Fine. But there's truly no get rich quick scheme for this. You have an idea but you're not sure where to start or where to begin. If you have never done anything like this before, make sure you understand what you're getting into. Alot of friends come up to me to start businesses but never get anywhere. It takes somewhat of an obsession...but a healthy one. It starts with a passion to help others and creating a product you could be proud of. Most successful sites are managed by people who have good discipline and a real work ethic.
Here is what I call my first 5:
1. Write a business plan.
It is a must. If it is in your head - forget it. Get your idea on paper - even if it's one page. It gives you direction and it doesn't need to be pitched to investors or banks. Even if you feel that your idea is so simple that you don't need one, write one anyway. Even the most simplest ideas need support. I remember sitting down with a client thinking his idea was simple until I began introducing potential issues with his idea.
Here's how to write a business plan in plain english.
2. Have the right people in place.
If you're the only person doing it, don't. Seriously don't. Ideally you want between two and four people. It would be hard to start with just one. One person would find starting a company hard to bear. Even Bill Gates, who seems to be able to take a bit of moral weight, had to have a co-founder. But you don't want so many founders that the company starts to look like a group photo. Partly because you don't need a lot of people at first, but mainly because the more founders you have, the worse disagreements you'll have. When there are just two or three founders, you know you have to resolve differences quick or you'll die. If there are seven or eight, disagreements can linger and harden into separate groups. You don't want mere voting; you need a company. The main point is that you must need someone that can compliment your skills and work ethic. I can't emphasize this enough.
3. Protect your company
Secure the domain names (i.e. yourcompany.com, yourcompany.net, etc.), your trade secrets and your company name. A trade secret could be a marketing technique, a technological device, a manufacturing ploy or even designs for a particular tool. Whatever the case, you'll want to know how to legally protect your company's trade secrets. Make sure investors or other people you may decide to share the idea with to get a sign non-disclosure agreements.
Also, get a lawyer who specializes in protecting intellectual property if your idea is that special.
4. Keep costs low, manage risk, avoid investors at all costs; even if it's money from family.
Here's something from Mark Cuban's blog (blogmaverick.com) on having investors to start a business:
"Investors don’t care about your dreams and goals. They love that you have them. They love that they motivate you. Investors care about how they are going to get their money back and then some. Family cares about your dreams. Investors care about money. There is a reason why venture capitalists are often referred to as Vulture Capitalists. The minute you slide off course from the promises you made to get the money, your dreams fall in jeopardy. You will find yourself making promises to keep investors at bay. You will find yourself avoiding your investors. Then you will find yourself on the outside looking in. The reality of taking money from non family members is that they are doing it for only one reason, to make more money. If you can’t deliver on that promise, you are out. You will be removed from the company you started. You will find someone else running your dream company. If this sounds like a scene out of the Sopranos or an episode you would watch on TV about a loan shark, you are right. The only difference is that it’s all legal."
Read the rest here: http://blogmaverick.com/2008/01/02/the-best-equity-is-sweat-equity/
5. Learn to listen, be patient and understand your customers/users
Surround yourself with other business owners and don't take user feedback personally. The most successful businesses tend to worry less about "this sucks" criticisms and instead figure out how to get less of them.
Ideally you want to make large numbers of users love you, but you can't expect to hit that right away. Initially you have to choose between satisfying ALL the needs of a small set of users, or satisfying SOME needs of ALL potential users. Take the first. It's easier to expand user-wise than satisfaction-wise. And maybe more importantly, it's harder to lie to yourself. If you think you're 85% of the way to a great product, how do you know it's not 70%? Or 10%? Whereas it's easy to know how many users you have.
Thanks for reading