Ask HN: Tips on starting a tiny business?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=860445

by sli • 17 years ago

8 4 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'm a college student looking to make a few extra dollars here and there. With a friend of mine, I've started a small internet-based record label without about four artists.I have a small bit of secondhand small business experience from my father, whom I worked for through high school, and his home-based business. Aside from that, however, I've never done any real business before.

I'm looking to keep things very small, maybe 10 musicians maximum, but potentially more after college. Any tips to help me along with this smaller than small business?

matthodan• 17 years ago

Congrats on taking the road less traveled. I too started a business while I was in college to pay the bills-- turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life. Looking back, the most important thing I had going for me was a great co-founder that complimented my interests and skill set.

When we were starting out we thought about the following questions all of the time:

- Do people want our product?

- How are we differentiated?

- What will this cost us?

- How will we make money?

- Who can we ask for advice?

- What are we forgetting?

Focus on making something people want-- this is paramount. A good rule of thumb is that your product needs to be good enough that people willingly recommend it to others. Make sure your product is differentiated-- people won't trust you at first (and they will trust an established competitor) so you need to offer something customers can't get elsewhere. Charge for your product-- sounds obvious, but you can't make money without it and it's not as easy as it sounds. Network, network, network-- too many founders forget to network with customers, vendors, business partners, future employees, etc. because they get too focused on developing the product. Networking will be a great source of feedback and will open doors you may never have known existed. Remember, you're creating a business not just creating a product.

SaurabhGarg• 17 years ago

Hi,

I wrote a longish post on what I did when I started. May be it helps. http://www.cyntax.in/blog/2009/09/tools-of-the-trade/

And I think there is only one tip ... Save cash. As much as possible. No fancy cars, no fancy offices, no fancy nothing. Just save cash. Thats about it.

Regards, SG

RobEdwards• 17 years ago

Couldn't agree more - keep costs as low as possible.

sli• 17 years ago

Luckily, the entire business is being run online from our homes.

Ask HN: Tips on starting a tiny business?

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