In the last few years, tech startups have become fast-growing businesses by improving lives with technology and have made their owners vast fortunes in the process. If you want to get in on the action by founding your own tech startup, it isn’t too late. Here are four steps you can take that will prime you for success as a cutting-edge tech entrepreneur.

Think of an Idea

At the core of every successful business is a basic good idea. However, the idea that makes you into a tech millionaire may not be quite what you imagine. In most cases, it’s a better idea to improve something that already exists, rather than inventing something entirely new. Completely new ideas can make you rich, but they are also less proven and more likely to fail than improvements on existing products or services.

Start Learning How to Make It Happen

Once you know what you want to do, it’s time to figure out how to do it. Depending on the nature of your idea, you may need to learn one or more computer programming languages or a new hardware system. Often, this will mean going back to school. This is especially true if your idea is hardware-based, in which case you’ll likely need an electrical engineering degree to bring it to fruition.

If you already have the skills and want to just jump into the startup process, you will want to surround yourself with people who will move your startup towards success. This means that you will need to gather people around you who have the experience and educational backgrounds that will get your business further.

Create a Basic Prototype

Once you’ve learned how to bring your idea to life, you’ll need to come up with a prototype version. This basic version doesn’t need to have full functionality, but rather needs to deliver proof of concept. Once you know that you can create whatever it is you want to, you can start pursuing more complete development.

Raise Funds for Development and Production

To bring your idea to market, you’ll likely need more money than you already have, which means securing a loan or finding investors. Taking on investment partners can be a great way to raise money, but it also means sharing your profits with a larger pool of people. A loan, on the other hand, means qualifying and paying interest that will eat into your profit margin. A good third way is seeking out a peer-to-peer loan, which usually will have a somewhat lower interest rate than a traditional bank loan.

The journey to creating your tech product or service will be a long and hard one, but these steps will give you the basic framework for getting from here to there. Once you have your startup successfully running, you’ll be happy that you went to the effort.