Starting a business today

If I were starting a business today

I often get asked by our customers, friends and colleagues for advice with a business that they are starting.  How would I go about starting the business?  solving some specific problem?  finding the right talent? devising a growth strategy?  they ask.  I often feel like a bit of an impostor when I answer, because the truth is that I don’t have a lot of generic business experience—just experience at one company, in one specific industry, and one point in time.   Most of what has worked for our business over the years has been random luck, the third or fourth try to solve the same problem, extremely basic “blocking and tackling,” or some combination thereof.

The rest of what I know about starting and running businesses has come as an advisor, board member, or observer.  It is often from this perspective—as a more distant viewer—that I see the simple things most clearly.  When you are down in the muck of the day-to-day operations, you often miss the forest for the trees.

So,  after years of trying to give some useful advice to fledgling businesses, I have developed a few “truths” that I’m pretty sure any new business should ignore at their own peril.  At the least, these are the things I would do if I were going to starting a business tomorrow:

1. Think web first.
2. Have a human capital strategy.
3. Find a channel, then build a product—not the other way around.
4. Plan now for success—or it will never come.
5. Raising money is not your biggest problem, being able to spend it appropriately is.
6. You're not thinking big enough!

Justin Kitch blog

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