10 tips for starting entrepreneurs | Hacker News Reader

10 tips for starting entrepreneurs

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42 pointswird11 comments

I think that #0 should be: "Actually start. Don't just talk; do."

Maybe we don't need anymore advices. Advices are what got us in this position in the first; "How to invest for the long term", "How to get the right mortgage", "10 steps to build a web company"......Seriously, let's take a break from this type of advices.

Why not the accountant be a family member? I have one that is good, that I trust, and does not charge too much.

I think what Bart means is that you should not let a friend or family member do it for free. There is no official business agreement then which makes it difficult to get things done. You can't complain if you are not paying for the service. It might also get personal.

In my experience family members give overwhelmingly conservative business advice because there's a deeper sense of guilt if things go amiss.

In my experience, the problem's often the opposite. With most startups, the accountant's job is to tell you when you're being woefully irresponsible with your cash and are about to fail because of it. That's harsh news to give to a friend.

The first company I worked at had an accountant that was a friend of all 3 founders. She was quite well qualified - Ph.D in accounting, taught at Bentley, had previously worked at several big companies. But she was not comfortable saying "No, we don't have the money for this" when the founders did something stupid, like hiring an expensive engineer sight-unseen from China or delaying the product launch by 6 months while the engineering team pursued a different direction.

We ended up going out of business rather abruptly when a $6M bridge loan from the VCs came due and there was no cash to pay it off. My boss (who was the only member of the management team who wasn't previously friends with the accountant) was incredulous that she could have forgotten that we needed $6M ASAP. Of course, she hadn't forgotten at all. She just wasn't comfortable telling management "Your dreams are about to go up in smoke unless we get more cash quickly and drastically cut expenses." Which is completely understandable in a friend, and completely unforgivable in an accountant.

Could someone write down the list? I don't get SlideShare at work.

There's a Slideshow Transcript at the bottom of the page. Don't you see it?

If the site is blocked... he doesn't.

