How to start a business

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Start with a problem you can already reach

The question that decides most of what follows is not which market is largest. It's who will reply to a message from you. A idea you can reach is worth more than a better idea you can't, because at the start you have no audience, no budget and no reputation in the category - all you have is the distance between you and someone with the problem.

Three things you already own are the real inputs. Access: the people who will read a message from you because they know your name. Credibility: the subjects on which your opinion is taken seriously without a pitch. Repetition: something you have watched go wrong more than once, in a job, a hobby or a family business. Where those three overlap you get a business you can start on a Tuesday evening rather than one that needs a launch.

Ka yi la'akari da ra'ayoyi da suke aiki ne kawai a kan ma'aunin. Duk wani abu na irin "kamar wani dandali mai girma, amma don wani wuri" yana buƙatar dubban masu halartar kafin farkon ya sami wani daraja, kuma mutum ɗaya ba zai iya samar da shi ba. Kasuwanci wanda ke taimakawa mutane goma da yawa za a iya gina shi cikin makonni kuma ya girma a kan manufa; wani kasuwanci da ke taimakawa mutane dubu goma da yawa ba za a iya fara shi ba.

Finally, be honest about the difference between a business and a project. A business is something a stranger pays for deliberately, more than once. If you cannot describe that stranger in a sentence — their job, what their week looks like, the moment they would go looking for a solution — you have a project. That is a fine thing to have, but do not put a company around it yet.

Test the demand before you build the thing

The cheapest version of your business is a conversation. A gaban ka rubuta code, umarni stock ko zane a logo, bayyana da tunanin ga mutane goma da suka haɗu da ku daya-waƙa baƙin kuma tambayi abin da suke yi game da matsalar yau. Ba ka sauraro ga sha'awa - mutane ne mai kyau. Ka sauraro ga kokarin. Wani wanda ya gina wani spreadsheet, ya ba da aiki a lokaci ko biya ga wani kayan aiki da ba su so ya riga ya gaya maka da matsalar da kudin da suka dace da su.

The next-cheapest test is one page and a price. Say what the thing is, who it is for and what it costs, and ask for something small in return: an email address, a deposit, a booked call. A page nobody signs up to is a far cheaper failure than a product nobody buys, and the sign-up rate is a real number you can work on rather than a feeling you can argue about.

Do not skip the price. An idea validated without a number is not validated. "Would you use this?" gets a yes from nearly everyone; "would you pay this, on the first of the month, starting now?" gets an honest answer, and the objection that comes back is usually the single most useful sentence of the whole exercise.

Ka ba da gwajin wani lokaci da kuma wani mataki, rubuta a ƙasa kafin ka fara: hira ashirin, ko kuma makonni biyu na wani shafi mai rai, kuma wannan amsa mai yawa yana lissafa kamar dai dai. Tsarin abin da nasara yake kama da gaba ɗaya shine kawai gaskiya tsaron da aka yi wa karatun sakamakon da ya fi dacewa da shi.

Naming it, and taking the address

Names matter less than founders think, and caring about them in the wrong way costs weeks. A good name is short, pronounceable over a bad phone line, spellable by someone who has only ever heard it, and not already carried by a competitor in the same category. That is very nearly the whole brief. The name does not have to describe the product; it has to survive being repeated.

Yi la'akari da cewa sunan ba shi da alama a cikin masana'antarku da kuma ƙasarku - rajistar hukuma a cikin mafi yawan jihohi ana iya neman kyauta, kuma minti biyar ana iya adana wani rebrand a baya. Kuma ka sami adireshin da kake da shi a kan intanet. Wani yanki shine ɗayan manyan shawarwari a cikin kasuwancin matasa wanda yake da wahala a juyawa, saboda kowane alaƙa, fasfo, katin kasuwanci da sa hannun imel ya ƙare yana nuna shi.

Prefer a domain you own outright to a name inside somebody else's platform. A page on a marketplace or a social network can be suspended by someone who has never met you and owes you no explanation; a domain you registered stays yours as long as you renew it. If the exact name you wanted is gone, a shorter or slightly altered form on a domain you control beats the perfect name on an address you rent.

The admin minimum, honestly

The first question is whether you are allowed to trade as yourself. Registering a company is not automatically step one. In many places you may trade under your own name while you find out whether the business is real, and form a entity once there is income or liability worth separating; in others the registration comes first. What an entity mainly buys you is separation between the business's risks and your own, plus trustworthiness with customers and suppliers - it is not, by itself, what makes selling legal.

Na biyu shi ne raba kudi, kuma shi ne daya universal amsa a kan wannan shafi: bude wani asusun da aka ware ga kasuwanci da kuma tafiya duk da shi daga farkon ciniki. Mixed mutum da kasuwanci kudi ne kuskure da ke sa duk wani mataki na ƙarshe da wuya - da dawo da haraji, da bookkeeping, da mai bincike, da aikace-aikacen bashi, da sayar da kasuwanci - kuma yana da wani bayan dare don kauce wa da shekaru don untangle.

Na uku shi ne gano abin da kake da shi, da kuma lokacin, kafin ka biya shi. Akwai wata hukumar harajin a cikin ƙasarka tare da wani shafi mai bayyana abin da wani sabon kasuwanci a cikin yanayinka ya kamata ya shigar da shi da kuma lokacin. Ka karanta wannan shafi fiye da wani labarin game da shi: ƙa'idodin canji, kuma sigar da ke haɗaka ita ce ta ofishin. Idan wani harajin sayarwa ko VAT ya shafi abin da kake sayarwa, ka duba dokokin rajista da sauri, saboda suna da yawa su juya kan wani mataki da zaka iya wucewa ba tare da sanin ba.

