| 1) Change your mindset. It's natural for people who | | | | more productive in your business time. You will also not |
| leave employment and start a business to carry with | | | | be forced to make rash decisions for your business |
| them some of the culture from their previous job. | | | | due to financial pressure. That's right, it will help you |
| However, you must realize that you are changing | | | | avoid an "all in" moment. |
| gears. You are moving from being an employee to | | | | 4) Leverage the Internet. The internet offers the best |
| being a boss. You are moving from being a follower to | | | | value for you to promote your business. As a start-up |
| being a leader. This requires you to make the | | | | you should be looking for early adopters in your |
| appropriate mental adjustment. In many ways, this is | | | | market segment. The Internet is a great place to find |
| the most difficult thing that you must do when starting | | | | these. Using social networks and participating in online |
| your business. It's also one of the most critical. | | | | communities is a great way to do market research |
| 2) Become fanatical about keeping you cash burn as | | | | and make early sales for a start-up. Every start-up |
| low as possible. Cash is the oxygen for you business. | | | | should leverage the Internet as much as possible. |
| As a start-up you can't operate like a traditional | | | | 5) Realize that you must bootstrap and self fund first |
| established business. You must have enough cash to | | | | before you will get investment. This is particularly true |
| stay in the game long enough to learn from your | | | | in the current economic climate. Investors want to see |
| mistakes. At the beginning your business success | | | | traction. This is the most important thing. If you can |
| depends heavily on how well you can reduce | | | | bootstrap to early sales or even better, early profits |
| operating costs. There are some simple ways that | | | | you will find it much easier to unlock the door to |
| you can do this. For instance use Skype or another | | | | investment. |
| VOIP operator instead of a traditional land-line. Use | | | | 6) Realize that you probably won't be an overnight |
| free software such as OpenOffice and Google Docs. | | | | success. It's important to understand that you are |
| If you don't need office space then start up in your | | | | more likely to succeed if you approach your business |
| garage. By keeping your cash burn low you increase | | | | from the perspective of making incremental |
| your scope for failure. In other words, you can have | | | | improvements that will accumulate into ultimate |
| more rolls of the dice. After all, learning from your | | | | success. |
| mistakes is the best way to learn in the real business | | | | 7) It's a bit like gambling. Making real world business |
| world. | | | | decisions is really making educated guesses at what |
| 3) Get a part-time job. I know this is strange advice for | | | | you think might work. A lot of the time your decisions |
| anyone who is starting a business but hear me out. | | | | won't work. It's important to test and measure each |
| You need income to survive. You may have savings | | | | decision so you fully understand which ones work and |
| and a redundancy package but it's good not to eat into | | | | which ones don't. This is the key to doing more of |
| these too much. By getting another job you are | | | | what works and less of what doesn't. |
| providing yourself and your family with income until | | | | There are many other factors you should consider |
| your business gets off the ground. There are also | | | | when starting your business. Much of them relate |
| some good psychological benefits to this as well. | | | | specifically to your industry niche. However, there are |
| Because your time will be limited you will become | | | | a number of mistakes that you can avoid making. |