Building out your own company

Before building the company, I will get an advice from a lawyer with some experience in entrepreneurship. Second person I advise would be an accountant. Accountant will help to do the budget and project the revenue and expenses, will estimate the cost to start up the business and tax effects. I will also get some advice from a successful entrepreneur who went through opening the business and who could share valuable lessons they learned a hard way.

The funding of company is important element. The first resource would be myself and my savings. Second resource is family and friends. Next resources will be Angels and VC.

Choosing and building a team is also important element. Assembling people doesn’t make a team. Employees should have passion to achieve a common goal. High Tech company will need a president, tech, marketing, advertising, lawyers, accountant, HR, developers, designers, graphics, sales, customer service, production, Q&A employees.

Guest Speaker- John Dimmer

John’s lecture gave a good idea of process of getting money for the business. He outlined the order of resources we should use. First, the owner will try to save and invest money as much as he/she can. Second source would be friends and families that should give 25k to 150 k. Personally, I would probably like to skip this source due to chance of losing good relationship with friends and family members. Third source would be angel investor. I have never heard of those guys. They are private individuals who invest money in start-up businesses and meet the definition of accredited investors. Finally, the last source is Venture capital that could provide 4 million and up.

The article “How to Negotiate a Term Sheet” by Tom Taulli was also helpful. I didn’t know a lot about Venture Capitalist. It gave me a basic idea of the process and things I should be aware of. I realized that people can get in financial trouble if professional advice is not used.

Jon Goodman

I really liked Jon Goodman and her lecture because she was talking about business plan and giving advices learned from her own mistakes and her own experience. In my opinion, those advices are more valuable than reading the theory in the book about business plans. One of the valuable suggestion/ advices she had for future entrepreneurs that would give motivation to anybody is “Entrepreneurs have no failing, they have experiences.”

Before writing a business plan, feasibility analysis should be performed which will show if the product is attractive to the market. A lot of research needs to be done. I loved how the speaker said that “if you steal from one, it is plagiarism; if you still from many, it is research.” Other advises when starting a business were hiring experienced advisors, lawyers, and seasoned accountant.

Strengths and Weaknesses starting a business

Some of my strengths starting a business are patience, punctuality, willingness to help people and answer any questions. I am goal oriented and I am not giving up. I think it is important for entrepreneurs to see their goal in front of them and try to achieve it by overcoming barriers. Accounting skills is another strength that gives me ability to back up the idea with numbers, see potential problems or opportunities in the company. In addition to above listed strengths, I would like to add computer, customer service, and team working skills.

The first weakness starting a business is I’m not a risk taker. If I am taking any risks, I will evaluate all pros and cons of the specific situation. I would draw the picture of the worst failure scenario, and if it doesn’t look good, I wouldn’t take that risk. Sometimes it takes me too much time to make a decision. To be an entrepreneur, people need to make decisions quickly. Shyness, lack of experience dealing with mean people are other weaknesses.