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- How to “Birth” a Company Contributed to Bookpleasures.com by Heather Wilde
How to “Birth” a Company Contributed to Bookpleasures.com by Heather Wilde
- By Heather Wilde
- Published May 19, 2021
- ESSAYS CONTRIBUTED BY VARIOUS AUTHORS
Heather Wilde
Heather Wilde was the
eighth employee of Evernote, where she oversaw the company’s growth
from thousands to 100 million customers.
She has published popular
games, trained Fortune 500 brands, advised hundreds of start-ups, and
managed some major non-profit programs.
At her non-profit, Serenze Global, and as a fractional CTO through her company ROCeteer, her award-winning work keeps the Unicorn Whisperer constantly traveling across the globe to find the next unicorn.
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There’s a certain allure to starting your own business. In books, movies, and television shows, it seems that the most successful people always strike out on their own at some point if they want to have any chance of making the “real” money or having any true success.
What they usually leave out is how difficult it is. They almost always skip right past the years of boring, essential parts and get right to the drama.
Here’s what it really takes to start a business.
Money
While many people would tell you that you need to have an idea first, you likely already have a few possibilities in mind when you start looking at lists like this. In reality, you shouldn’t even be thinking about striking out on your own until you can afford to, and in the time it takes for you to gather a “nest egg,” you’ll solidify your business proposition.
If you wait to have a perfect idea before you start building up your funding capital, you’ll never be ready.
Expertise
The most successful businesses are generally founded by or run by people who understand the complex niche they’re in, as well as the finances involved. Being a good cook, for example, doesn’t mean you should open a restaurant – someone who understands real estate prices, foot traffic and supply chains is better suited to that.
That person can hire the best chef for the location – and everyone will make money.
Administration
There is so much busywork involved in starting and running a business, I’m not surprised that this is always skipped over. Filing for incorporation. Getting your applicable business licenses. Recruiting employees. Accounting, legal, etc – and when you’re just starting everything is on your shoulders (unless you did really well with that money bit) so you barely have time to actually, well, work on your business.
It’s enough to make a lot of people give up and go back to a regular job.
Patience
Be prepared for whatever you do to take a long time. A very long time. However long you think it could possibly take, double that number – at least. It was 15 years from when Walt Disney started his animation company before they released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was 31 years from the time Apple was founded until they released the iPhone. In both cases, the founders already had experience in their field before they struck out on their own, so add on more years to that total.
Pick any company you can think of and the story is similar: the road to success is long.
Failure
No matter what you do, where you come from, how much money you have, and how patient you are, you’re going to fail – probably a lot. How you handle this will likely be the main differential between you launching into the stratosphere or crashing with a thud.
The faster you rebound from missteps, and the more you incorporate the learnings you’ve had from them, the stronger your company.
In general, starting your own business means years of low wages, long hours, and strained relationships – but for some it’s the most rewarding thing they’ll ever do.