Some people may think that the toughest part of starting a business is actually coming up with the “genius” idea. Others might say that customer acquisition or financing is the hardest part. There are so many different elements and hurdles that are part of the startup process, which makes it very tough to “rank” these processes in order of difficulty. The business model canvas outlines nine different key sections to starting a business (partner’s, resources, channels, segments, etc.) that you have to work through and define. When you can go through each one of the BMC sections and can both clearly define it and make sense of it, you have a business. Is that really the toughest part?

Based on what I have experienced thus far with PrintIt, the toughest part of starting a business is keeping your head up and being able to keep moving forward through all the different obstacles. You can have the greatest idea in the universe, but if you don’t have the passion and motivation to continue working on your idea 24/7, you will get nowhere. There’s been a lot of different challenges I have faced with PrintIt so far. Figuring out where to print, finding a 3D house printer developer, finding potential business, designing a demonstration project. Within all of these different steps, there have been many smaller problems, problems that I really never even considered at the beginning. The beauty of entrepreneurship is that you can have an idea or a vision that seems to be very unreachable at the time, but if you innovate and work around the idea then might just find that it can be accomplished.

I believe that staying focused on your vision or your idea and where you want to take it, staying true to your beliefs, is the hardest part of starting up.