26 tips for novice startups from an experienced entrepreneur
* This article was first published in Forbes magazine on June 27, 2014. On Habré its full version is published.
For the past 9 years, I have been involved in internet business, and during this time I managed to create and bring to profitability 5 of my own startups. In addition, one of my main businesses is custom web development, which is often visited by clients who want to develop their own Internet startup, and therefore I’ve come across different projects every day for 9 years, many of which are startups in the full sense of the word . Even on LinkedIn, one of my first skills is Start-ups. Something all this start-up romance attracts me, I like to build new companies or separate independent lines of business in already existing companies.
Creating my start-ups and start-ups of my clients, I came to the conclusion that 95% of all startups are fundamentally wrong approach to the creation of new companies and therefore burn out. In this article, I want to talk about my rather rich experience in this difficult matter and save novice startups from fatal mistakes.
')
Immediately let's see what I mean by "startup"? For me, this is, above all, a business. A new project with an unverified idea that we want to turn into a profitable business. Therefore, I always consider any startup as an entrepreneur-manager and advise everyone to treat start-ups in the same way. My thoughts will be worth it from an entrepreneur-manager.
The main thing is the idea. The main problem of many startups is that they start to even think about startups incorrectly. Most people for some reason think that the most important thing in a startup is an idea. This is not entirely true. The idea is not a business and not even a startup. This is an intangible thought in your head that may be mistaken. Until this idea starts to bring you money - from an economic point of view, it does not cost anything. Of course, it is very a pity to tell someone, and suddenly steal? What if she can bring a billion? And what if I am half a step to a great success? All these thoughts very often arise in the minds of start-up entrepreneurs, but the idea is still very small.
Investments. Another fairly large percentage of startups think that the most important thing is investment. This is also not true. Most Internet startups can start without any investment at all, on the small things that you have in your pocket. If you don’t have “little things in your pocket,” then it’s too early for you to go into startups, you need to learn how to earn something by a hired employee. If you already work and earn something, this is enough for a start. In any case, investments are actually other people's money that you receive under commitments. If you have not previously been a director of the company and you haven’t earned / spent money on a business yourself, then you will spend any amount of investments uselessly, at this stage of your personal development you will only be hurt and demotivated by investments.
Adolescent syndrome Many startups can see such a “teen syndrome” when a start-up thinks he knows everything about business and accurately sees how to succeed. Even if the idea of a startup is correct, the path to success will change 1000 times more in the process of achieving it, and as it was intended at the beginning, it definitely won't be.
The main thing is the product. Almost everyone starts their startup with product development (often the site is a product). All resources, including financial, are thrown at him. There are two mistakes at once: first, most likely, you will have a product created in isolation from customers, and they may not want to buy it. Secondly, there may not be enough money for marketing and sales, and this is more important than a product.
Sov management. This mistake is mainly made by managers over 40 years old. People with already established business approaches who have learned to “do business” in a scoop or in the dashing 90s are trying to apply the same approach to IT projects. This can be expressed in the methodology of project management, when at best they try to apply Waterfall, and more often they don’t use methodologies at all. It can be expressed in hard budget constraints on development. It can be expressed in arm twisting to contractors when they are perceived not as partners, but as slaves. And many more interesting things can be.
In my opinion, these are the most serious mistakes, but not a complete list. Any of the errors above will most likely destroy your startup, and if several errors at once are 100% failure.
I briefly talked about errors, now I want to highlight a number of rules that will help to achieve success and get into those 5% of successful projects.
1. Test the niche. Before a serious launch of the product is worth testing a niche. This can be done with the help of verbal agreements and the first trial sales, you can make a stub or a whole serious landing page with basic information and check the reaction of users, and in some cases you can even make a prototype or take a template site. In any case, you should not be based on guesswork, but on the real reaction of people to your product.
