Founder's advice. Nikita Obukhov, Tilda Publishing

“Founder Councils” once again acquaint Megamind’s readers with IT market stars, founders and managers of their own business.

Nikita Obukhov - the founder and permanent manager of the Tilda Publishing service, has been working on the network for 15 years. Prior to Tilda, Nikita managed the FunkyPunky design studio, and now combines with the main work also the curator of the intensive web design at British Design High School.
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In 2014, Nikita launched the Tilda service, the main purpose of which is to help create cool landing pages and relatively simple web sites in a matter of days, little money and no large team of professional developers. Tilda claims that now, with the help of their platform, people create even online stores, as well as make up articles, editorial special projects and, simply, individual blogs.

A word to the founder.

Learn to do everything yourself

Forget about established norms. Who said that a designer cannot become a programmer, and a manager a designer? Yes, everyone advises hiring people smarter than themselves. But there is one nuance - usually such people have already found their place. And it will take at least six months from the start, while you start slowly gathering people with whom you can really go forward. And the second point - when you have an idea, you need a bunch of iterations to get a good result.

If you embody everything with someone else's hands, they will simply run away from you. It is very hard for an employee to do work, and the next day to get a comment: yes, everything works, but somehow it’s not ice, you have to redo everything from scratch. Long and painful to reach a given bar can only you.

Don't get involved in a partnership

All my attempts to find a like-minded person failed. Your partner will surely let you down, or instead of affairs will arrange endless discussions. The same goes for investment. Do not start with them. Money gives freedom, but also creates an illusion. Try to make a product and sell it to a small number of people without investing in advertising, promotion and perfect production. If the product is right, people will start buying it. This is the best way to make sure that you create something that people really need.

10 times think before you start something big

Business is the pain, stress and destruction of a person’s nerves. On the founder responsibility for everything: he does not sleep, constantly worries, he has no days off. Always the most extreme.

Realize your prospects

Not all businesses can scale. And if yours refers to such, do not try to build an empire, but simply enjoy what is. For example, training on Skype. My teacher is trying to create a big school, but complains that it is difficult for him to grow, because there are few teachers and high competition. - Relax! You are doing well now. Another example, my good friend has grown into a private practice and has opened a school offline. Growth began and after a few years she was forced to quit, because she lacked strength and health. After six months, she began to smile again. The question is, for what. Sometimes it is much more profitable to stay small because you will be happier this way.

Continuously improve product

On the other hand, man is always small. As soon as you achieve something, you want more. And this, unfortunately, is not treated. But this energy can be directed to improving what you can embrace. Continually improve the product. If it seems to you that it is possible to reach some point in production, and then just pour money into advertising ... Well, that can also be done. But there is always someone young and hungry who wants to do better. Do not give them a chance.

Editorial note: if you have a desire to participate in the “Founder’s Tips” section, write to us at editor (at) megamozg.ru