I need words of wisdom
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No offence but you need from a common sense. Starting a company without some initial capital is like planning to have a sex without having a girlfriend.
There is only one Ashley Judd and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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now why do you feel a sudden need to quote a third party? ;P
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum
Please use <PRE> tags for code snippets, they preserve indentation, improve readability, and make me actually look at the code.
Luc Pattyn wrote:
now why do you feel a sudden need to quote a third party?
JSOP has been known to refer to himself as Confucius in the past.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
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Tell me about it. When my little girl is big enough to ask me a “questions” I will have forgotten the answers. :-D
There is only one Ashley Judd and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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Luc Pattyn wrote:
now why do you feel a sudden need to quote a third party?
JSOP has been known to refer to himself as Confucius in the past.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
And Chuck Norris has been know to refer to himself as JSOP...
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001 -
And Chuck Norris has been know to refer to himself as JSOP...
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001Modesty isn't his biggest quality then. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum
Please use <PRE> tags for code snippets, they preserve indentation, improve readability, and make me actually look at the code.
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If you want to do research, why not become a professor at a university? I'm only half way serious (I know nothing about it), but you will have free labor (doctorial/thesis candidates) and can make some money on the side publishing your work, doing speaches, etc. You will also be paid and so not have to hemorage money to start a business, find financers, market yourself, or do anything else other than technical research and publish your results. Do you want to start your business to be rich, or do do your research?
I want to have my own company and see that company grow. I cannot do that in a university
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Hi, I have mad up my mind. I am starting a business. One of the problems is that i think i know what i am doing, but i might be wrong. I have been writing C, C++, python and MATLAB code for a long time now. My expertise are 'computer vision' (object recognition)and 'Data mining'. I have been teaching myself at home and am now at a point where i think i can use everything i have learned to make some money so i can start a company and hire other researchers in the field of computer vision. The other problem is that, in my bank account, i only have enough money for my bills :( I have started to design a website which will be ready in less than two weeks. I really need advises or any kind of help :)
Then why are you looking here ;P
I know the language. I've read a book. - _Madmatt
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hervebags wrote:
I really need advises or any kind of help
My advice is to stop now and consider what you want to do and how you're going to get there. Starting a business requires one thing at the outset: a business plan, including a marketing plan and cash flow projection. By going through the process of creating that document you will find out: 1) How much equipment, software, people etc. you'll need to make a go of it. 2) How much cash you'll need to startup and keep going while you're looking for customers. 3) Whether or not it is likely you can make a go of it. If you create this document using realistic numbers and expectations, you may very well find you cannot make a go if it. If that's the case you will have saved yourself a lot of time, money and stress. You may also find that you can't make a go of it as originally planned, but that you can change a few things to make it viable. If your business plan shows you can make a go of it, you'll have a document you can take to family/friends for initial financing, then the bank or venture capital firms for extended financing if necessary. I went through this process 9 years ago and found that I needed $40,000 in the bank before I even started. That gave me just enough to buy the equipment and software I needed and to prop up my cash flow long enough for me to develop the business contacts and paying customers I needed to move forward. Believe me, $40k is not a lot of money when it comes to starting a business. Hope this helps. Cheers, Drew.
Thank you very much for your advice. $40,000 is a lot of money!! But i do understand that, for starting a business, it is not a lot of money.
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I actually got my degree in Management, specializing in Entrepreneurship. The CS courses at my University were a bore, and I had a riff with the department. I've started a few businesses, each unsuccessful or moderately successful. Here is my $0.02: It worries me that you have a plan to make some money and hire people. The only capital you can contribute at this time is sweat equity, your own skill and time, so use it to create something. You are avoiding some of the most important benefits of starting a software company: you are a virtual company. If you have the ability to write the code or create a marketable product on your own, you might need just one other person for admin duties to start a company. Look into the idea of bootstrapping as it relates to entrepreneurship, remember HP was started by 2 guys in a garage making an improvement on one niche product (audio oscilloscope). If you really need some outside coders, find people that would like to go in 50-50 investing their sweat equity as well for ownership rights. Some people, like myself, are willing to invest time outside of our day jobs, without pay, to get ownership at ground level. Some other financial tips: Don't plan on operating profitably for a couple of years. Even in good times, it may be a while before you can pay yourself, or any lenders off. I would avoid family and friends for seeding money, unless they can stand to lose the money, a failed business venture is not worth a ruined relationship. I'm working as hard as I can to save up the money for my next venture, and don't plan on any outside seeding. It's a good idea to start the company when you have a nice bank account or other form of cash flow. I just closed my bank account of a failed business yesterday. Am I sad? No. I didn't invest a lot of capital so my loss was just time. Also, it taught me a lot and I know things will go better next time around. I want to write a book on this now.
