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The in your face guide to start a business – part 1

Mag will take a major shift in its structure as it will become less self-serving and more magazine-oriented, so that its appearance is much closer to the meaning of its name. There will continue to be one writer/editor, although I may invite other people to write special articles for me in the near future. So, without further adue, How to start a Business from one of the most critical young malay entrepreneurs today.

Start it up yourself

Warren Buffet was asked once, if he could start all over again, what would he do? He said, “Ask for help.”

I say, he is half right. I followed his advice once, and I paid for it. Clearly, he didn’t mean ask for anyone’s help! That’s what you got for being so literal. I started out small, on my own, with another partner, Norza. Together, we were darn good. I did the programming, she did the design. We set up a company called Ameleora Solutions (now defunct).

I had a vision for the company. I wanted it to be a premier web development agency. I don’t want it to be run of the mill. I want it to be different. Fresh.

The site was probably the fourth revamp in 2 years. We changed a lot in those years. Nor came out with the first Ameleora website. It was completely in flash, and to be honest, it was the freshest design ever. Perhaps, if I had wanted it to continue purely as a web development agency, I might have not let it develop into a security focussed company. Unfortunately, it’s not easy starting out, and honestly, I didn’t know where to start, and neither did my 3 new partners which I recruited.

I think perhaps, the first mistake for me was to open up Ameleora to other people. I thought, the more people there are, the faster we will grow. One by one, the team disintegrated, and we weren’t multiplying our results even. I didn’t get new referrals from most of my new partners, and when there was, we had to split the monies five ways.

Nor left, coz the money was better elsewhere. And I think if we had stayed just the 2 of us, perhaps Ameleora would still stand today.

Clearly, “asking for help” could mean many different things. It could mean getting a mentor. It could mean getting employees, an it could also mean the difference between life and death, rich or poor.

Thus, don’t just get help unnecessarily. Get help only when you need it. If you’re the programmer, you certainly don’t need another friend who can program. Not unless you’ve reached a level where you need to focus on other aspects of the business.

Otherwise, my official mantra is, strike it alone, if you can handle it.

Study, study, study

I’ve written dozens of business plans. I swear that if I had acted on some of them, I’d be a millionaire today. One of these plans was written at the height of the dotcom bubble. I had wanted to set up a site that rested on a physical business. Most of my plans were in such a manner. I did not believe in a fully internet-based business, at least not at that time. I saw the Internet more as a business tool than as a click and mortar business entity.

For one thing, the Internet was meant to share information. It wasn’t meant to sell items on eBay. There are very few internet-based businesses that could work using retail patterns, and I still stay true to this mantra today. The internet is about information, and if I’m setting up an internet-based business, it has to be information based.

WRONG!

Try different patterns and see what’s best for you. I’ve written plans from creating a football community league business fronted by a proper website, to social networks that relied on a physical brick and mortar eatery. All of these business plans will work. If you have the funds and resources that is. True enough, I stumbled upon businesses that had similar ideas and embarked on it, and they have continued to exist today. However, they did it in a manner which I wouldn’t have done. So it still remains to be seen if they’d ever survive in 2 years time with increased competition.

When writing a plan, study the market well enough to know who your customers are. They must have a void that needs filling. You could begin from a hunch, but you have to work through the sums and at least get the opinions of others to see if they see potential in your startup. Most of the time, they may be nice, but reiterate to them that you want adversarial opinions if possible. Poke holes at it and test if your business idea sinks before it could even begin.

A successful business will rise if its idea has few holes.

No money? No problem!Â

Well, you could apply for grants, and that’s actually recommended. But I believe that if you want to start a business, start it when you’re young. Not when you’re balding, in your 30’s, with wife, kids and an unborn child. If you’ve reach the big 30, and you don’t earn enough to take care of your family, then don’t get into business. Your family comes first.

Why? Running a business takes immense dedication and effort. My entrepreneurism coach told me once that starting a business is like marriage. The moment you lose it, your world crumbles. You cannot do it when you have a family. In my opinion, it’s not right. Unless you have a simple business which you can run on the side, try not to play with fire. Your wife and kids are your number 1 priorty!

So embark on it when you’re either in your teens or in your early twenties. Youth is an advantage. You don’t have any money, so you have nothing to lose.

To Be Continued in Part 2