Number one, for me, is to align my business strategies with the things that I like doing, am good at, and do exceptionally well.

If I try to be all things to all people, I'm going to fail. If I try to compete with global mega-corporations on price, feature-set, or delivery options, I'm going to fail. If my business strategy is simply "I'm going to force myself and my employees to grind for sixteen hours a day every day forever", I will fail inside 0f a week.

So I always try to look for things that I can do better, easier, faster, cheaper, or at least with more enthusiasm than anyone else. I especially try to look for the things that bigger companies don't want to deal with, and to become really, really good at those things.

Maybe it's some kind of marketing angle, that I'm going to be 100% transparent with my customers, competitors, and everyone by live-blogging everything about my business. Or maybe I'm going to lovingly curate some weird and idiosyncratic store for products that I a really, really love, and I'm going to hand-draw the pictures and write personal testimonials for why I think every outdoorsy person should own this particular item...

Maybe I'm a night-owl who is good with tools, and maybe my angle is that I offer after-hours handyman services without charging double the hourly rate. Maybe I am an under-employed multi-lingual Uber driver who also offers a Spanish-language delivery/courier service. Maybe I'm a passionate bicycle enthusiast who knows how to turn older craigslist/yard-sale bikes into performance machines for half the cost of a new equivalent bike.

Point is, the thing that gets me up early and keeps me up late, energized and excited, doing high-quality work, is my passion for the work. Not some business plan or financial goal.