For all the aspiring entrepreneurs out there, we’ve got a good scoop for you.

She Likes Money recently chatted with Adam Lean, founder of The CFO Project, to discuss the ins and outs of being an entrepreneur and small business owner.

While his dog Cooper barked at the garbage man in the background, we got down to the nitty-gritty.

Give the People What They Want

Adam, an accountant turned entrepreneur, has had a couple of different businesses over the years. He started an e-commerce company with just $2,000 while working a full-time job.  Prior to founding The CFO Project, he owned a company that rented out gym equipment to schools. Now he’s dedicated to helping small businesses reach their financial goals.

It’s easy to get caught up in all the small details and daily tasks of starting a business. Focus on the big picture first: you need to sell a product or service to someone. How do you figure out if people want what you will sell? That’s the tough part, but there are a couple ways to slice and dice it. Here are three ways to test an idea for cheap:

Advertise

Put out an ad for your idea – before you even have a business. See how many pre-orders or phone calls you receive. That’s your demand calling.

If the emails aren’t flowing and the phone stays quiet, you might need to rethink how to reach your customer. Or rethink if people actually want what you’re selling.

Create an MVP: minimum viable product.

Aka a rough draft of your product. Do this AS CHEAPLY AS POSSIBLE while still incorporating the main aspects of your idea. Then show it to people. Go to craft fairs, conferences, happy hours at the office. Get feedback, ask people if they’d buy it, and for how much.

If your product is something you can make yourself – like food, craft items, fashion – produce a small inventory and try selling it locally. If you sell out, huzzah! But if the day ends and you still have most of your inventory…might be back to the drawing board.

If you are offering a service, ask friends or acquaintances if they’ll be your test clients. The more honest feedback you can collect, the better.

Look for twinsies

Research businesses that have similar products or services. If you had a business idea for a line of different flavored granola bars, go to grocery stores, health food stores, and farmers markets in your area. Look for similar products. Compare how your product is the same and how it differs. Also, pay attention to prices. Hang out in the store for a while on a busy Sunday – how many people are buying granola bars?

If the market is oversaturated, your idea might drown in the crowd. Think about how you can differentiate your product and offer a desirable twist on an existing concept.

For digital products, it’s harder to learn how many people are buying certain products. Time to put all your internet stalking skills to good use. Google Trends allows you to view the popularity of certain search terms related to your product. This doesn’t necessarily mean people are buying what they search for, but it can highlight potential demand.

Use similar brands’ product pages to observe online demand. If a certain product goes out of stock or a company slashes prices, this gives you insight about the product’s popularity.

First Steps

Once you have your business idea, it’s time to put it in action. With all his clients, Adam helps them write financial goals. He says that without goals, entrepreneurs and small business owners are usually “chugging away on a hamster wheel, going 90 miles an hour, but never going anywhere.” Mmm, no thanks to that.

To make a financial goal sheet, use the S.M.A.R.T guidelines: the goal should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. Adam suggests focusing on one to two goals at a time. Those goals should be the main – or if you can, only – driver of all daily tasks.

Remember: a business’s purpose is to generate cash. Everything else to this objective is secondary. A good financial goal will focus on cash generation and the bare minimum of inputs needed to generate said cash – like clients, product, website, etc.

Don’t Learn Everything

Starting your own business means learning all the skills, right? Umm no, not quite.

For your business, decide what you are best at and do that thing. Don’t waste hundreds of hours trying to learn new skills that don’t interest you or that have a steep learning curve. Improving your ability level is great, but in the early stages of a new business, especially if you still work a full-time job, there are only so many hours in a day. Focus on your goals and do the tasks you’re skilled at to push them forward.

Of course, the tasks you aren’t skilled at still need to be done. Most new entrepreneurs can’t afford to outsource tasks. If that’s the case, ask: is it necessary? Maybe you’ve been trying to build an Instagram following despite never using the platform. Instagram, although a great marketing tool, might not be the fastest way to crush your goals. Look for the shortest route possible without skimping on the corners. Once your business is off the ground and generating cash, you can delegate certain tasks to freelancers or dedicate time to learning those skills.

Avoid Debt Monsters

“You need to spend money to make money,” the saying goes. While that sounds fun and all, it’s not the wisest advice.

Although he personally doesn’t like business debt, Adam says most of his clients have some kind. “The key with debt,” he says, “is if you’re going to have it, it should be used for one thing, and that’s to increase the amount of cash flow into the business. Good debt is going into debt to fund something that will generate cash in the future.”

He gave the example of a hair salon owner taking out a loan for $10,000 to buy luxury salon chairs. She hoped the chairs would attract higher caliber clients. While this might be true, she should really ask: is $10,000 worth of chairs going to generate more than $10,000 in profit? Remember, debt has interest.

Debt puts a monkey on your back. Starting a new business with debt might be necessary to get it off the ground, but it also creates stress that otherwise would have been avoided. Tread carefully and don’t take out debt if you don’t absolutely need to.

As Adam put it, “Small business is a machine – the whole point of that machine is to create money. The machine should generate more cash than it costs to run the machine.”

The Number One Thing to Remember

Adam’s advice to any aspiring entrepreneur? The “number one focus should be on finding a service or product that people want. That’s it.”

It could be 10 people or 10 million people. If your business offers something for a price, and your costs (including paying yourself) are less than your revenue, you’re well on your way to having a successful business.

RECAP

To aspiring or current entrepreneurs: think big and start small. Test out ideas, minimize your monetary investment, and cut corners so you can work faster. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals and hammer down on them with a laser-like focus.

Also, have patience. Many new business owners work other jobs for the first several years of their business before they can quit. Although everyone on Instagram constantly promotes quitting your job tomorrow and traveling the world, the best plan of action is to put your head down and do the work.