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No offence but you need from a common sense. Starting a company without some initial capital is like planning to have a sex without having a girlfriend.
There is only one Ashley Judd and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
There are a lot of types of capital. I do have capital:'skill' and 'motivation' :)
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Thank you very much for your advice. $40,000 is a lot of money!! But i do understand that, for starting a business, it is not a lot of money.
hervebags wrote:
$40,000 is a lot of money!!
Yes, it is! A lot of people starting businesses make the mistake of knowing they really need more money than they have, but going ahead anyway. That's a sure recipe for a failed business and a big financial loss. Cheers, Drew.
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I actually got my degree in Management, specializing in Entrepreneurship. The CS courses at my University were a bore, and I had a riff with the department. I've started a few businesses, each unsuccessful or moderately successful. Here is my $0.02: It worries me that you have a plan to make some money and hire people. The only capital you can contribute at this time is sweat equity, your own skill and time, so use it to create something. You are avoiding some of the most important benefits of starting a software company: you are a virtual company. If you have the ability to write the code or create a marketable product on your own, you might need just one other person for admin duties to start a company. Look into the idea of bootstrapping as it relates to entrepreneurship, remember HP was started by 2 guys in a garage making an improvement on one niche product (audio oscilloscope). If you really need some outside coders, find people that would like to go in 50-50 investing their sweat equity as well for ownership rights. Some people, like myself, are willing to invest time outside of our day jobs, without pay, to get ownership at ground level. Some other financial tips: Don't plan on operating profitably for a couple of years. Even in good times, it may be a while before you can pay yourself, or any lenders off. I would avoid family and friends for seeding money, unless they can stand to lose the money, a failed business venture is not worth a ruined relationship. I'm working as hard as I can to save up the money for my next venture, and don't plan on any outside seeding. It's a good idea to start the company when you have a nice bank account or other form of cash flow. I just closed my bank account of a failed business yesterday. Am I sad? No. I didn't invest a lot of capital so my loss was just time. Also, it taught me a lot and I know things will go better next time around. I want to write a book on this now.
I really like your advice! Thank you.
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There are a lot of types of capital. I do have capital:'skill' and 'motivation' :)
Yes, these ones are a must have. :)
There is only one Ashley Judd and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
-
Hi, I have mad up my mind. I am starting a business. One of the problems is that i think i know what i am doing, but i might be wrong. I have been writing C, C++, python and MATLAB code for a long time now. My expertise are 'computer vision' (object recognition)and 'Data mining'. I have been teaching myself at home and am now at a point where i think i can use everything i have learned to make some money so i can start a company and hire other researchers in the field of computer vision. The other problem is that, in my bank account, i only have enough money for my bills :( I have started to design a website which will be ready in less than two weeks. I really need advises or any kind of help :)
I'm going to mention a word sure to get me permabanned from geek sites everywhere, but it is the single most crucial element in running a successful company. Marketing. There. I said it. Now everyone please put down the pitchforks and torches (er, that would be flaming wooden sticks for you UK folks). All kidding aside, if you want to make money you need to define your target audience, create a solution to a problem they have that they're willing to pay for, and then put together a plan on how to get the word out to them. My marketing company uses a process called the Knowledge Triangle Analysis, which is just fancy marketing-speak (hey, we have to market too, you know) for three fundamental principles: Know Yourself, Know Your Customer, Know Your Enemy. In other words, understand the products / services and their unique selling proposition, i.e. what makes you stand out in the marketplace. Then know your customers in intimate detail so that you know what they care about, where they hang out, and thus how you can reach them. Lastly, research your competition and learn what you can from them including what they do better than you and where you are better than them. We're in the studio right now producing a weekly video tutorial series designed to help guys like you who need to do your own marketing and can't afford to hire professional help. We'll be launching this series in January, and of course it's free, but in the meantime if you'll do some serious naval gazing on the topics I've mentioned, it will tell you a number of things. If you try to give in depth consideration to marketing but find yourself in aversion and always having a reason to do something else, then you're probably not going to do any promotion of your products & services. If that's the case, I promise you that your company will die a slow but inevitable death. So be honest with yourself. If you're not willing to do all that sales & marketing stuff, get a job working for someone else. You'll be much happier, and so will your bank account. Hope this helps, and best of luck either way.
