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Success Takes Time for Startups, so Start Now
Posted by Scott on 29th September, 2009 | 24 commentsI’m not stupid, but I’m not Einstein either. My secret has been that I have good instincts on what to work on, I have a good work ethic, and I’ve been at it for years (15 years now). If I were to start a business from scratch though today, with no money or startup costs, it would take at least 1-2 years before it generated enough money to create an average, livable income. Even I am baffled by that fact, but it’s true. When I launched Dealighted.com, even with cross promotional links from my other sites, and even with some paid advertising promotion, it still took 2 years before it really took off.
What does that mean for you? A few things. First off, even though I have a pretty great track record, it will still take me 2+ years to get a new business going from scratch (unless it’s a whiz bang idea that fills a huge niche, or unless I throw money at it). So if you’re less savvy than me, and you’re still new to the game of launching businesses and you’re still learning and experimenting, then you need to start now, make sure you love what you’re doing, and stick with it. If it’s growing, even slowly, stick with it. If it’s going nowhere, know when to bail — don’t squander your life on something just because you have already invested a lot of time in it. If it’s a failure, it’s a failure. Point being though, just get it out there, get it launched, go, because you need all the time you can get.
Secondly, and I’ve said this in posts in the past, the most successful businesses have been created by one or two founders who knew how to do everything.. Not by a founder who got a VC, and hired a staff to build the business. If you want to succeed, you really need to know everything about how to build and run your business, upside and down, in and out. For my business, that means knowing a great deal about: development (Perl, PHP, MySQL), servers (Linux, Apache, setup, compiling and setup), SEO, web design, HTML, marketing, business development, monetization and all the options out there. There isn’t anything I don’t know how to do on my sites — I don’t “need” to hire anyone to do anything, although I do have a team in place so that I don’t have to do everything every day and my time is freed up to come up with new features, new business, new monetization models, to grow.
I learned on the job.. Dabbling as I went along. Don’t put yourself into a managerial role, afraid to get your hands dirty, afraid to learn, and thinking you’ll just “hire a web guy, hire a developer, etc”, because those guys aren’t passionate about what it is you’re trying to do — you are. You need to a) learn everything you can, b) get your hands dirty, do the grunt work and the heavy lifiting, c) start now and be prepared for it to take time, and d) test, test, test, put new ideas out there, try different things, fight complacency and don’t rest on “good enough” when it comes to your business because as “good” as you think you’re doing, you’re probably doing 10% as well as you could be (I know I am).
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Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 10:42 pm and is filed under Web Business. If you like this post why not subscribe to my full text RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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I have been a subscriber to your blog since I guess it was just 2 posts old.
You have a knack of coming up with some nice inspirational posts.
I wish you could blog more frequently.
If you were outsourcing some tasks after the very initial startup, wouldn’t that considerably speed up the process of creating a business that takes off?
And I fully agree with the previous poster:
“I wish you could blog more frequently”.
Outsourcing or hiring anyone requires money. If you have none, that’s a problem. Plus, the deeper you dig yourself into debt at launch, the longer it will be before you get any payout. Look at Digg — HUGE site, still not profitable all these years later:
http://www.wrevenue.com/2008/09/25/digg-revenue-tripled-but-not-profitable-yet/
Of course you can hire people to do some tasks, I’m just saying that you’ll be far more successful if you know how to do 80% of the work yourself. If you know how to do 10%, and rely on others for 90%, you’ll have a hard time of it because you’ll find that it takes a long time to get people to do stuff, they won’t do it right, they won’t be passionate about it, and they’ll dig you into debt. And even if you know how to do a lot of it yourself, and you’re working on a great idea, it can still take a very long time to start seeing good income.
Great article and advices. I also agree with the previous two comments about blogging more often. Your posts are educational and inspirational.
How do you evaluate a good business idea?
I would say if you believe in it yourself wholeheartedly you might really have a good idea. Of course that isn’t the only way, just one way that has helped me.
You gave me another blog post idea :).
Indeed.
I have seen plenty of guys and gals asking on the forums for “cheap rockstar developers” to bootstrap their business ideas, but who in their right mind, especially in the current economy climate, would want to work for next-to-nothing for an just-average business plan?
Much easier if you also happen to know how to “get things done”.
Your story highlights the importance of perseverance and of equipping oneself with the appropriate skills necessary to get things done without external help. We are never too old to learn, and your story reflects this. Good one!
Good advice Scott. Building an online business does take time and you shouldn’t expect quick success. I also agree that it helps a lot to be able to do everything yourself. Even if you have no intention to continuing to do those tasks once the business picks up, it still helps to have a good understanding of what you are paying other people to do. Then you know if they are doing things right and in an efficient manner.
Part of the problem in my opinion is the day and age we live in, that some people automatically expect things to fly off, and for success to be fast, which is why I think alot of people fail in their business ventures.
I can relate to alot of what you said Scott, I know for a personal website of mine that I have, I have been working on it for about 1 year and 2 months, and it’s been a slow progress, but a progress none the less, the forum has now 250+ registered users, with new threads getting created every day, it certainly was a slow start at the beginning, and there were times that I didn’t believe in myself, but I just keep working hard at it, and till this day it continues to grow, and I think when I hit that magic 2 year mark like you say here, things will be really picking up =D
Till then,
Jean
Thanks Scott, really made me think about what I am doing at the moment and given me the kick up the rear to take some action.
James
Quite agree with your post, success takes time in any field and now a days blogging also become very competitive, so start up is very import and startup need asap….
Should have done your homework first. All it would have taken was to google the name to learn it is a very widely reported scam. File a report with the Consumer Protection Division of your state’s Attorney General’s Office.
yes, i agree, success takes time, that is why, i am working hard today and also working wisely
Yes indeed, a successful business is not built overnight, but with a long time of a hard work and effort. I totally agree with you,choosing something that we love to do, makes easier to achieve our Goals.
Some people seem to think that you can make millions on the Internet with very little work. I am yet to see it really happen. You still need to be commited to your business and put your all into it to see it flourish.
You also need to look at businesses that are similar to yours that are successful and take elements from them that you like.
Very informative article. Sticking to a game plan and not looking for overnight riches will help you a lot.
Business never suddenly get buildup, new business setup always takes time to reach at success. But one great thing here i learned from your post is need to learn everything because no one passionate compare our self. i always keep this in my mind.
i am working hard today and also working wisely
Great post and advice. I will continue to check and read this one for tips.
Thanks for sharing!
It took me a long time for me to be quite successful. It is a long way to go
Follow your dreams up with hard-work, and you can make it happen.