   1. Slide 1: 10 tips for starting entrepreneurs Titel tekst “So youBeschrijving to build want slide your own business?” Barcamp Ghent 2 - 30/11/2008
   2. Slide 2: Hi, my name is Bart.
   3. Slide 3: I work at webagency Netlash. ... and at a few other companies:
   4. Slide 4: You can ﬁnd me here: www.ondernemeringent.be www.netlash.com www.metatale.eu www.tagger.fm www.kopjekofﬁe.be www.planetgadget.be (Yes, that’s a lot of www’s)
   5. Slide 5: Starting your own business 10 tips from my personal experience
   6. Slide 6: Listen carefully...
   7. Slide 7: * personal experience *
   8. Slide 8: It might not apply to you. Or your business.
   9. Slide 9: My 10 tips
  10. Slide 10: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. 2. 7. 3. 8. 4. 9. 5. 10.
  11. Slide 12: Your accountant
  12. Slide 13: 1. Your new best friend Your accountant Choose him carefully Make sure his ofﬁce is within a 15 minute drive Do not go for the cheapest!
  13. Slide 14: 1. Your new best friend Your accountant And whatever you do...
  14. Slide 15: 1. Your new best friend Your accountant And whatever you do... Do NOT take a friend or a member of your family as your accountant.
  15. Slide 16: 1. Your new best friend Your accountant And whatever you do... Do NOT take a friend or a member of your family as your accountant. ... Just don’t.
  16. Slide 17: 1. Your new best friend By extension Find yourself a good bank manager, and join that bank. The personal relationship with the bank manager is far more important than the brand of bank.
  17. Slide 18: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. 2. Show me the money 7. 3. 8. 4. 9. 5. 10.
  18. Slide 19: Watch your cash-ﬂow
  19. Slide 20: 2. Show me the money Watch your cash-ﬂow No matter how proﬁtable you are, if you run out of cash, it’s
  20. Slide 21: 2. Show me the money Watch your cash-ﬂow No matter how proﬁtable you are, if you run out of cash, it’s GAME OVER
  21. Slide 22: 2. Show me the money Billing Send out your bills asap Follow them up for payment Be ﬁrm but friendly! Ask advances
  22. Slide 23: 2. Show me the money Oh, and should I mention: You HAVE to have a business model.
  23. Slide 24: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. 2. Show me the money 7. 3. Be a ‘Mensch’ 8. 4. 9. 5. 10.
  24. Slide 25: 3. Be a Mensch Mensch Mensch (Yiddish: ‫ מענטש‬mentsh) means \"a person of integrity and honor\" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensch
  25. Slide 26: Build your rolodex
  26. Slide 27: 3. Be a Mensch Networking Don’t network to build business The network of your network is far more important! “Pay it forward”
  27. Slide 28: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. 2. Show me the money 7. 3. Be a ‘Mensch’ 8. 4. Be easy to work with 9. 5. 10.
  28. Slide 29: Availability
  29. Slide 30: 4. Be easy to work with Availability Answer your phone, answer your e-mail Reply to RFP’s within the hour! Be reliable, make good on your promises Communicate often and clearly
  30. Slide 31: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. 2. Show me the money 7. 3. Be a ‘Mensch’ 8. 4. Be easy to work with 9. 5. Build alliances 10.
  31. Slide 32: Cooperation
  32. Slide 33: 5. Build alliances Cooperation More value-creation through cooperation Share your ideas Be open
  33. Slide 34: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. Get a sparring partner 2. Show me the money 7. 3. Be a ‘Mensch’ 8. 4. Be easy to work with 9. 5. Build alliances 10.
  34. Slide 35: Sparring partner
  35. Slide 36: 6. Get a sparring partner Get a partner It’s very hard to build a bigger business on your own Find an opposite It’s like cycling...
  36. Slide 37: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. Get a sparring partner 2. Show me the money 7. Find your niche 3. Be a ‘Mensch’ 8. 4. Be easy to work with 9. 5. Build alliances 10.
  37. Slide 38: Say No!
  38. Slide 39: 7. Find your niche Niche Create your own niche, and dominate it “Blue Ocean” It’s ok to say No - sometimes it can win you clients! Focus
  39. Slide 40: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. Get a sparring partner 2. Show me the money 7. Find your niche 3. Be a ‘Mensch’ 8. Set your goals 4. Be easy to work with 9. 5. Build alliances 10.
  40. Slide 41: Don’t steer - look
  41. Slide 42: 8. Set your goals Launch your ‘torpedo’ Know what you want to be: consultant, entrepreneur or manager Deﬁne the numbers
  42. Slide 43: 8. Set your goals SMART Speciﬁc Measurable Achievable Relevant Time Framed
  43. Slide 44: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. Get a sparring partner 2. Show me the money 7. Find your niche 3. Be a ‘Mensch’ 8. Set your goals 4. Be easy to work with 9. Cherish your talents 5. Build alliances 10.
  44. Slide 45: Precious diamonds
  45. Slide 46: 9. Cherish your talents Diamonds Hire people that are smarter than you Hire for diversity Even the biggest diamond has to be cut - push them! Balance your 3P: People - Proﬁt - Planet
  46. Slide 47: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. Get a sparring partner 2. Show me the money 7. Find your niche 3. Be a ‘Mensch’ 8. Set your goals 4. Be easy to work with 9. Cherish your talents 5. Build alliances 10. Follow your passion
  47. Slide 48: You can not outsource passion.
  48. Slide 49: Outsource passion?
  49. Slide 50: You can not outsource passion. (Some people might not agree. Like pimps. And advertising agencies.)
  50. Slide 51: 10. Follow your passion Passion There can only be 1 real drive for entrepreneurship: passion.
  51. Slide 52: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. Get a sparring partner 2. Show me the money 7. Find your niche 3. Be a ‘Mensch’ 8. Set your goals 4. Be easy to work with 9. Cherish your talents 5. Build alliances 10. Follow your passion
  52. Slide 53: 11. Free extra tip
  53. Slide 54: Your home base
  54. Slide 55: 11. Free extra tip Your home base An entrepreneur can only be succesful if his partner supports his plans. (I can only thank Gudrun, Wolf & Kobe that they do, and love them for it.)
  55. Slide 56: 10 1. Your new best friend 6. Get a sparring partner 2. Show me the money 7. Find your niche 3. Be a ‘Mensch’ 8. Set your goals 4. Be easy to work with 9. Cherish your talents 5. Build alliances 10. Follow your passion
  56. Slide 57: Start your own business!
  57. Slide 59: Start your own business! It’s a rollercoaster, but a fun one.
  58. Slide 60: And remember...
  59. Slide 61: Don’t give up.
  60. Slide 62: There’s only one difference between an amateur and a professional. The professional is an amateur that did not give up.
  61. Slide 63: Questions?
  62. Slide 64: Bart de Waele bart@netlash.com www.netlash.com www.ondernemeringent.be Barcamp Ghent 2 - 30/11/2008

  Your attempt to be helpful (thank you!) has 
  backfired, making everything on the page harder 
  to read, at least in FF3, because <PRE> areas 
  here don't wrap or clip properly (you eeediot!).

  Of course it's not your fault. News.YC should 
  go to a DIV-based, rather than TABLE-based, 
  layout so that CSS works more consistently across
  browsers/versions.

  See this comment/thread on the 'Feature Requests' 
  perma-story for more detail:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=235923

A picture of a baby and... "an entrepreneur can only be successful if his partner supports his plans"?

I hate to be the PC nazi, but this strikes me a bit crude...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com