Dear Entrepreneur. Danny Bailey
and co-founder of StartUp Britain (www.startupbritain.org)
Alyssa Smith
Dear Entrepreneur,
It is so important for businesses to get noticed and stand out from the crowd in any positive way they can. It’s such a crowded market out there, and my advice to anyone wanting to start up a business who perhaps does not have funding, investment or much in the way of start up funds would be to make yourself different and make your business stand out. Social media as a powerful and free marketing tool is very important, as it can help you reach a worldwide audience and tell people about your business who may not otherwise find you.
I also have lots of celebrities who endorse my products, which is again free publicity, and a very effective way of marketing. If you are looking to have endorsements from celebrities, my advice would be to choose carefully, and use someone who will reflect your company or brand in a positive way.
When I started my business, I made the most of any free PR available to me, frequently offering to write for magazines and newspapers, which is a great way of getting your name out there, and for free. Magazines are usually interested in your story as long as the angle and content is interesting and relevant to their readers, so this is something to bear in mind.
Anyone who thinks that starting a business is easy is completely wrong. Before you start your business, make sure that you are ready for some serious hurdles and are very thick skinned. It’s hard, but if you have fire in your belly and the passion and determination to succeed, you can!
Alyssa Smith
Founder and director, Alyssa Smith
Audioboo
Dear Entrepreneur,
Both you and I aren’t very special or iconic manifestations of the beauty of the free market. We are often misfits, beneficiaries of inherited wealth or education or just plain lucky. My last business – which sold for $60m after four years – happened because my builder talked to the builder of my future partner. Never underestimate the role of serendipity in success, despite everything else that may be stacked against you.
There is maybe a right way to do this start-up thing and a number of wrongs ways. Most of which I have probably tried. I am imbued with a sense of optimism over the most ridiculous ideas. Remind me to tell you one day about the themed pizza delivery business (Margherita’s delivered by a girl called Margherita, American Hot delivered by… well you get the picture!). It never got off the ground. Nor the Love Egg you could use to relay your email. And. And. And.
So read on with that in mind and take what you need and leave the rest behind.
1 Embrace failure since it shows you what you should be doing right. There is nothing wrong with making bad decisions if the only other option is not to make a decision at all. Creating new stuff is very Darwinion and natural selection will easily cull the ideas that can’t or won’t work.
2 Hire people that are better than you. A very simple rule that builds great teams. And great teams build great businesses.
3 If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Suggest opportunities to people you want to work with. Then suggest again. And again. It may piss them off but it hasn’t cost you anything but your pride. And sometimes, just sometimes, they may finally say yes.
4 Be nice. You don’t have to be a wanker or a bully to succeed. It may help in the short term but it doesn’t make anyone’s life any easier or richer. Including your own.
5 Be good. Always think what you can do to help others if your idea works. It’s great to be successful and hopefully be rich. It’s also better to know that you have the power to affect a change – in one person’s life or in a nations’ – that someone working for a company can never do.
6 Don’t fret about valuation when raising money. If investors are going to shaft you then they will find an opportunity regardless of how much you stand up to them. That’s called having the wrong investors. Just focus on the opportunity you may miss if you obsess with a perceived value.
7 Change the plan when you have to. The first soldiers on Utah Beach on D-Day in 1944 were blown off course and considerably south of their landing point. They could have manoeuvred slowly back to where the plan stated. Instead they landed where they were and famously stated, “We’ll start the war from here!” Do the same.
8 Have fun. Or try your best to have fun. Or, at the very least, wake up in the morning hoping you’re going to have at least a slight bit of fun. Despite the pressure and pain of starting something new, when you don’t enjoy it anymore it’s a sign it’s time to sell out or move on.
9 Stay close to your family and friends. Being an entrepreneur is the loneliest job in the world. You need the people that love you despite yourself to stay dear to you.
10 And finally, believe in yourself. Because a lot of the time no one else will until a certain moment in time is reached. It was William Gibson who said, “The future has already arrived — it’s just not evenly distributed yet.” You may just have to wait a bit longer than you thought for your success and vision to shine through.
Regards, and watching out for your future success that ignores each point here.
Mark Rock
Founder & CEO, Audioboo Ltd
BBOXX
Dear Entrepreneur,
Assuming you have a good idea:
Get a great contact network – reality check: whatever you plan to achieve probably can’t be done on your own. Get to know people in your proposed industry or even supporting industries that you could call on at a later date. Go to those cheesy networking events where even though it feels like everybody is interested in self-promotion, you may just find that interested party that will serve you well in the future.
Get a buzz going about your product/service – enter competitions, speak to the media at every opportunity, get a great website and social media presence – all will help raise your profile without costing a ridiculous amount.
Work frigging hard – some of our team worked two jobs to get the business off the ground; most people in these pages probably did the same. Expect to work 80+ hours a week if you want to make a new venture a sustainable success. If your idea is good enough then long hours will probably mean success.
Know your customers – and this applies not just to the people you are selling to but also the potential people who may be investing in you. Go and meet them on a regular basis rather then send them countless emails they will read and forget.
Develop a balanced team with different skills – initially you will do everything and anything for your business, probably because there is not many of you. However, there comes a point where you need to focus on certain tasks that generate the most revenue – employing people with the key skills your business needs, be it in marketing, engineering or logistics etc is crucial and allows you to concentrate on making the only thing that matters at the end of the day: sales.
Make use of mobile tech and flexible working – if your business allows it, you don’t need an expensive office. If you can do everything on a phone/tablet, sat in a coffee shop abusing the free wi-fi, then you can slash your monthly costs and spend money where it really matters.
Finally, don’t be afraid to modify your