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I've always been curious what the scope of Entrepreneurship is considered 'startup'? Is it a term typically exclusive to internet startups, or just anyone who decides to start a business up on their own and just refers to the infant stages of any business? In any event, I recently have done the latter. I am a working professional (Work for the Trading business of a Fortune 500 Energy Company) and have always had a passion for investment management and financial planning. If I could do that all day/every day I would be in my full element. As I am the single earner in my family with one son and twins on the way, I would need a windfall to be able to execute that dream. Instead, I've gone ahead and bootstrapped my business and will slowly grow it until I can afford to leave the primary job. I'm experiencing all of the same issues a full-time startup has, but just have limited resources and time to tackle them all at once. However, I do not have any ticking clocks going on in the background that are causing undue stress (but I identify that it does dramatically reduce urgency!). Anyone else branching out and forming off-line professional services while maintaining their day jobs? Interested in hearing others experiences, and happy to share mine as well.
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Oct 20, 2011 18:42
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sry4partying posted:Care to explain how pre-branding is detrimental to a potential business? Think of a casual entrepreneur who has a full time job, trying to diversify his income stream with a consulting business. He has some ideas for his company, but nothing he's set on. He wants a great domain name that his customers will remember, but nothing he comes up with is available. He's open to really anything catchy, and that's where we come in. He'll visit our site, choose from a few solid domains "Agrity.com" for a hypothetical finance consulting business called "Agrity Consulting" or "RipeBrand.com" for a hypothetical marketing business. The logos are meant to generate excitement for the brand and the domain. We've had a few customers so far that have liked it. I see where both sides of this argument are coming from, and actually identify with your example. In my startup/side business/whatever you wish to call it, there is less emphasis on the web presence and more on the relationship in person and trust. At this stage of my business, I decided I merely needed an online brochure that was not intended to bring in prospects, but serve as a landing page for people I direct to there that I meet in person. So I selected a name, found a decent theme, made up some copy, hired a goon to do a decent logo that brought it up to a better professional standard (which I completely identify that more thoughtful branding needs to be done, but now is not the time, I could spend weeks PLANNING my business and never do anything. Execution is where success comes from) and I was on my way. If I had seen a service that would do all of this for me for $200, with minimal frills, I would definitely have checked it out. That being said, glimpsing at the site briefly, I didn't see much that would apply to me or make me see that it was oriented toward professional services. I think positioning yourself as a consultant to help a 'casual entrepreneur' do the dirty work to get started would be a wiser choice.
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Oct 20, 2011 18:51
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Konstantin posted:In general, I would define a startup as a small company that aims to make millions of dollars in a relatively brief period by creating a new product or service. Software is most common, because you can build and release new software without spending a ton of money up front. I wouldn't consider a financial planning business to be a startup, because there is a cap to the amount of money you can make, and a lot of companies are doing something similar to you. So your definition would be for businesses that have minimal replication costs and are introducing a new or revolutionary product or service? It definitely is a different ball of wax. Perhaps we need a small/self-owned business thread. 
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Oct 20, 2011 20:59
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