2. Start with sales. Salespeople have a saying: “A good salesman can even sell air!”. And this is true: you can and should sell even before the release of your product. A startup needs to start with understanding how exactly you will sell your product. When you understand how to sell, ideally you need to check it out: find potential customers, tell us about your product and take a prepayment. There may still be no product, and you are already obliged to establish contact with customers and get at least preliminary agreements. The most ideal case: it is a lot to sell at once, so that the money received is enough to create a product and then there is no need for investment. In addition, one of the first departments that will need to be built in a startup is the sales department.
3. Team. The most important thing in IT is people. They will be the engine of the product. Find a first-class team that will be able to: create, promote, and manage your project. It is necessary to highlight the skills that your project needs in the first place, to take on some of the responsibilities (but only what you can do really well), to get helpers for the part, and to outsource the main part to professionals. It is especially important to outsource one-time or small permanent jobs, so that you do not pay a specialist who will work 2 hours out of 8 workers per day. Start with people who can sell or help in this in some other way. And do not forget that with pure enthusiasm, the project is unlikely to be completed, and good specialists are expensive.
4. Methodology. The project management methodology should be, and I advise for the development of large websites of Internet startups - Agile. This is only part of the management, but it concerns one of the most important parts of the Internet business site. The bottom line is that you can flexibly manage the requirements and progress of the project. An Internet project is always a very unpredictable thing. Even the most experienced specialist will never say exactly what needs to be done and how long it will take. Due to the specifics of our industry, it is better to choose a flexible project management methodology. There are other parts of the management of the company, but about them later.
5. Start small. Very often, start-up start-ups try to build a “spaceship” and therefore go bankrupt. Split the project into a beta version and everything else. The beta version should include the most basic functions with which you can enter the market, and then this product can be updated monthly. The task of a startup is to bring the product to the market as quickly and inexpensively as possible, while the first version that is trimmed by function should still be of high quality. However, it is not worth cutting too hard, the beta should carry value and be able to compete in the market. And in general: simplicity is good!
6. Marketing. Think of marketing from the start. It must be taken into account when creating a product, and when creating a website and in the future. Marketing should give a good influx of customers, be fully considered and controlled. The marketing budget must be several times greater than the budget for product creation. Do not think that a good product will be sold by itself - this is a myth.
7. External consultants. For some reason, it is not customary to turn to external consultants in the open spaces of Runet. This is a huge mistake. Any startup has a bunch of important tasks that need first-class specialists to solve. It is not necessary to hire the best specialist in the market, it can be attracted as part of a consultation, say, for 2 hours, for which he will decide or tell you how to solve an important issue and take even $ 1000 for these 2 hours, but it will be better than you yourself will try to solve the same question without having the necessary experience and as a result you can inflict significantly more losses on your project. With a budget, you can even hire entire companies in the same format. This is a western approach: to attract consultants or to outsource something and it really works. It's time to go further than just the incoming admin or remote accountant.
8. Investments. You do not need them at the very beginning, start without investment. An investor is an obligation, an extra load. If you can’t make preliminary sales, it means that your idea is probably not as good as you think, and having taken an investor on board, you can remain without panties in the end. Investors can be attracted when an idea is tested and money is needed to accelerate growth, but not before.
9. Start young. You can start your business at any age. And at 20 and at 60. I once met a study that showed interesting figures: up to 30 years, only 3% of entrepreneurs started their business. The study was American, in the post-Soviet countries, I think this figure will be slightly higher. I myself started my first startup at a very early age and I advise you to try your first business in 20-25 years, while you still have time, there are parents who provide you, no family to feed. A startup will take a lot of time and, most likely, will bring little money or even generate a loss for the first 3 years. If you do not start young, the next ideal period when you can start it is 30-40 years, when you already get a lot of experience and accumulate start-up capital. In any case, with age, the chances of starting a business will fall for a number of reasons.
