[Guest Post] Notes from a Startup – the 7 best lessons I’ve learnt

By , 29 January 2013 at 18:12
[Guest Post] Notes from a Startup – the 7 best lessons I’ve learnt
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[Guest Post] Notes from a Startup – the 7 best lessons I’ve learnt

By , 29 January 2013 at 18:12

By Rich Martell (@richmartell), founder of Floxx Media Group

I started my first business when I was 15 and still at school. I found education useful but there are some big things it forgot to teach me. Here’s my guide to the essentials you need to know before starting out in business:

1. Time is worth more than money

Only when you leave university do you realise how few hours are in a day. Alas, you can no longer watch Countdown. Squeeze progression out of every second of every working day and your downtime will be better too. You have to be smart with your time so be prepared to say no to requests for unnecessary meetings.

2. Hustle – yes, hustle

“Don’t ask, don’t get” is so true. It always surprises me how much you can get for free. When we first moved into our own office we found an open wifi that we used for 6 months – for free. When you start up you have to quite literally beg, borrow and steal to survive sometimes.

3. It is actually okay to fail

University surrounds you with successful academics and a solid consensus that failure is bad. Nowadays – especially in tech – failure is just a cool way to sift out the best ideas. Some of most well known companies have been spun out of failures. Take Instagram, or Twitter for example. Both initial concepts were deemed as failures yet the founders learned from their mistakes and ended up turning them into billion dollar businesses.

 4. It’s impossible to know everything

At school you prepare to pass exams. In my experience, exams are not a realistic test of ability. In the real world, provided you can find out the right answer eventually, you’ll be fine. The biggest challenge of building a business is working out the unknowns – it’s also part of the fun.

5. Done is better than perfect

Develop your idea, ship it quickly and get feedback. Don’t waste time on final details before getting the alpha testers in. Even if you are embarrassed by your work at that point, the learning factor completely outweighs that. It’s much better to get a product out there an iterate on it than to just put out a final version of a product is.

6. Don’t guess

Even if you’re educated in a certain field, the odds suggest you’ll still be wrong. Ask why at every single point along the line. When I launch a new business I try and have a conversation with every single one of the first 1000 customers to find out why they are coming to us and how we can be better.

7. Take advice… carefully

There are lots of people out there prescribing advice. Find mentors that have ‘been there’ and done what you are trying to do. Be wary of those who aren’t the ‘do’ers’. And remember – you are never forced to take advice so be picky!

 

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