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Rondam Ramblings: Top ten geek business myths
by Decius at 10:34 pm EDT, Oct 2, 2006 |
A brilliant idea is neither necessary nor sufficient for a successful business, although all else being equal it can't hurt. Microsoft is probably the canonical example of a successful business, and it has never had a single brilliant idea in its entire history.
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RE: Rondam Ramblings: Top ten geek business myths
by flynn23 at 5:59 am EDT, Oct 5, 2006 |
Decius wrote: A brilliant idea is neither necessary nor sufficient for a successful business, although all else being equal it can't hurt. Microsoft is probably the canonical example of a successful business, and it has never had a single brilliant idea in its entire history.
An excellent and succinct list of things that people worry about when they need not. I'll add another one... people always ask me about things like filing for your business license and getting an attorney or an accountant. These seem to always be big barriers and there's some entrance fee in order to procure these services. With the exception of having someone who knows what they are doing helping with your financial business plans, all of these ancilliary services are moot until you have revenue and even then, you could probably go a quarter or maybe even two before you need to get straight with this stuff. Concentrate on the most important thing: the customer. Everything else is a waste of time until you are well on your way to pleasing the customer to the point where they're willing to give you money (and more money). The only real exception to this is if you hire employees, then you have to be 100% legal and legit in order to not run afoul of several institutions. And no, that doesn't include yourself or contractors. |
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Rondam Ramblings: Top ten geek business myths
by Lost at 4:10 pm EDT, Oct 4, 2006 |
Myth #8: I need $5 million to start my business Reality: Unless you're building hardware (in which case you should definitely rethink what you're doing) you most likely don't need any startup capital at all. Paul Graham has written extensively about this so I won't belabor it too much, except to say this: you don't need much startup capital, but what you do need is a willingness to work your buns off. You have to bring your brilliant idea to fruition yourself; no one else will do it for you, and no one will give you the money to hire someone to do it for you. The reason is very simple: if you don't believe in the commercial potential of your idea enough to give up your evenings and weekends to own a bigger chunk of it, why should anyone else believe in it enough to put their hard-earned money at risk?
Get a prototype working, a simple version of the thing you want to sell, or pack up and go home. |
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