How To Improve Your Chances of Survival: #Startups
By @LyraMcKee
Since we're promoting #failcon (http://on.fb.me/p85Bga), we thought it would be good to write a post on #startups and how entrepreneurs can make them work.
Most of us in the TechFluff & Co office are startup veterans. We've all failed a number of times. I did a quick poll around the office to see what lessons learned, if any, our team would share with new entrepreneurs. Between us, these are our answers:
1) Don't Give It 100%: This piece of advice sounds insane but it makes sense. Quitting your job, risking your life savings and throwing 20 hours a day at a product will not make success come any faster. Success comes slowly, over a number of years, in small victories. It's steady and slow. Don't believe the idealism created by the mythmakers. Even Facebook was not an "overnight" success; it was 2-3 years after launching before anyone outside of Silicon Valley had heard of it. So start small and just chip away at it bit by bit every day.
2) Be Prepared To Be Surprised: The money will never come quick enough. Downloads will remain in single digits for weeks on end. Users will ask for stuff you haven't built and hadn't thought of building. Everything will be a surprise. Assume nothing and be prepared to put the work in. Nothing comes easy.
3) Get mentors: Mentors are invaluable. They can plug the holes in your team. For example, I mentor a number of startups whose founding teams do not include marketers. I give them advice on marketing and PR and how to drive users to their site. When I worked in my first startup, my team were techies, meaning there was a gap in operations experience. A friend who was a hugely experienced operations director filled the role by mentoring us.
4) The Team: Everyone talks about the importance of teams but few understand what it really means. You need to be brutally honest with yourself about your own strengths and weaknesses and those of your term. Before asking others to join the company, think about the skills you really need. Sure, having a Director of Finance is nice but why not just hire a bookkeeper for half the price? If you're building a shopping site, you'll need someone with experience of operations/logistics/managing warehouses. Put resource where it's needed, not where business books say you "should".
5) Make money: Don't rely on investor money to make a profit. Focus exclusively on sales. It's easy to make excuses for poor cashflow by saying "Yes, but when we get investor money in, we'll be able to do this...." Numbers don't lie. You're either selling well or you're not.
6) Survive: Too many entrepreneurs focus on making millions before they've made a pound. Success happens in baby steps. It will not happen overnight. Focus on one milestone at a time.