The fourth is writing down what you promise. Terms of sale, a refund policy and a privacy notice are not corporate theatre; they are the document you will be happy to have during your first difficult customer, and they are the reason a payment processor will keep working with you. If you collect personal data, find out which privacy rules apply to your customers - they usually follow the customer's location, not yours.

Getting online: an address, an inbox, a way to be paid

Kuna bukatar abubuwa uku kuma su ne mafi ƙaranci fiye da yadda suke ji: wani wuri da mutane za su iya karanta game da ku, wani wuri da za su iya isa gare ku, da wani wuri da za su iya biya ku.

The site does not have to be impressive; it has to be specific. A stranger arriving on it should learn within one screen what you do, who it is for, what it costs and how to start. Most first sites fail on the last two: the price hidden behind a call, and no obvious next action. Four honest pages - what it is, who is behind it, what it costs, how to get in touch - is a complete site, and a complete site beats a beautiful one every time.

The inbox should be at your own domain. An address at the domain you just registered says the business exists; a free consumer address on a quote or an invoice quietly says the opposite, and fixing it takes minutes.

Asusun biyan kudi shi ne abin da mutane ke jinkirta da kuma jin kunya da shi. Ka sanya shi kafin ka ji ka yi. Asusun biyan kudi a cikin sunanka, wanda aka haɗa da bankinka, yana nufin mutumin da ya yanke shawarar siyan zai iya siyan a lokacin da suka yanke shawarar - kuma kasuwancin ya zama gaskiya a farkon cinikinsa, ba a lokacin da aka fara shi ba. Ka riƙe asusun a cikin sunanka ba kamar yadda wani adadin a cikin dandalin wani mutumin, don haka kudin, bayanan abokin ciniki da tarihin biyan kuɗi sune naka.

Idan wannan block sauti kamar wata mako ba ka da, wannan ne mako da muka gina wannan don cire. First Employee Yana da ma'ana daya game da kasuwanci, bincike na kasuwa, zaɓi wani sunan, kuma ya sanya wani live multi-page site tare da inbox na kan layi a cikin minti uku. Ƙara shi kyauta ne, kuma kowane mataki da ya ɗauki an rubuta shi a matsayin ribar da zaku iya karantawa da fitarwa. Ka duba abin da yake yi.

The first ten customers

Most guides stop at "launch", which is where the actual difficulty begins. The first ten customers do not arrive from an audience, because you do not have one. They come from people you can name.

To, rubuta jerin. A gaskiya mutane da suke da matsala - tsohon abokan aiki, mutane a cikin wani ƙungiya ciniki, mai mallakar wani kasuwanci biyu tituna daga baya, wani wanda ya yi zargin game da wannan daidai a cikin jama'a watan da ya gabata. Manzanci su daya a lokaci, game da halinsu fiye da game da farawa, kuma tambayar wata tambaya da ka gaskiya so amsa. A takarda da za a iya kawai an rubuta zuwa wannan mutumin samun amsoshi da wani watsa shirye-shirye ba za su taba.

Charge the first one. A free pilot teaches you almost nothing, because nobody guards a free thing or complains about it honestly. A paying customer, even at an embarrassing price, tells you what the product must do and gives you a sentence to use on the next person. Then ask the ones who said no what they are doing instead — those answers are a description of your real competition, which is usually a spreadsheet or a habit rather than a company.

Serve the early ones conspicuously well, further than is sustainable. It is the only period where you can afford it, and it buys the two things that compound: the specific words customers use about the problem, and referrals. Ask for the referral directly, right after somebody tells you they are happy. Almost nobody does, which is why it works.

Sa'an nan kuma zaɓi wani hanya zuwa ga sabon abokan ciniki da kuma ba shi da wani m gwaji kafin ƙara wani. Search, wani abokin ciniki wanda ya riga ya yi aiki ga abokan ciniki, da al'umma da ka a gaskiya wani ɓangare na, kai tsaye ya kai, ko biya tallace-tallace - kowace daga cikin wadannan yana da kwanakin da za a karanta daidai. Running biyar a lokaci guda samar da biyar unreadable sakamakon da wani founder wanda ya yi zafi.

Mai tsira, mako bayan mako

A farkon shi ne karshen mako. mako ashirin ne mafi wuya sashi. Kasuwanci a wannan mataki rarely mutu daga gasa; su mutu daga rashin kulawa, saboda aikin da ke kiyaye su rai ne unlamorous, ba zai taba da gaggawa, da kuma ko da yaushe na farko abu da aka rasa lokacin da wani mai amfani bukatar wani abu a yau.

Wannan aiki yana da daidaituwa a duk inda kake: wallafa wani abu don haka akwai dalilin da zai iya gano ka, bincika tambayoyin da ka riga ka yi, kiyaye shafin da abin da ka sayar da shi, karanta wasu adadin da ke da muhimmanci, da amsa imel ɗinka. Duk wani abu yana da ƙarancin girma. Tare su ne aikin biyu, kuma ka riga

Wannan shi ne wani ɓangare na tsari da muka gina wani abu ga, da kuma kawai wani ɓangare inda za mu iya zargin su ne amsa. First Employee is an AI employee that works a shift on your business every night: it picks up where the last shift ended, does the week-to-week work, and leaves one page in the morning saying what shipped, what it learned and the single question it needs answered. Anything irreversible — sending mail to a real person, posting publicly, spending money — waits for you. Every action it takes writes a receipt with the tool, the timing and the artefact, so the work is auditable rather than asserted.

The build is free. Nightly shifts come with a plan, and the plan is the entire bill on the self-managed side: we take 0% of your income and 0% of your ad spending. If you'd rather we ran the business side for you, the managed plan takes 15% of what the company earns. On either one your customers pay an account in your own name, so we never hold your money. Yadda yake aiki · Da gaske

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