My first tech business Family Phone officially launched in August ’21. I have a background in working with tech companies in a project management and business development capacity. I have never been the founder or the CEO, and suddenly I was launched into it from an idea that I had roughly wire-framed just 6 months before.
As you could imagine, going from being a freelancer to a Founder CEO came with a steep learning curve, and below are the three main lessons I have learned so far
Lesson 1 — Cash Flow is king, queen and the jester
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase ‘cash flow is king’ before, but it is so much more than that, it’s the life blood of your startup.
Without the cash to pay for your team’s basic salaries, the specialist skills you need to bring into the company, branding, hosting, accounting, subscriptions, travel (the list goes on) your startup will quickly and abruptly grind to a halt.
‘Why is that?” I hear you ask.
Without the cash flow to fund the founding team’s roles you’re not running a business, you’re running a side hustle or bootstrapping a startup. Both are viable (and sometimes necessary) options for setting up a business, but I wanted to avoid both of these options, and here’s why.
When you side hustle your startup alongside a full time job, working evenings and weekends, not only are you limiting time, you’re limiting the prime energy of your day. Let me demonstrate this with some quick maths.
If you work the standard 8 hours / 5 days a week, your giving 40 hours of time to your employer, now include commute (for those of you who are still in the office), turn around time and having to be a human and you know…go to the toilet and sleep — you’re really only left with 2–3 hours of productive time per day.
Over 5 days a week that is (at best) 15 hours of time, of sub-optimal energy (after work, commuting, cooking and other responsibilities you have) which equates to less than 2 full working days a week. If you factor in fatigue and distractions I’d argue you’re running at 50% capacity — you’re essentially working 1 day a week on your business.
So, when someone is working full time on their business they can run upto 5x faster than someone who is side-hustling, which in the early days of a startup has a huge impact.
“I’d love to work on my business full time, but I don’t have the funds!” — I hear you, I was in the same position, and I will be covering how I went about getting startup funding for my business in some upcoming content.
Lesson 2 — Define, and articulate your why
Your vision, and your why are so important when setting up. You will be talking to investors, stakeholders, partners and not have a product, but you have a vision and a reason why — this is the main point that will get peoples buy in of some form in the early days of your business.
I’m not talking about a well written vision statement or set of values, what I’m talking about is the intrinsic why. What experience has someone had within your team that drove you to create change, what problem are you solving, why are you doing what you’re doing? And no, “to make myself rich” is not an answer that will get you through the rough times.
The why should be embedded in your team, a vision of solving a true problem and making the world a better place for people, in some form or another. Without a vision and a why to help keep you focused, you will take your business in different directions, spread your energy and move in the direction of your vision far more slowly.
Having a deep rooted understanding of why will help align the rest of your team, including when it grows, to your mission. Nobody is productive when they’re doing work and they don’t know why, or how it contributes to the bigger picture. If you don’t have a vision and fundamental why (or the why is to ‘make money’), when things get tough you and your team will take the path of least resistance, which will be away from your original vision.
Lesson 3 — Network, network and network
I don’t come from a family of business people or entrepreneurs, my dad was a fireman and my mum a dinner lady, I started out in business with no network to kickstart me, and that has given me a true understanding of the value of a network.
Your network is your most valuable resource, it can be an immediate route to solve problems, it can be a sounding board and a link to a wider network.
To build a strong network you have to talk to people, and provide value, be sociable and interact. 99% of the time it has nothing to do with what you do, but more why you do it, and the values that you hold to get yourself there.
Networking is about personal relationships over business.
My experience in the world of business is that people are good, they want help, they want to see you succeed. People want to hear your plans, what you’re doing and the impact you’re making, just as much as you want to hear theirs.
Get out there, on LinkedIn or wherever and ask people for virtual coffees, go on Meetup and attend your local meeting. It can be daunting at first, but you will find the business world incredibly welcoming, and you never know where new found networks can lead you.
So in conclusion, have a business, not a side hustle, you’ll move quicker, be more effective and be able to give your full energy to it. Figure out your why, and the vision you are working towards, learn how to articulate and tell anyone who will listen. Finally, network, network, network, tell people in business (your sector or otherwise) why you’re doing what you’re doing, what your vision is and how you will make the world a better place — and you will find people getting on side, connecting you to opportunities and helping you to your vision.
Now, having said that — add me on LinkedIn here, I’m always interested in networking and hearing peoples why and learn about their vision.
I’m new to creating content (as you can tell from my copywriting skills I’m sure), but if you did take any value from this at all please share it with someone who you think it would help too — also please be kind on my grammar — writing doesn’t come naturally to me!
