1. Slide 1: 10 tips for starting entrepreneurs Titel tekst “So youBeschrijving to build want slide your own business?” Barcamp Ghent 2 - 30/11/2008
2. Slide 2: Hi, my name is Bart.
3. Slide 3: I work at webagency Netlash. ... and at a few other companies:
4. Slide 4: You can find me here: www.ondernemeringent.be www.netlash.com www.metatale.eu www.tagger.fm www.kopjekoffie.be www.planetgadget.be (Yes, that’s a lot of www’s)
5. Slide 5: Starting your own business 10 tips from my personal experience
6. Slide 6: Listen carefully...
7. Slide 7: * personal experience *
8. Slide 8: It might not apply to you. Or your business.
9. Slide 9: My 10 tips
10. Slide 10: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. 2. 7. 3. 8. 4. 9. 5. 10.
11. Slide 12: Your accountant
12. Slide 13: 1. Your new best friend Your accountant Choose him carefully Make sure his office is within a 15 minute drive Do not go for the cheapest!
13. Slide 14: 1. Your new best friend Your accountant And whatever you do...
14. Slide 15: 1. Your new best friend Your accountant And whatever you do... Do NOT take a friend or a member of your family as your accountant.
15. Slide 16: 1. Your new best friend Your accountant And whatever you do... Do NOT take a friend or a member of your family as your accountant. ... Just don’t.
16. Slide 17: 1. Your new best friend By extension Find yourself a good bank manager, and join that bank. The personal relationship with the bank manager is far more important than the brand of bank.
17. Slide 18: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. 2. Show me the money 7. 3. 8. 4. 9. 5. 10.
18. Slide 19: Watch your cash-flow
19. Slide 20: 2. Show me the money Watch your cash-flow No matter how profitable you are, if you run out of cash, it’s
20. Slide 21: 2. Show me the money Watch your cash-flow No matter how profitable you are, if you run out of cash, it’s GAME OVER
21. Slide 22: 2. Show me the money Billing Send out your bills asap Follow them up for payment Be firm but friendly! Ask advances
22. Slide 23: 2. Show me the money Oh, and should I mention: You HAVE to have a business model.
23. Slide 24: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. 2. Show me the money 7. 3. Be a ‘Mensch’ 8. 4. 9. 5. 10.
24. Slide 25: 3. Be a Mensch Mensch Mensch (Yiddish: מענטשmentsh) means \"a person of integrity and honor\" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensch
25. Slide 26: Build your rolodex
26. Slide 27: 3. Be a Mensch Networking Don’t network to build business The network of your network is far more important! “Pay it forward”
27. Slide 28: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. 2. Show me the money 7. 3. Be a ‘Mensch’ 8. 4. Be easy to work with 9. 5. 10.
28. Slide 29: Availability
29. Slide 30: 4. Be easy to work with Availability Answer your phone, answer your e-mail Reply to RFP’s within the hour! Be reliable, make good on your promises Communicate often and clearly
30. Slide 31: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. 2. Show me the money 7. 3. Be a ‘Mensch’ 8. 4. Be easy to work with 9. 5. Build alliances 10.
31. Slide 32: Cooperation
32. Slide 33: 5. Build alliances Cooperation More value-creation through cooperation Share your ideas Be open
33. Slide 34: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. Get a sparring partner 2. Show me the money 7. 3. Be a ‘Mensch’ 8. 4. Be easy to work with 9. 5. Build alliances 10.
34. Slide 35: Sparring partner
35. Slide 36: 6. Get a sparring partner Get a partner It’s very hard to build a bigger business on your own Find an opposite It’s like cycling...
36. Slide 37: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. Get a sparring partner 2. Show me the money 7. Find your niche 3. Be a ‘Mensch’ 8. 4. Be easy to work with 9. 5. Build alliances 10.
37. Slide 38: Say No!
38. Slide 39: 7. Find your niche Niche Create your own niche, and dominate it “Blue Ocean” It’s ok to say No - sometimes it can win you clients! Focus
39. Slide 40: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. Get a sparring partner 2. Show me the...
Your attempt to be helpful (thank you!) has
backfired, making everything on the page harder
to read, at least in FF3, because <PRE> areas
here don't wrap or clip properly (you eeediot!).
Of course it's not your fault. News.YC should
go to a DIV-based, rather than TABLE-based,
layout so that CSS works more consistently across
browsers/versions.
See this comment/thread on the 'Feature Requests'
perma-story for more detail:
I think what Bart means is that you should not let a friend or family member do it for free. There is no official business agreement then which makes it difficult to get things done. You can't complain if you are not paying for the service. It might also get personal.
In my experience, the problem's often the opposite. With most startups, the accountant's job is to tell you when you're being woefully irresponsible with your cash and are about to fail because of it. That's harsh news to give to a friend.
The first company I worked at had an accountant that was a friend of all 3 founders. She was quite well qualified - Ph.D in accounting, taught at Bentley, had previously worked at several big companies. But she was not comfortable saying "No, we don't have the money for this" when the founders did something stupid, like hiring an expensive engineer sight-unseen from China or delaying the product launch by 6 months while the engineering team pursued a different direction.
We ended up going out of business rather abruptly when a $6M bridge loan from the VCs came due and there was no cash to pay it off. My boss (who was the only member of the management team who wasn't previously friends with the accountant) was incredulous that she could have forgotten that we needed $6M ASAP. Of course, she hadn't forgotten at all. She just wasn't comfortable telling management "Your dreams are about to go up in smoke unless we get more cash quickly and drastically cut expenses." Which is completely understandable in a friend, and completely unforgivable in an accountant.
Maybe we don't need anymore advices. Advices are what got us in this position in the first; "How to invest for the long term", "How to get the right mortgage", "10 steps to build a web company"......Seriously, let's take a break from this type of advices.
11 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 236 ms ] threadThe first company I worked at had an accountant that was a friend of all 3 founders. She was quite well qualified - Ph.D in accounting, taught at Bentley, had previously worked at several big companies. But she was not comfortable saying "No, we don't have the money for this" when the founders did something stupid, like hiring an expensive engineer sight-unseen from China or delaying the product launch by 6 months while the engineering team pursued a different direction.
We ended up going out of business rather abruptly when a $6M bridge loan from the VCs came due and there was no cash to pay it off. My boss (who was the only member of the management team who wasn't previously friends with the accountant) was incredulous that she could have forgotten that we needed $6M ASAP. Of course, she hadn't forgotten at all. She just wasn't comfortable telling management "Your dreams are about to go up in smoke unless we get more cash quickly and drastically cut expenses." Which is completely understandable in a friend, and completely unforgivable in an accountant.
I hate to be the PC nazi, but this strikes me a bit crude...