream into Waitrose, they knew they were on the right track. Now it's available in thousands of stores around Europe.

7. Flexibility - playing it out

When I wrote about them in my first book ten years ago, Sam Bompas & Harry Parr had just started doing some really creative projects with food. They made scale models of London's most famous buildings in jelly and created the world's first breathable gin & tonic. They didn't have a 5-year strategic plan but they kept playing out their creative ideas. When I caught up with them this year I found they had turned Bompas & Parr into a 12-strong international flavour studio that has worked with the biggest brands in the world.

It's an exciting time to be an entrepreneur. What will you create?

John Williams is author of F**k Work Let's Play. Discover more about the businesses mentioned here or join John's free 5-Day Business Startup Challenge at fworkletsplay.com