Ask HN: How did you start a business? What was the first step?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19083910

by codesternews • 7 years ago

7 3 7 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

What was your first step to start a business or startup.

Was it side project? or was it hobby? or was it remote work?

Did you just left the job or pursue it? or you grow your business first?

I wanted to do business but I do not know where to start. what did you do as a first thing to start a business?

brudgers• 7 years ago

Find paying customers.

buttminer• 7 years ago

The first thing I did was find paying customers, as brudgers mentioned.

There are many many many business ideas that are hard to generate a single dollar of revenue off of because the problem you're solving is not big enough.

I'm in the cannabis point-of-sale space. The problem I was solving was inventory management for a single store I knew. If could help him track his numbers better, that was worth money to him (because he would save money for his business), and he was willing to pay $100/month for that right off the bat.

If I was solving something like, have a cool iPad display to show your products to your customers, that wouldn't be worth any money. It's not solving a big enough problem.

As we scaled, our value propositions shifted from a micro-scale more towards government compliance. Now we charge $500/month because we are solving a bigger problem.

Long story short: find a problem people are willing to pay for. If nobody's willing to pay, that's because the problem isn't big enough.

ny8jjang• 7 years ago

well said sir.

Ask HN: How did you start a business? What was the first step?

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