10. Do not give up. Most likely, I would say 99%, that moment will come when it will be so hard that it will seem to you as the end of your startup. If you look at the history of well-known entrepreneurs, you will find that many of them were on the verge of bankruptcy or even bankrupt. For example, PepsiCo was 2 times bankrupt and this is a multi-billion dollar business! Honestly, I myself for the 9 years of my business have been 3 times on the verge of bankruptcy, but, thank God, I have never failed.
11. The growth paradox. The faster the growth, the more money to support growth will be needed and the more they will be missed. In other words: the more successful the project - the less money. Prepare for the fact that as long as your startup is a fast-growing small business, it is more likely to be unprofitable.
12. Personal income will be scanty. Many people quit their old job and start their startup in search of a better life, but not everyone understands that the personal income of a startup will be scanty in the next few years after launch. You should not believe in beautiful stories about the good life, it is better to immediately prepare for the fall in personal income several times, and more often to a loss, until your startup turns into a stable business.
13. All make out documented. Whether you want to or not, but all agreements with partners, investors and customers need to be documented and should be taken very seriously. This is a business and sooner or later they will try to throw you, so it’s better to be ready for this. Immediately share the shares with partners and fix it in the contracts. Immediately register all conditions with investors before receiving the money. In the b2b sector, enter into contracts with customers, and if you have a website service, like SaaS, make an offer agreement.
14. Strategy and tactics. You must have a development plan for the next 3 years. And both strategy and tactical ideas. Do not confuse with the business plan. Still, there is such an elementary, but very useful thing - a tree of goals. The meaning of the method is that there is one big goal (trunk) and many small ones that need to be achieved before the main one (branches) is reached. In other words, you may want to build a billion-dollar company, but on the way from the desire to a billion you will need to achieve many more smaller goals.
15. Lean Startup Strategy. Are you lucky and have money? This is great, but no matter how much money you have, it will still be small. Start to spend money carefully from the very beginning and do not spend it just like that. Think ten times: do you really need what you want to buy or can you do without it? Remember about the principle of "Occam's Razor", it can be used literally in everything.
16. The site is all the same important. We are talking about Internet startups, so the site will be very important, it will be the basis of large sales. It is important to achieve a good conversion, and before that actually understand what goals you need to set for the site and what we will mean by this very “conversion”. To create an effective site you need to start with its professional design. Think over marketing on the site, make a professional selling texts, adaptive layout, etc. In many ways, a startup site is also a PR tool. And yes, a good site is expensive, but where, if not in the site to invest money in an Internet startup!? Make a cool site and you will be taken seriously. As Margaret Thatcher said: “The first impression can be made only once.”
17. Trust the team. If you started to make a start-up and attracted professional performers to it, they should be trusted within their competencies. It is very often possible to observe when the founder of a startup tries to think for everyone and begins to crawl into areas of which he knows nothing. The most common problem is when the founder tells the designer how to do the design. If you have already attracted professionals, then it is better to listen to their opinions and in places even blindly trust.
18. Delegate. For a beginner start-up this can be a problem, and there are many. You need to be able to delegate your responsibilities to subordinates along with responsibility, otherwise the founder will be overloaded, and the performers will sit idle. It is necessary to entrust the maximum work to the performers, but at the same time to constantly control it, otherwise it will not be done or will be done not at all in the way that the founder needs.
19. KPI. Before launching a startup, think over key performance indicators (KPIs). It is necessary to measure literally everything, especially at the start of the project, so that in case of anything - to correct its development. Think what and at what stage the most important thing for a startup? Often in the first year attendance may be the most important, the second is turnover, and the third is net profit. And maybe the opposite. It all depends on the goals. Statistics and analytics need to be accumulated, periodically made retrospectives, take into account the experience of the industry as a whole. Ask yourself: “what can be considered a success, and what is a failure?”.
20. Jur. persons, offshore, etc. For a startup at the very beginning a legal entity is not necessary. First make the first serious trade verbally and make a legal statement for it. face, it is done very quickly if desired. Moreover, you do not need to go offshore - this is for big businesses. The only thing that needs to be done is when you are still going to attract an investor. But it is also too late to do jur. face not worth it. The ideal option in the process of product development and after jur. the person to issue a domain, copyright to the site and a trademark.
