David S. Finch

Everything You Need to Know About Startups

Depending on who currently has your attention, opinions concerning business and the economy range from extremely optimistic, to the doom and gloom crowd. However, if you silence all the noise and listen carefully you'll discover innovators who are saying, "when everyone is selling, buy." "When businesses are closing their doors, it's time to start." In the thunderous sounds of negativity, your hearing pioneering voices cheering on creativity.

While it's easy to join the masses and play it safe, I'm constantly intrigued by those that push their creativity to a different level. Individuals like Dharmesh Shah, CEO of Hubspot who recently spoke at the Business of Software conference. Here is his presentation from that event that hopefully inspires you like it did me.

The Key Points from the video that I resonated with.

• Your idea can suck. Just get started.
• You can be in the middle of nowhere and still build a great business.
• Not having cash breeds good behavior. It’s helpful to have constraints.
• Write a blog, not a business plan.

For more insight into the presentation you can check out Dharmesh's post at Onstartups.com.

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How to Work Through the Beginning Phase

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Let's face your not who you were and your not yet who'll you be. In other words, everything you are and do evolves as you evolve.

The challenge to starting a new business, blog or any creative initiative, is that the beginning is far from the end that you have intended. In all reality your first attempt at producing this new creative idea is probably going to suck. Accepting that it sucks and moving forward is the key to arriving at the desired results.

Ira Glass, host and executive producer of the public radio show, This American Life, recounts his early mistakes in attempting to create quality content that is enjoyable to listen. There is some priceless wisdom in the video... Enjoy!

[via 43folders]

Technorati Tags: blogging, business, personal development, podcasting, video, writing

Facebook for the Wine Enthusiast

How about Facebook for the wine enthusiast? It's here and it's known as the OpenBottles. Sagi Solomon who started OpenBottles has made social networking a part of his marketing plan.

BusinessWeek.com: Building a Facebook for Wine:

Sagi Solomon founded OpenBottles in 2005. An attorney in San Jose, Calif., Solomon hopes to make the wine review and social-networking site his only full-time job next year. He deliberately avoided outside investment, however, because he does not want his vision for the company diluted. "It's costly to get venture financing, and you do give up not only equity in the company but overall control of strategy and where you want to take the business," Solomon says.His model for growth is Craigslist: "He started it on his own with no financing, and it's grown into this really vibrant community," Solomon says.

Solomon believes that community comes even before there ever is a profit.

"You can't just wait for profits. They don't just magically show up. You have to plan for them," he says. "If taking on debt does not contribute to plan, then don't do it."

Even with a solid plan and good product, building a self-funded startup takes patience. It's not the approach for entrepreneurs looking for big returns right away. "It took four years, to 2003, to get to a sort of tipping point where I had enough customers and cash flow, my first initial employee, enough hype, and a good enough product that now, things finally started to happen," says Stajer.

Self-funded entrepreneurs also face the risk that the significant time and money they put into their businesses may never yield profits. "It takes a lot of work," says Solomon, who invested $10,000 of his own savings in OpenBottles. "You're working nights. You're working weekends. You've got to make that investment."
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photo credit: yashima

Technorati Tags: business, entrepreneur, social networking