One of the things i have noticed is when we see these opportunities and the little light bulb beams above our heads, *sometimes* the gut feeling towards EVEN our own ideas could be "that seems ambitious", "thats quite far out", "hmm that would be quite difficult to pull-off" or "...very outlandish". As entrerprenurs we can take salvation in the fact that once we start to get that uncomfortable gut feeling it means we are on the right track. Its usually when things get difficult do the majority of people pull back leaving that opportunity open for us willing to rough it out and take that slightly riskier path to succeed.
There are however some questions you need to ask to ensure you give yourself the best chance for success. So, what is important to ask before embarking on such a journey ? I found myself asking the following questions (to myself)
- (From a technical perspective) If i were to start would i be able to finish
- If the answer is yes how long would it take and is the timeframe reasonable. (we all know the longer the timeframe the more chance you have of going on a tangent and not completing)
- (From a monetary perspective) If i bootstrap with X amount of dollars how long would i be able to last and will this be enough time to breakeven (at the least) or have a user base compelling enough to warrant external funding
- (From a resource perspective) Do i have access to the resources and the skills that i need to achieve what i am setting out do. If yes does this impact on my bootstrapped startup capital (defined as X above) or will i be able to "pay later" through equity sharing or partnerships ?
- Is the idea viable from a marketing perspective, does the idea by nature mean that there is a large enough community base to make it easily adoptable and possibly grow into something large ?
- What stage is my life in now and do i have the energy, ability and time to cut large chunks out of my life to start (and more importantly FINISH) this project
If i find that the answer is a resounding yes to some of them, though a more reserved yes to the more difficult questions i find that overall .... YES is the answer. I guess the main difference between enterprenurs and non-enterprenurs is the way we answer more difficult and challenging questions. Where others would say NO thats too difficult, too time consuming, too expensive and resource intensive the enterprenur will quickly go through the difficulties in their head (before saying NO), assign some quick ideas and solutions to some of the difficulties, break the parts into smaller more manageable chunks and return back with ... YES its possible, its not going to be a walk in the park, but its possible.
In my case, i found that when it came time to thinking about the difficulties and issues that may come around when embarking on this project I had the following concerns.
- There were some questions around the technology aspect as i hadnt been involved in web technology for about 2-3 years and in computing timeframe of progress that is a massive amount of time.
- I didnt have any marketing experience other then presales experience when working for various tech companies selling their products (i had no idea about press releases or anything of that type, just how to push technology based on a cost benefit to operations)
- I didnt have anyone i had in mind (at the time) who i thought would want to help build this product and the company. (i had people who had the skills, just not the desire as it didnt match were they were in their current point in life)
- I had a day job so obviously time was an issue
- I had no place to emerse myself in the work and totally isolate myself away from the noise and the disturbances
In most cases with these (somewhat) decent road bumps the non-enterprenurial type may have said, no (not skilled enough, its been a while), no (sales is in your blood, you have it or you dont you cant learn it), no (cant start a business on your own, everyones so busy these days), no (no time to sleep or have a life), no (to noisey to concentrate need an office or something) and the usual (NO ... its all to risky)
People say you create your own luck and yes, in some instances i may have been lucky (up to this point, *un-jinxing myself*), though i believe if you dont try you will never know. In my case this is what happened.
- Around the technology problem: This was probably the easiest. I love technology by nature so learning new technologies to use for this project was actually quite fun and exciting
- Around the marketing problem: Yes this is a bit of an issue and still is as we havnt gotten to the full extent of the marketing process but now i am much more well versed due to the amount of reading i have done through various, blogs, forums and books (specially thanks to many blogs by great technologiest that have achieved what i am currently trying to do). I have also done various social experiments to test my confidence and my ability to sell and promote and its definitely alot stronger than it was before ...
- Around the co-founder issue:At the time of idea conception i didnt have anyone in mind, but eventually these people found their way to me. Funny circumstances occured and i met old friends both from many years back who were more then happy to be co-founders (now i dont know what i would do without them)
- Around the day job and lack of time issue: I negotiated firstly a 3 day work week in the office then a 4 day work week in my new job (after getting retrenched from the initial 3 day a week contracting position due to global finacnial strife. 3 days for the new job was to much for them :P), leaving me more time to do the startup
- Around the space issue: I rented a garage from my next door neighbour for $10 AUD a week giving me a very nice place to work with all the peace i need. Its quite large and fits all the equipment i need to do the testing
As is apparent from the above, i did get lucky by meeting my co-founders from many years back in very unexpected circumstances, i did get lucky by being able to rent a garage from my next door neighbour enabling me to require no travel to get *to my office* and i was quite lucky to get 3 day/4 day a week work weeks from my big4 concultancy organisation who usually work you to the bone (possibly due to my reading of books, reading blogs and advice when learning how to become a better salesmen :P)
Embrace the entreprenurial spirit (if you have that drive and ambition, dont be scared of it) as in more cases than not it will help pave the way to what you ultimatley want to achieve. I am still walking this path so this is the advice that i give to myself ...
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