Learning,raw,web,entrepreneur, DIY Learning’s of a raw web entrepreneur, from big business to b

When starting a new work at home business it is very easy to become consumed by it. We spend so much time trying to get the business up and running that we may end up becoming burned out and lose our motivation. There is so much to learn and Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in

I always believed that leaving the comfort blanket ofcorporate life would be the difficult part of setting up my own business andgoing it alone – how wrong I was. Of the challenges that we have faced duringour first year of trading walking out of the doors of the 7 story, centralLondon office block, saying goodbye to the directorship and salary was theeasiest part of all. This is my attempt to explain through our experienceswhere entrepreneurs, especially those that come from a big business background,should focus their attention and therefore hopefully avoid some of the commonlymade mistakes.My journey into the world of web start-ups commenced at theend of May 2007, I had an idea to build a new web experience for food lovers,the ultimate experience for foodies using the net. I wanted to build on mypassion for food; my love of cooking; my interest in food provenance and marryit with a background of information provision through digital publishing to createa wholly new way of looking at cooking - recipes in particular. And so www.foodari.com was borne – the ultimate webexperience for foodies.We set the business up, my brother and I, and started toexplore what the vision was and how we would realise it. Neither of us brought technicalexpertise so we had to identify how the product would be built. Having gonethrough a number of meetings with web developers large and small, UK based,near shore and far shore we decided to have it built in Bulgaria. Why Bulgaria? Well the drivers were clear, cost and technicalskill (and the English owner of the business did a marvellous sales job!). Retrospectivelywe still feel that it was the correct decision. We had moments of heartache andfrustration where the laptop was nearly ejected from a variety of windows but wegot a great product built at very good value. And here is the first piece of advice - when starting upyour business identify what the crucial steps are to get it to market, giveeach step a sign off date and don’t let them slip. Any day of slippage in thedevelopment process will be multiplied by the time the product gets to market.Don’t allow it to happen, believe in your gut feelings and back yourself,listen to excuses but create solutions for them.Regardless of who is building your site it is crucial to getto know them, even more so if you are having it built in a foreign country witha different culture, work ethic, humour and expectations. During my first visitto Bulgaria I unearthed so many assumptions that were incorrect and could havebeen detrimental to the project as a whole. For example I assumed that ourBulgarian developers would know what supermarkets were, why there is an organicmovement, the importance of locally produced food and how sociologic problemssuch as obesity are affecting us all, all incorrect.The development process took 7 months from the firststoryboards being written to when we felt confident to shout from the rooftopsabout it. How did this happen? We knew that our advantage over the larger publisherswas our agility, our speed of reaction and so why did it take twice as long aswe had hoped to get the 1st version to market. We fell into the trapof not knowing when something is good enough and when it needs to be pixelperfect. What we have learnt is that if you are truly designing a service whereyou want your customers to be integral to any development, so they truly shapefuture progress then get it to them early. It goes back to your planning stageof identifying the different building blocks that will ultimately make up yoursite, realise them as you go along. We all want the whole web world to descendon our new invention on the day that it goes live but the reality is that theydon’t, they come over time through hard graft. The final piece of advice for the development stage is toremind yourself it is a business not a hobby. If it is not a business thendon’t try and force it to be, it won’t work, leave it as a hobby. Focus on costand revenue, how much of each and where it is coming from. Half the revenue anddouble the amount of time it will take for you to generate it, know your worstcase scenario and double this – is it sustainable? It’s never too late to getout.The first iteration of Foodari went live in January 2008 andhas doubled its traffic month on month thus far. My next article will beexamining the process and steps to go through once you have reached the end ofdevelopment and you want to launch to the world.