1) identify a problem that your customers want you to solve

2) solve the problem, sketchy at first and sound out your market about the solution you are offering

3) iterate a couple of times between (2) and (3)

4) your initial users are now your most valuable marketing tool, by now they have built a relationship with you and they should be happy

5) big rollout to all the users that you have that are comparable to your 'pilot' customers

6) back to 2! keep doing it, improve the product, fine tune your marketing pitch and do not ever forget about the one at the expense of the other.

With some variations this scheme works for both b2b and b2c.

At some point you'll have to deal with all the business support stuff (Premises, HR, Accounts). And then when you get big enough and start hiring people to do most of the product-marketing work, then you'll need to have some business management aspects like Vision/Strategy, client base management etc.

But this process should serve you through ramen profitable, and beyond.

1. identify a problem you can solve better than anything else on the market.

If everyone is using square wheels, build a round one, even if people aren't asking for it.

Sure, sometimes you loose with a superior product. But it's a pretty big advantage to have.