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer
Writing apps? Developing sites? Hate marketing? We can help. -
Hi, I have mad up my mind. I am starting a business. One of the problems is that i think i know what i am doing, but i might be wrong. I have been writing C, C++, python and MATLAB code for a long time now. My expertise are 'computer vision' (object recognition)and 'Data mining'. I have been teaching myself at home and am now at a point where i think i can use everything i have learned to make some money so i can start a company and hire other researchers in the field of computer vision. The other problem is that, in my bank account, i only have enough money for my bills :( I have started to design a website which will be ready in less than two weeks. I really need advises or any kind of help :)
Two words "Business Plan" You should prepare a business plan that will show you (and any potential backers) how much it is going to cost you and where and when you will start making money, that projected income etc. Many small businesses fail because (trite as it sounds) if you fail to plan you are planning to fail. If you genuinely have a vision, then making a business plan will allow you to approach the bank or other investors, and demonstrate that you have it all worked out. You say you want to "start a company and hire other researchers" - which implies both that you don't have an existing product to sell and that you anticipate several thousand dollars a month outgoings if only on salaries; if your bank account only has enough for your bills, and assuming no other form of income, you need to do that plan, and start approaching people for funding (or start off small enough that you can afford it until you have a salable product) Depending on where you are in the world, there are often organizations specifically out there to help small businesses - don't be afraid to approach them and take their advice. Something like 50% of new businesses fail within 5 years - and many because they haven't ghot a detailed plan.
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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Hi, I have mad up my mind. I am starting a business. One of the problems is that i think i know what i am doing, but i might be wrong. I have been writing C, C++, python and MATLAB code for a long time now. My expertise are 'computer vision' (object recognition)and 'Data mining'. I have been teaching myself at home and am now at a point where i think i can use everything i have learned to make some money so i can start a company and hire other researchers in the field of computer vision. The other problem is that, in my bank account, i only have enough money for my bills :( I have started to design a website which will be ready in less than two weeks. I really need advises or any kind of help :)
Starting a technical business is full of pitfalls. The technical part is probably 10% of the problem. The normal business books don't cover a lot of details, either. Establishing a business entity is an expense you don't need to jump into before you have a business plan. If you don't have a business plan, don't start your business! If you don't know how to write a business plan, then get to a library (or find references online) and start studying. You need to learn all about business organizations, billing, collection, taxes, legal aspects specific to your case, employer laws, insurance, and more. You need to establish a plan with goals and contingencies, then talk to some people who are dead-set against you going into business and listen to their arguments. You better have a factual and objective answer for them, or you're not ready and your business plan is half-baked. As for funding, make sure you have enough to last 3 years without income from your business. That means working an extra job or savings, unless you want to find investors who will loan you money in exchange for control of your business. You may be lucky and have an easier time than some, but my experience is that sooner or later you'll wish you had some extra capital and if that happens in the first year or two, you're gone. Other than that, being somewhat insane is a good characteristic. I've often questioned my sanity, but truthfully I have so much fun doing my own thing, I don't care if I'm actually crazy or not! ;P
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E. Comport Computing Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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Two words "Business Plan" You should prepare a business plan that will show you (and any potential backers) how much it is going to cost you and where and when you will start making money, that projected income etc. Many small businesses fail because (trite as it sounds) if you fail to plan you are planning to fail. If you genuinely have a vision, then making a business plan will allow you to approach the bank or other investors, and demonstrate that you have it all worked out. You say you want to "start a company and hire other researchers" - which implies both that you don't have an existing product to sell and that you anticipate several thousand dollars a month outgoings if only on salaries; if your bank account only has enough for your bills, and assuming no other form of income, you need to do that plan, and start approaching people for funding (or start off small enough that you can afford it until you have a salable product) Depending on where you are in the world, there are often organizations specifically out there to help small businesses - don't be afraid to approach them and take their advice. Something like 50% of new businesses fail within 5 years - and many because they haven't ghot a detailed plan.
