Discuss: Starting a Business: Advice from the Trenches

Seeing that I read your article now and not 6 months ago, I am curious if you have any advice for college grads who decided to start their own business anyway. My partner and I have been in business for about 3 months now. He graduated this past may and I will be graduating in December. Knowing that street smarts come from life expereince, are there any points that you could share with us from your own youthful start experience?

Thank you,

David Ellenwood

posted at 09:49 am on October 30, 2003 by David Ellenwood

2 thanks for writing this article

This is a great article! Thanks for writing it. =]

posted at 09:53 am on October 30, 2003 by darren

3 A partner?

I liked the article, especially the part about the business plan. From my experience that is probably the most important thing to do is plan exactly what you are doing. Especially when you are a computer consultant. I mean if you think about it, really what is a computer consultant? That should be clarified in writing, if anything just for your own understanding.

Your advice about having a partner seemed to make a lot of sense, however pretty much every business book I’ve read has advised to not have a partnership business structure because of all of the likely problems. When you are talking about having a 2nd person do you also mean to organize as a partnership?

posted at 11:49 am on October 30, 2003 by Blaine Hilton

4 Great article

I agree with all the points of this article, which doesn’t happen very often. Full of good information and great points. Thanks for all the advice, I’ll take it heart when I’m starting a company to overtake Microsoft!

posted at 12:43 pm on October 30, 2003 by Chris Carpenter

5 Excellent article

This is a great article on the steps necessary to both create a business and succeed with it. Kevin, thanks for the insight.

posted at 12:44 pm on October 30, 2003 by Chris Vance

6 Wonderful

This is a very thorough and well-written article full of great advice. Hope to see more like it in the future. Great job.

posted at 01:00 pm on October 30, 2003 by Matt

7 reply

Thanks for all the positive feedback so far. Blaine, to answer your question about partnering, I was referring more to the personal aspect of it than a business aspect. I understand the risks in setting up a legal partnership, and its really a matter of weighing the pros and cons for your particular situation. From my experience, having that extra person (or people) just makes the business machine work better.

David, since you are starting out relatively young, I must reiterate the point of proper pricing. Don’t bend to whiney and pushy clients; many will try to take advantage of your youth, but if your stuff is good, they will pay, and they will come back.

Make sure you and your partner have a clear direction for the company. Where will you be in one year, five years and ten years? Plan ahead. Running a business day-to-day with no eye to the future will almost guarantee dissatisfaction in the long run.

Also, if you hang in there long enough, most small businesses will get a Big Break ™. This is the client or project that takes your business to the next level, whether finacially, professionally, or reputation. When this job comes (you’ll know it when you see it), jump on it and don’t let go. Successful businesses learn how to create Big Breaks (networking mostly), and continually use them to grow the company.

Hope this helps.

posted at 01:21 pm on October 30, 2003 by Kevin

8 How about more than just one partner?

You said having a partner is good, but how many do you think is too much? I belive a small group of maybe 5-6 people would be a good mix, each having their own specialities. I also belive this might be better financially, being as many people could work less and get more done than just one or two people.

posted at 02:15 pm on October 30, 2003 by jowe

9 You should also mention...

domain names in the section “File for a Fictitious Name”. Many start-ups think of a great name and register it, only to find that the suitable/matching .com is already taken, so take that into account when selecting a company name.

Also, not sure about the US, but in the UK if you class the purchase of the domain name as a business expense and then dissolve the company at a later date, you will NO LONGER own the domain as it belongs to the now dissolved company. I know because I made this mistake. Either a) transfer the domain before dissolving your company, or b) class the purchase of the domain as a personal expense so it does not become one of the assets of the company.

posted at 03:00 pm on October 30, 2003 by tq