21. Lack of time. Almost immediately after the start you will start having problems with lack of time. This is an eternal problem that cannot be fully solved, but the situation can be improved. First, plan your work: for the day, for the week, for the month, for the year, for 3 years and for 5 years. Secondly, divide all cases into groups according to urgency and importance, so that your time does not take a turn for a while, but goes towards solving important business problems. Thirdly, try to delegate.
22. Keep your word. Trite, but not everyone can fulfill these obligations. To begin with, very carefully and cautiously give promises. They can be given to customers, partners or employees, it is absolutely not important, the most important thing is to always carry them out.
23. Do not work with friends and relatives. If you break this rule, then with a high degree of probability you will destroy your relations with people close to you. It happens almost always.
24. You change. Business changes people and you change too. First of all, the perception of the surrounding world will change, you will become better understood. Moreover, the changes will take place in several stages: immediately after the start, after hiring the first employees and after turning the startup into a successful business. This is not to be afraid, it is a good change.
25. Do not allow the "burnout manager." If you work a lot for wear, then you may be faced with a “manager burnout” when it becomes uninteresting to work and the motivation drops to almost zero. This is more a psychological burnout, which means you can fight it. Find a balance between work and rest, try to travel, try to increase positive emotions in life and reduce negative ones.
26. Start now! Most of the projects remain in the minds of their creators. Absolutely nothing prevents you from starting right now, right after reading this article! No lack of money, no job, no family. To begin, set aside an hour and start, it will be easier further.
PS I invite you to your author course in the business school "Digitov": Internet project management - on the course I will teach you to professionally manage projects and, of course, talk a lot about startups.
PPS To receive our new articles before others or simply not to miss new publications - subscribe to the SECL Group's fan pages: Facebook , VK , and Twitter .
Original article: http://seclgroup.ru/article-26-startup-advices.html
Author:
Nikita Semenov
CEO
SECL Group Company
For the past 9 years, I have been involved in internet business, and during this time I managed to create and bring to profitability 5 of my own startups. In addition, one of my main businesses is custom web development, which is often visited by clients who want to develop their own Internet startup, and therefore I’ve come across different projects every day for 9 years, many of which are startups in the full sense of the word . Even on LinkedIn, one of my first skills is Start-ups. Something all this start-up romance attracts me, I like to build new companies or separate independent lines of business in already existing companies.Creating my start-ups and start-ups of my clients, I came to the conclusion that 95% of all startups are fundamentally wrong approach to the creation of new companies and therefore burn out. In this article, I want to talk about my rather rich experience in this difficult matter and save novice startups from fatal mistakes.
')
Immediately let's see what I mean by "startup"? For me, this is, above all, a business. A new project with an unverified idea that we want to turn into a profitable business. Therefore, I always consider any startup as an entrepreneur-manager and advise everyone to treat start-ups in the same way. My thoughts will be worth it from an entrepreneur-manager.
Top 5 mistakes startups
The main thing is the idea. The main problem of many startups is that they start to even think about startups incorrectly. Most people for some reason think that the most important thing in a startup is an idea. This is not entirely true. The idea is not a business and not even a startup. This is an intangible thought in your head that may be mistaken. Until this idea starts to bring you money - from an economic point of view, it does not cost anything. Of course, it is very a pity to tell someone, and suddenly steal? What if she can bring a billion? And what if I am half a step to a great success? All these thoughts very often arise in the minds of start-up entrepreneurs, but the idea is still very small.
Investments. Another fairly large percentage of startups think that the most important thing is investment. This is also not true. Most Internet startups can start without any investment at all, on the small things that you have in your pocket. If you don’t have “little things in your pocket,” then it’s too early for you to go into startups, you need to learn how to earn something by a hired employee. If you already work and earn something, this is enough for a start. In any case, investments are actually other people's money that you receive under commitments. If you have not previously been a director of the company and you haven’t earned / spent money on a business yourself, then you will spend any amount of investments uselessly, at this stage of your personal development you will only be hurt and demotivated by investments.
