startup 101, what i learned the hard way

Startup 101 - what I learned the hard way

Pieter Eerlings (@pietereer)

For who?

● Thinking about starting your own business?● Just started?● Running a business but working hard for

little money?

→ This presentation is for you!

Goal of this presentation

● Make you earn more● Make you work less

→ If I knew all of this before I started, I would earn more today, and work less.→ I learned most of it by making mistakes.→ I'm fine with that. Bouncing your head against the wall is the best way to learn & never ever ever ever make the same mistake again.

About me

● Pieter Eerlings● Founded web application and mobile agency

Zorros 3 years ago (service business)● 7 people today● Working on some SaaS applications

(product business)● Bootstrapper● Saxophone player● Father

The mandatory emo slide to make a connection with the audience

BEFORE STARTING

If what you are doing now is not making you happy,

you have nothing to lose.

YOUR COMFORT

ZONE

WHERE MAGIC HAPPENS

What is your goal in your life?

Your business has to serve you.

Have a cofounder? Prepare your divorce before getting married.

An idea is worth NOTHING without execution.

HAVING A BRILLIANT IDEA

SUPER HARD WORK

THE FIRST $

The best way to learn to swim is to dive.

"Don't start a company unless it's an obsession and something you love. If you have an exit strategy, it's not

an obsession"

– Marc Cuban

Product or service?

Don't try to be the next Facebook.Don't try to be the next...

Lazer focus on a niche.

YAY! YOU STARTED

People who tell you to write a big business plan did probably not start

a company themselve.

Planning is guessing

A mountain? A bear? A river? Lions? A big forest?

Focus on the next small thing

Find your customers PAIN

Solve their PAIN

Build the minimum your customer wants to pay for. Then (try to) sell it.

Fail early, fail often (and cheap)

1. present your solution2. ask if clients would pay for it3. NO? tweak your idea & back to step (1)4. YEP? congrats, you have a business

"Serve average food to a hungry market."

– me, just now.

Your job is to find a product/market fit before you run out of cash.

The first $ is the hardest.

Cash is like air. You need it, period.

It's about solutions, not about features

Keep it

SIMPLE

How you build it is completely irrelevant. It's about the SOLUTION

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they

were to success when they gave up"

– Thomas Edison

ONCE YOU HAVE YOUR PRODUCT/

MARKET FIT

Ignore competition.

It is a rollercoaster.

Work ON your business, not IN your business

Don't burn your time. Outsource.

Invest your time in setting up a money generating system. Don't burn your time selling hours for money.

Invest your time in setting up a money generating system.

It takes as much time to run a crappy hamburger restaurant as to run

McDonald's.

It takes as much time to be a full time carpenter as to run IKEA.

Being cheap is a great way to attract toxic and greedy clients.

Don't pray for unicorns. Force your luck.

Done is better than perfect.

VALUE

TIME

Build up recurring revenue (in), cut recurring costs (out)

It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Get 8 hours of sleep, sport and don't drink liters of coffee.

Wanna know more? Complaints? Gossip? Suggestions?

http://blog.eerlings.comhttp://twitter.com/pietereer

pieter@zorros.be