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
Thank you for your advice. I think the business plan is what i should start with. Most people think so too. I have a nice book on starting business and another one on marketing. I have already started reading them :)
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Starting a technical business is full of pitfalls. The technical part is probably 10% of the problem. The normal business books don't cover a lot of details, either. Establishing a business entity is an expense you don't need to jump into before you have a business plan. If you don't have a business plan, don't start your business! If you don't know how to write a business plan, then get to a library (or find references online) and start studying. You need to learn all about business organizations, billing, collection, taxes, legal aspects specific to your case, employer laws, insurance, and more. You need to establish a plan with goals and contingencies, then talk to some people who are dead-set against you going into business and listen to their arguments. You better have a factual and objective answer for them, or you're not ready and your business plan is half-baked. As for funding, make sure you have enough to last 3 years without income from your business. That means working an extra job or savings, unless you want to find investors who will loan you money in exchange for control of your business. You may be lucky and have an easier time than some, but my experience is that sooner or later you'll wish you had some extra capital and if that happens in the first year or two, you're gone. Other than that, being somewhat insane is a good characteristic. I've often questioned my sanity, but truthfully I have so much fun doing my own thing, I don't care if I'm actually crazy or not! ;P
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E. Comport Computing Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
Thank you. I think the 2 challenging parts of it are getting funding and coming up with a good business plan. I think I'd better get started :)
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I'm going to mention a word sure to get me permabanned from geek sites everywhere, but it is the single most crucial element in running a successful company. Marketing. There. I said it. Now everyone please put down the pitchforks and torches (er, that would be flaming wooden sticks for you UK folks). All kidding aside, if you want to make money you need to define your target audience, create a solution to a problem they have that they're willing to pay for, and then put together a plan on how to get the word out to them. My marketing company uses a process called the Knowledge Triangle Analysis, which is just fancy marketing-speak (hey, we have to market too, you know) for three fundamental principles: Know Yourself, Know Your Customer, Know Your Enemy. In other words, understand the products / services and their unique selling proposition, i.e. what makes you stand out in the marketplace. Then know your customers in intimate detail so that you know what they care about, where they hang out, and thus how you can reach them. Lastly, research your competition and learn what you can from them including what they do better than you and where you are better than them. We're in the studio right now producing a weekly video tutorial series designed to help guys like you who need to do your own marketing and can't afford to hire professional help. We'll be launching this series in January, and of course it's free, but in the meantime if you'll do some serious naval gazing on the topics I've mentioned, it will tell you a number of things. If you try to give in depth consideration to marketing but find yourself in aversion and always having a reason to do something else, then you're probably not going to do any promotion of your products & services. If that's the case, I promise you that your company will die a slow but inevitable death. So be honest with yourself. If you're not willing to do all that sales & marketing stuff, get a job working for someone else. You'll be much happier, and so will your bank account. Hope this helps, and best of luck either way.
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer
Writing apps? Developing sites? Hate marketing? We can help.My problem. I have a site, and I'm willing to work. Just no-one knows about me...
Don't forget to rate my post if it helped! ;) "He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." "His mother should have thrown him away, and kept the stork." "There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure." "He loves nature, in spite of what it did to him."
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Hi, I have mad up my mind. I am starting a business. One of the problems is that i think i know what i am doing, but i might be wrong. I have been writing C, C++, python and MATLAB code for a long time now. My expertise are 'computer vision' (object recognition)and 'Data mining'. I have been teaching myself at home and am now at a point where i think i can use everything i have learned to make some money so i can start a company and hire other researchers in the field of computer vision. The other problem is that, in my bank account, i only have enough money for my bills :( I have started to design a website which will be ready in less than two weeks. I really need advises or any kind of help :)
Generally speaking, NOTHING happens until somebody sells something. Do you have something to sell right now? Is there some compelling reason that someone would choose to pay you for your expertise versus another, more established entity? Do you have any "outside" interests? Are you prepared to abandon all of your "outside" interests? I read your intention as A) Make some money. and then B) Start a company. and then C) Hire others. That's not such a bad "plan", if that really is your plan. That "plan" has been used to great success, over and over. That plan softens the impact of insufficient funding, in as much as you are going to A) Make some money and then B)Start your company, etc.... So, I advise that you come back here when you have accomplished step "A" to a significant degree. While you are DOING "A", everything else may magically fall into place. Sincere Good Luck!
