Me, when I got my startup idea
Happy New Year! May 2012 be the one when you commit way beyond your comfort zone. For many, this is a time of reflection and new year resolutions. The question I am raising today is: how resolved are you when it comes to your startup?
Here is an obvious truth that is often disregarded. If you want your startup to succeed, you have to work on it. Even when you’re smart, and carefully chose what to focus on, we’re talking lots and lots of time.
Many early stage startup founders I know break on this one. Or drag their feet for too long. I know I have. Established companies struggle with this one too. How do you create the time you need to work on your new business?
Here’s a personal guestimate: to begin with, you should be able to put at least 20-40 hours every week. This will only make things moving a bit. If you are smart, lucky, and working your ass off, with this time you may actually build to a point of investment or income, so you can actually start building a business.
If you are not able to do at least 20-40 hours a week, you are in the “dream phase”. And if you are not actively working on creating that time, you will remain there. If you are really onto a good idea, you better hurry up. I have no doubt others are working on it. Some with a full time team.
Often, it’s like this. You are working full time (your “day job”). You have a partner (GF, BF, DW, DH… you might even have a DS or a DD). And a social life. And you are dreaming of a new company. You cannot quit your job, as this is the only source of your livelihood. Your significant other doesn’t really appreciate you not spending any time with them.
How to get out of this one? I’ve worked almost a whole year on creating this time. There are several scenarios I tried along the way. I’m sure there are other, better ways. Please chime in through comments.
1. Intrepreneurship. I first tried to start something up within an existing company as “intrapreneur”. I was fortunate enough to have an environment where I could try. Doing this is an art in itself. Starting a new business is about searching for a new business model. Running an existing business is, well, executing and optimizing an established business model. These two tend to collide. And yeah, the incentives of starting something of your own are quite different than a fixed salary.
2. Build a team. In my opinion, this is really, really important. And really difficult. To run a startup, you’ll have to become a jack of all trades, and master of some. You will be the end responsible for product development, marketing, research, PR, sales, finance, legal, HR, fund raising… And, if you already have a day job, you have less than 40 hours for all of this. I worked hard on building a team. As I cannot pay them right away, I had to look for co-founders. The risk here is settling for whomever is willing to jump on the wagon. Next to you, your co-founder is the very most important asset of your startup, and if you divide equity, you’re stuck with them, like in a marriage with kids. They better be exceptional and committed themselves. And you still have the same issue: now you have even more responsibility, and you have to work the hardest.
3. Seed funding. In this part of the world, this is a tough one. You may be able to find some people who are willing to invest. There are some startup competitions where you can win a couple of tens of €K. If you are serious and incorporated, you may apply for a government grant. Hey, I’m actually building a business around grants, drop me a note if you want to know more.
4. Part time deal or freelance. If you are lucky like I was, you may work out a part time deal with your current employer. You will then need to work twice as hard (both on keeping your job, and running a new business), but you will create some extra space. For some, this might only be possible if done as freelance: doing short contracts.
5. Start a service business. Service business is easier to bootstrap. You can start by going out and selling. As soon as you can issue your first invoice, incorporate. There’s nothing wrong with a service business, it’s just difficult to scale. Every billable hour has to be earned by working. It could be tempting to start with services, with a plan to create a product. Beware: transition is very hard, I’ve seen it many times. You will find yourself struggling with the exact issue of this blog post, a few years down the line.
Got other ideas on making time for your new business? Please do share – many are really struggling with this one.
Thank you
A very relevant topic. Success ultimately depends on many non-quantifiable factors, your environment, personal situation, work.
Good suggestions how to address important questions.
I am doing #3 (freelance) so I don’t die of starvation.
When deadline looms or the bills pile up, the startup side-project stalls completely.
Somehow this seem to work for me better than multitasking from one client project to startup on the daily basis.
My biggest downer is inability to find a co-founding team, so perhaps this causes lack of motivation to switch projects in the second part of the day. It remains one-man-show from the bedroom, where I am involved in pretty much everything: marketing, mobile dev, even web dev and even “sales” (I approach potential clients, and promise free app/service in exchange for comments). So far the response is positive, so this keeps me going, but at times it is neither funny or productive.
Maybe it says something about the project itself, who knows…
Dying from starvation is known to have an impact on startup success.
It is easier with co-founders, and as you say, not only because you get help, but also to keep the spirits high.
^ it is #4 , obviously…