Adolescent syndrome Many startups can see such a “teen syndrome” when a start-up thinks he knows everything about business and accurately sees how to succeed. Even if the idea of a startup is correct, the path to success will change 1000 times more in the process of achieving it, and as it was intended at the beginning, it definitely won't be.
The main thing is the product. Almost everyone starts their startup with product development (often the site is a product). All resources, including financial, are thrown at him. There are two mistakes at once: first, most likely, you will have a product created in isolation from customers, and they may not want to buy it. Secondly, there may not be enough money for marketing and sales, and this is more important than a product.
Sov management. This mistake is mainly made by managers over 40 years old. People with already established business approaches who have learned to “do business” in a scoop or in the dashing 90s are trying to apply the same approach to IT projects. This can be expressed in the methodology of project management, when at best they try to apply Waterfall, and more often they don’t use methodologies at all. It can be expressed in hard budget constraints on development. It can be expressed in arm twisting to contractors when they are perceived not as partners, but as slaves. And many more interesting things can be.
In my opinion, these are the most serious mistakes, but not a complete list. Any of the errors above will most likely destroy your startup, and if several errors at once are 100% failure.
How to succeed?
I briefly talked about errors, now I want to highlight a number of rules that will help to achieve success and get into those 5% of successful projects.
1. Test the niche. Before a serious launch of the product is worth testing a niche. This can be done with the help of verbal agreements and the first trial sales, you can make a stub or a whole serious landing page with basic information and check the reaction of users, and in some cases you can even make a prototype or take a template site. In any case, you should not be based on guesswork, but on the real reaction of people to your product.
2. Start with sales. Salespeople have a saying: “A good salesman can even sell air!”. And this is true: you can and should sell even before the release of your product. A startup needs to start with understanding how exactly you will sell your product. When you understand how to sell, ideally you need to check it out: find potential customers, tell us about your product and take a prepayment. There may still be no product, and you are already obliged to establish contact with customers and get at least preliminary agreements. The most ideal case: it is a lot to sell at once, so that the money received is enough to create a product and then there is no need for investment. In addition, one of the first departments that will need to be built in a startup is the sales department.
3. Team. The most important thing in IT is people. They will be the engine of the product. Find a first-class team that will be able to: create, promote, and manage your project. It is necessary to highlight the skills that your project needs in the first place, to take on some of the responsibilities (but only what you can do really well), to get helpers for the part, and to outsource the main part to professionals. It is especially important to outsource one-time or small permanent jobs, so that you do not pay a specialist who will work 2 hours out of 8 workers per day. Start with people who can sell or help in this in some other way. And do not forget that with pure enthusiasm, the project is unlikely to be completed, and good specialists are expensive.
4. Methodology. The project management methodology should be, and I advise for the development of large websites of Internet startups - Agile. This is only part of the management, but it concerns one of the most important parts of the Internet business site. The bottom line is that you can flexibly manage the requirements and progress of the project. An Internet project is always a very unpredictable thing. Even the most experienced specialist will never say exactly what needs to be done and how long it will take. Due to the specifics of our industry, it is better to choose a flexible project management methodology. There are other parts of the management of the company, but about them later.
5. Start small. Very often, start-up start-ups try to build a “spaceship” and therefore go bankrupt. Split the project into a beta version and everything else. The beta version should include the most basic functions with which you can enter the market, and then this product can be updated monthly. The task of a startup is to bring the product to the market as quickly and inexpensively as possible, while the first version that is trimmed by function should still be of high quality. However, it is not worth cutting too hard, the beta should carry value and be able to compete in the market. And in general: simplicity is good!
6. Marketing. Think of marketing from the start. It must be taken into account when creating a product, and when creating a website and in the future. Marketing should give a good influx of customers, be fully considered and controlled. The marketing budget must be several times greater than the budget for product creation. Do not think that a good product will be sold by itself - this is a myth.
