The past six months I have spent reading, listening, observing and thinking about my businesses and the aim of this has been to “work smarter” going forward. I have done my best in implementing new thoughts and ideas into my businesses along the way and have enjoyed this process. It´s important to note that I read a lot of books before I started my first company and the difference between “theory & practice” are huge. You often meet people with the energy and drive to start a company and the reason they never do is because they don´t jump in and try. According to the Cone of Learning the most effective way to become an entrepreneur and learn quickly is by actually doing it.
When i started 3sixty.no I just did it. I started 3sixty with 117 000,- NOK and in all honesty was terrified of writing a business plan because doing so would possibly change my mind. In fact most of the companies in the world have been started by people that just go for it and build their company as they go along. You can read about how other entrepreneurs started companies by reading a book called “Founders at Work – Stories of Startup´s Early Days”. I got started by spending most of my funds on equipment very early in the process and therefore committing to the actual start. The next year was purely spent on building the company and as much time as possible was spent on entrepreneurial education. I quickly understood the necessity to spend more time on entrepreneurial education and have had to cut down on my workload to spend time learning. Therefore I strongly suggest just going for it with your idea, but i do recommend planning to spend a lot of time educating yourself as you build your company. In the book Outliers – The Story of Success Malcom Gladwell estimated that it takes at least 10 000 hours to get really good at something. That means you will probably spend around 5 years + getting really good at entrepreneurship.
There are many great resources online for entrepreneurs a great resource is the Stanford University iTunes U downloads.
I also recommend watching relevant videos at TED.