I’m hanging out at the Bootstrap Maryland conference today down at the University of Maryland. Jared Goralnick did a great job organizing this event. There was an all-star group of panellists who led a very interesting discussion. Here are 20 of my favorite points that were made in the various sessions…
- Legal and accounting issues are the least of your worries when you’re getting started. The first thing you should be concerned with is validating the market and getting something out there.
- Accountants and lawyers can be very good sources for networking, capital, etc.
- Be prepared to wear a lot of hats, especially if you are working for a small company in today’s economy. Paul Singh says he is still coding, even after hiring two developers.
- If you’re in need of a service, ask people you trust for their recommendations.
- What are some of the myths about getting started?
- You need a lot of money to get started.
- Experience in the corporate world translates into the startup world. Don’t think that just because you’re young that you can’t
- You will be successful if you have a great product or service.Don’t ever doubt that you can’t do something.
- Do something. Don’t just sit around.
- You need to do a realistic and honest self assessment of what you know and what you don’t. That will help you to make many future decisions.
- You can’t make mistakes or fail at the beginning. You can only learn.
- iStrategyLab‘s business plan is to be everywhere to your audience, all the time, and don’t spend money.
- You can’t underestimate the value of empowering your super-users by asking what you can build to better serve them.
- As an entrepreneur, leave your ego at the door. Release your product even if it is incomplete.
- Know your strengths and play to them, then outsource your weaknesses.
- Tie your brand to a mission.
- Get your story straight, make sure people can understand it, and be able to explain the importance.
- Unlike Field of Dreams, if you build it, they’re not gonna come. Find your audience. Find out where they are and engage them. However, just because social media is free doesn’t mean you should use all of it.
- What does a “buzzkit” for your company look like? What’s in there? What are you asking your audience to do?
- Understand where you’re going. Improvise as needed. Connect with like-minded people in your space.
- Try to define success in terms of Money, Respect, Lifestyle, and Family.
- Opportunity cost is huge, start young if you can.
- Hire for attitude, train for skill.
Want more?
- Check out Jimmy Gardner’s BootstrapMD collage.