7. External consultants. For some reason, it is not customary to turn to external consultants in the open spaces of Runet. This is a huge mistake. Any startup has a bunch of important tasks that need first-class specialists to solve. It is not necessary to hire the best specialist in the market, it can be attracted as part of a consultation, say, for 2 hours, for which he will decide or tell you how to solve an important issue and take even $ 1000 for these 2 hours, but it will be better than you yourself will try to solve the same question without having the necessary experience and as a result you can inflict significantly more losses on your project. With a budget, you can even hire entire companies in the same format. This is a western approach: to attract consultants or to outsource something and it really works. It's time to go further than just the incoming admin or remote accountant.
8. Investments. You do not need them at the very beginning, start without investment. An investor is an obligation, an extra load. If you can’t make preliminary sales, it means that your idea is probably not as good as you think, and having taken an investor on board, you can remain without panties in the end. Investors can be attracted when an idea is tested and money is needed to accelerate growth, but not before.
9. Start young. You can start your business at any age. And at 20 and at 60. I once met a study that showed interesting figures: up to 30 years, only 3% of entrepreneurs started their business. The study was American, in the post-Soviet countries, I think this figure will be slightly higher. I myself started my first startup at a very early age and I advise you to try your first business in 20-25 years, while you still have time, there are parents who provide you, no family to feed. A startup will take a lot of time and, most likely, will bring little money or even generate a loss for the first 3 years. If you do not start young, the next ideal period when you can start it is 30-40 years, when you already get a lot of experience and accumulate start-up capital. In any case, with age, the chances of starting a business will fall for a number of reasons.
10. Do not give up. Most likely, I would say 99%, that moment will come when it will be so hard that it will seem to you as the end of your startup. If you look at the history of well-known entrepreneurs, you will find that many of them were on the verge of bankruptcy or even bankrupt. For example, PepsiCo was 2 times bankrupt and this is a multi-billion dollar business! Honestly, I myself for the 9 years of my business have been 3 times on the verge of bankruptcy, but, thank God, I have never failed.
11. The growth paradox. The faster the growth, the more money to support growth will be needed and the more they will be missed. In other words: the more successful the project - the less money. Prepare for the fact that as long as your startup is a fast-growing small business, it is more likely to be unprofitable.
12. Personal income will be scanty. Many people quit their old job and start their startup in search of a better life, but not everyone understands that the personal income of a startup will be scanty in the next few years after launch. You should not believe in beautiful stories about the good life, it is better to immediately prepare for the fall in personal income several times, and more often to a loss, until your startup turns into a stable business.
13. All make out documented. Whether you want to or not, but all agreements with partners, investors and customers need to be documented and should be taken very seriously. This is a business and sooner or later they will try to throw you, so it’s better to be ready for this. Immediately share the shares with partners and fix it in the contracts. Immediately register all conditions with investors before receiving the money. In the b2b sector, enter into contracts with customers, and if you have a website service, like SaaS, make an offer agreement.
14. Strategy and tactics. You must have a development plan for the next 3 years. And both strategy and tactical ideas. Do not confuse with the business plan. Still, there is such an elementary, but very useful thing - a tree of goals. The meaning of the method is that there is one big goal (trunk) and many small ones that need to be achieved before the main one (branches) is reached. In other words, you may want to build a billion-dollar company, but on the way from the desire to a billion you will need to achieve many more smaller goals.
15. Lean Startup Strategy. Are you lucky and have money? This is great, but no matter how much money you have, it will still be small. Start to spend money carefully from the very beginning and do not spend it just like that. Think ten times: do you really need what you want to buy or can you do without it? Remember about the principle of "Occam's Razor", it can be used literally in everything.
