My Entrepreneurial Experiences and the Mistakes That Made Me Better
These are the main mistakes I made and I’m glad I made them because every mistake is a small long-term victory for the future
As a polyvalent person, one of the many things I have tried at some point (and will continue to try in the future) is entrepreneurship.
During the last 15 years I have tried to undertake several projects, basically since I started high school as a teenager I was already trying to think of businesses.
I have had all kinds of ideas and projects, from very small to very big and between inexperience, money, relationships … From each project I learned from the mistakes and didn’t make them again.
I know that sooner or later one of those projects will go to the moon.
Call me a dreamer if you like, but I know I’ll get it sooner or later.
Go step-by-step
Previous work experience may seem stupid, but from my own learning I see it as something necessary if you want to succeed later in your own business.
Many start their startups right out of college or university. And it’s true, many of them succeed, but many more fail because they don’t have that contact with reality.
The experience and that contact with the challenges of the working world on a daily basis will not give you in life a course, or a career, or a master’s degree or anything other than work itself.
Setting up a startup without that previous experience is to risk taking on challenges all at once that can put your project in checkmate at a very early stage.
I’m a software developer. My first project had this hard learning. I had never worked for a third party before and I was very, very junior developer. I didn’t have enough work experience yet.
You could tell me that you would learn it as you go along, but of course, the time factor will always play against you and while in a job you will always have a very limited responsibility as a junior and you will also have a supervision and accompaniment, but in your startup you risk the credit, prestige, reputation …
Charges part of a job in advance
I’m not be afraid to ask for part of a project from a third party in advance. This is one of the initial fears of any freelancer of any kind. Mostly people are afraid of losing their client and that’s a big mistake on our part.
Think that I’m going to do a job for X weeks (no matter how much time I spend) and that NOBODY is doing me a favor. I get paid for a job and I deliver that job. For that job I will have expenses for my own time.
Also, look at it as a guarantee of payment. In my experience, if I don’t get paid in advance, it’s very likely that the client will take advantage of me and ask me for those extra ‘touches’ that weren’t contemplated and that make me spend more time than expected under the premise of ‘if you don’t do it, you don’t get paid’.
By not valuing the work I‘m going to do, I’m unnecessarily exposing myself to pseudo-slavery.
Fifty-fifty with an investment partner is a lot to think about
It is very common that someone I know may offer me to participate in a project in exchange for half as if it were something fair.
Think about it, especially if I need less than 50k dollars.
It is better to ask for a credit, save or save costs than to be a partner in an equal percentage to the capitalist partner.
As a working partner, I will be the one working hard on my project. If I need for example 10k dollars I can get them in less than you think, even if I have to sacrifice much of my personal life in the day to day.
However, offering half of it to someone who advances me that money is throwing away half of the company that tomorrow could be worth millions (who knows!).
In addition to the instability and company blocking risk at the level of technical tie in the face of adversity that may come.
An advice, when the capitalist partner values him economic contribution, I have to value my dedication of time to the project and multiplies it by an average salary of the sector to which you dedicate yourself. My time is also money!
Marketing is almost sixty percent of the budget
From my point of view, marketing is the most important thing in a project today.
At the time I made several apps. The most and the least complied with at least the minimum quality standard of the industry. Why was an identical app of worse quality that came out later on the market placed in the TOP 50 of the US App Store?
The answer is simple, marketing. Don’t think of any project that doesn’t have a majority marketing budget.
Hire a good agency, have a good budget to spend on advertising and plan everything to the millimeter and maintain constant coordination during all phases of the project.
Otherwise, I will have a gun with a bullet without powder. The chances of viralizing myself are very low, realistically.
The risk/potential benefit equation doesn’t compensate, believe me 😉
I hope I was able to give you something for your future ventures and any contribution you would like to make is welcome as well as asking you to share if you liked it!
