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Any lessons learned that you want to share? As the owner of a very small consultancy shop I know it's very hard to extract generalized advice from your own fail

Any lessons learned that you want to share? As the owner of a very small consultancy shop I know it's very hard to extract generalized advice from your own failures, but still...

katzgrau 8y ago
Sure, although my experience is in the product business. some of these might be applicable: * Find a niche market where there is a need and the prospects aren't broke. Eg, they have money to spend for the potential of ROI with your product. * Break your revenue goal into concrete building blocks. If you need $x/year to make this a profitable venture, how many customers do you need? * If you need a lot of customers (IMO, > 25) you need to think about both marketing and making your product and making it possible for them to self-service. Eg, driving inbound so you don't have to rely so much on outbound. * Right down your goal and make a plan to achieve it. Does that mean emailing / calling prospects? How many per day? How many trials does it take to convert one customer? These are simple metrics which will eventually help make your revenue "predictable." Great books on that topic. * Sales is #1 priority. SV is hyperfocused on brilliant engineers. In bootstrapping, it's all about money. I'd spend more on a great salesperson than an engineer. * Make yourself uncomfortable. Don't like cold calling? Cold call anyway. You'll get good (or at the very least not half bad) at everything. * Take care of yourself. You are your own vehicle to success. Your mind and body are business partners. Your bad habits can hinder you severely. 9-5 employees can come to work hungover every day and probably get by fine - but an entrepreneur can't. * If something isn't working, change it. If something's working, do more of it. That includes pivoting product, market, etc. * Don't get too elated or depressed. There can be incredible highs and crushing lows. Failure is a teacher but success is a better teacher. * Be humble. Recognize that you're an idiot and that you don't know shit, even when you think you know shit. It's how you keep your mind open to learning new things. Your own ego can be a roadblock to success. * Learn to delegate. When you start out you'll do everything — but eventually you will find you have low-level tasks which, if offloaded, would make you far more productive. That's when it's time to hire. Resist the urge to just do it yourself. Your ultimate goal is that you become the brain of the company and you delegate the physical work to the staff you've built. There's a lot more but those are the ones I could rattle off.
- justin 8y ago
  These are all the things I do to build my venture backed businesses :)
- goatherders 8y ago
  Well said. Sales is of critical importance. I try to outsource anything that costs less than my own hourly rate.
- adamqureshi 8y ago
  Damn this is by far the BEST advice i have read. HOLY SHIT! I would like to THANK YOU VERY MUCH whoever you are. I have been grinding it out with my tiny start up and its making $3k-$5k/month. I was thinking i need money to grow and should seek funding but then i realised what VC would fund me? i got no secret sauce no technology no VC would give a rats ass about my start up and anybody can copy me at any time. I been at it 2 1/2 years and i think now i will follow your advice and double down my efforts and use the profits to pay a contract SWIFT engineer to build an iOS. Then grow the thing AS much as i possibly can. I'm sorry for hitting you up for a sale but i always gotta be selling! If you have a tesla and would like to sell, please consider sending it to me: https://onlyusedtesla.com/ https://onlyusedtesla.com/

Any lessons learned that you want to share? As the owner of a very small consultancy shop I know it's very hard to extract generalized advice from your own failures, but still...

katzgrau 8y ago

Sure, although my experience is in the product business. some of these might be applicable: * Find a niche market where there is a need and the prospects aren't broke. Eg, they have money to spend for the potential of ROI with your product. * Break your revenue goal into concrete building blocks. If you need $x/year to make this a profitable venture, how many customers do you need? * If you need a lot of customers (IMO, > 25) you need to think about both marketing and making your product and making it possible for them to self-service. Eg, driving inbound so you don't have to rely so much on outbound. * Right down your goal and make a plan to achieve it. Does that mean emailing / calling prospects? How many per day? How many trials does it take to convert one customer? These are simple metrics which will eventually help make your revenue "predictable." Great books on that topic. * Sales is #1 priority. SV is hyperfocused on brilliant engineers. In bootstrapping, it's all about money. I'd spend more on a great salesperson than an engineer. * Make yourself uncomfortable. Don't like cold calling? Cold call anyway. You'll get good (or at the very least not half bad) at everything. * Take care of yourself. You are your own vehicle to success. Your mind and body are business partners. Your bad habits can hinder you severely. 9-5 employees can come to work hungover every day and probably get by fine - but an entrepreneur can't. * If something isn't working, change it. If something's working, do more of it. That includes pivoting product, market, etc. * Don't get too elated or depressed. There can be incredible highs and crushing lows. Failure is a teacher but success is a better teacher. * Be humble. Recognize that you're an idiot and that you don't know shit, even when you think you know shit. It's how you keep your mind open to learning new things. Your own ego can be a roadblock to success. * Learn to delegate. When you start out you'll do everything — but eventually you will find you have low-level tasks which, if offloaded, would make you far more productive. That's when it's time to hire. Resist the urge to just do it yourself. Your ultimate goal is that you become the brain of the company and you delegate the physical work to the staff you've built. There's a lot more but those are the ones I could rattle off.

justin 8y ago
These are all the things I do to build my venture backed businesses :)
goatherders 8y ago
Well said. Sales is of critical importance. I try to outsource anything that costs less than my own hourly rate.
adamqureshi 8y ago
Damn this is by far the BEST advice i have read. HOLY SHIT! I would like to THANK YOU VERY MUCH whoever you are. I have been grinding it out with my tiny start up and its making $3k-$5k/month. I was thinking i need money to grow and should seek funding but then i realised what VC would fund me? i got no secret sauce no technology no VC would give a rats ass about my start up and anybody can copy me at any time. I been at it 2 1/2 years and i think now i will follow your advice and double down my efforts and use the profits to pay a contract SWIFT engineer to build an iOS. Then grow the thing AS much as i possibly can. I'm sorry for hitting you up for a sale but i always gotta be selling! If you have a tesla and would like to sell, please consider sending it to me: https://onlyusedtesla.com/ https://onlyusedtesla.com/