16. The site is all the same important. We are talking about Internet startups, so the site will be very important, it will be the basis of large sales. It is important to achieve a good conversion, and before that actually understand what goals you need to set for the site and what we will mean by this very “conversion”. To create an effective site you need to start with its professional design. Think over marketing on the site, make a professional selling texts, adaptive layout, etc. In many ways, a startup site is also a PR tool. And yes, a good site is expensive, but where, if not in the site to invest money in an Internet startup!? Make a cool site and you will be taken seriously. As Margaret Thatcher said: “The first impression can be made only once.”
17. Trust the team. If you started to make a start-up and attracted professional performers to it, they should be trusted within their competencies. It is very often possible to observe when the founder of a startup tries to think for everyone and begins to crawl into areas of which he knows nothing. The most common problem is when the founder tells the designer how to do the design. If you have already attracted professionals, then it is better to listen to their opinions and in places even blindly trust.
18. Delegate. For a beginner start-up this can be a problem, and there are many. You need to be able to delegate your responsibilities to subordinates along with responsibility, otherwise the founder will be overloaded, and the performers will sit idle. It is necessary to entrust the maximum work to the performers, but at the same time to constantly control it, otherwise it will not be done or will be done not at all in the way that the founder needs.
19. KPI. Before launching a startup, think over key performance indicators (KPIs). It is necessary to measure literally everything, especially at the start of the project, so that in case of anything - to correct its development. Think what and at what stage the most important thing for a startup? Often in the first year attendance may be the most important, the second is turnover, and the third is net profit. And maybe the opposite. It all depends on the goals. Statistics and analytics need to be accumulated, periodically made retrospectives, take into account the experience of the industry as a whole. Ask yourself: “what can be considered a success, and what is a failure?”.
20. Jur. persons, offshore, etc. For a startup at the very beginning a legal entity is not necessary. First make the first serious trade verbally and make a legal statement for it. face, it is done very quickly if desired. Moreover, you do not need to go offshore - this is for big businesses. The only thing that needs to be done is when you are still going to attract an investor. But it is also too late to do jur. face not worth it. The ideal option in the process of product development and after jur. the person to issue a domain, copyright to the site and a trademark.
21. Lack of time. Almost immediately after the start you will start having problems with lack of time. This is an eternal problem that cannot be fully solved, but the situation can be improved. First, plan your work: for the day, for the week, for the month, for the year, for 3 years and for 5 years. Secondly, divide all cases into groups according to urgency and importance, so that your time does not take a turn for a while, but goes towards solving important business problems. Thirdly, try to delegate.
22. Keep your word. Trite, but not everyone can fulfill these obligations. To begin with, very carefully and cautiously give promises. They can be given to customers, partners or employees, it is absolutely not important, the most important thing is to always carry them out.
23. Do not work with friends and relatives. If you break this rule, then with a high degree of probability you will destroy your relations with people close to you. It happens almost always.
24. You change. Business changes people and you change too. First of all, the perception of the surrounding world will change, you will become better understood. Moreover, the changes will take place in several stages: immediately after the start, after hiring the first employees and after turning the startup into a successful business. This is not to be afraid, it is a good change.
25. Do not allow the "burnout manager." If you work a lot for wear, then you may be faced with a “manager burnout” when it becomes uninteresting to work and the motivation drops to almost zero. This is more a psychological burnout, which means you can fight it. Find a balance between work and rest, try to travel, try to increase positive emotions in life and reduce negative ones.
26. Start now! Most of the projects remain in the minds of their creators. Absolutely nothing prevents you from starting right now, right after reading this article! No lack of money, no job, no family. To begin, set aside an hour and start, it will be easier further.
PS I invite you to your author course in the business school "Digitov": Internet project management - on the course I will teach you to professionally manage projects and, of course, talk a lot about startups.
PPS To receive our new articles before others or simply not to miss new publications - subscribe to the SECL Group's fan pages: Facebook , VK , and Twitter .
Original article: http://seclgroup.ru/article-26-startup-advices.html
Author:
Nikita Semenov
CEO
SECL Group Company
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/244895/
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