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MenuWhich career field allows me to follow my interests in business, technology, and branding, without the greatest skill-set in tech or design?
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First, congratulations on going the entrepreneurial route! You have a situation that is very common and one that can cause frustration so you're smart to identify it early.
Branding, skills and experience are all external to you. They are the building blocks you use AFTER you've determined the type of business model that would work best for you personally. Here's are the first two steps in how to start:
1. Identify your values. (not strengths - that's external). Values are internal. They are the things that are most important to you. For many entrepreneurs, the values of Freedom, Accomplishment, Creativity, Recognition come to the top of the list. There are no right or wrong answers - only what is important to you.
2. Once you have your values identified, it's important to know your personal style - your way of being in the world. Are you introverted or extroverted? A mixture? (By reading your question I'd say both). Go toward pleasure? Away from pain? Want to help others?
Consider these items above or get a personal style test and values test to know quicker.
3. Once you know who YOU are and what drives you, you must build a business model that can serve what you want to achieve in not just business but life. Do you want to be a solo person doing all the work? Run a large company? Somewhere in between? Online or offline or both? Then compare your intended business model to your values and style answers. Now when you ask the "Should I" questions you'll have a blueprint to help you make the right decisions every time.
Hope that helps.
I completely agree with Stephanie.
Once you've identified who you are, your values and what's important to you, it's then a matter of finding a problem worth solving.
Start by talking to the people you think you'd enjoy working with or helping. Find out what challenges they have in their life and look for a potential solution that would solve their problems.
Once you've found 3 or so problems you could potentially solve, match these against your blueprint mentioned by Stephanie.
Then go out and do some research. See what is out there, who your competitors are etc.
There are some great podcasts out there that may help inspire you. A couple of my personal favourites are
Internet Business Mastery
Fizzle (you'll like their content I think as they talk a lot about "Finding your thing")
Good luck!
I can relate to you, and believe me, something great will come again. However, you can't force the situation. Great startups emerge because the founders couldn't stop from thinking about their idea and how much it was needed in the world.
From what you wrote, I see that you didn't like to go back to work as an accountant, and you want to do your own thing. I would suggest a middle-point from both ideas: Why don't you join an early stage startup with a good chance of succeeding?
If you join an early team, you'll have the opportunity to shape the idea and company as much as if you were one of the creators. Also, it'll allow you to put on different hats within the company, letting you discover your strengths.
Not being the founder of the company takes out the stress of fundraising or getting the funds so that you can concentrate on your work.
The outcome of this experiment could be that you end up loving the company as if it was yours and you'd be happy to stay, or that it'll get you prepared for your next startup: connected to better investors, better talent, and a better ecosystem than what you have right now.
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What is the average series A funding round at pre revenue valuation for a enterprise start up w/cutting edge tech on verge of our first client.
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I have this social media idea,but no coding skills. How do I get someone to do the coding (cant afford to pay them) and not give away half of my idea?
Dilip was very kind in his response. My answer might be a bit on the "tough love" side. But that's for you to decide. My intention, just for the record, is to help you (and those like you) on your path to success. And that starts with having a viable philosophy about entrepreneurial-ism and business. And I'm going to answer this because I get asked some form / version of this question very frequently from newcomers to entrepreneurial-ism. The scenario goes something like this: "I have a great idea. It's amazing, I love it, and I just KNOW it's gonna make me a ton of money. But I have no money right now so I can't afford to (fill in the blank with things like "to build it / create it / market it / etc" or "to hire the required staff needed to work in my business to sell it / develop it / etc"). And I don't want to tell anyone about my great idea because I'm worried someone will steal it and make MY million / billion dollars. But I can't afford to legally protect it either... So how do I launch without the skills to personally create the product AND no money to hire anyone else to do that either??" The answer is ... You don't. Look - let's be honest. All you have is an idea. Big deal. Really. I'm not saying it's not a good idea. I'm not saying that if properly executed it couldn't make you a million / billion dollars... But an idea is NOT a business. Nor is it an asset. Until you do some (very important) initial work - like creating a business model, doing customer development, creating a MVP, etc - all you really have is a dream. Right now your choices are: 1. Find someone with the skills or the money to develop your idea and sell them on WHY they should invest in you. And yes, this will mean giving up either a portion of the "ownership" or of future income or equity. And the more risk they have to take - the more equity they will want (and quite frankly be entitled to). 2. Learn how to code and build it yourself. MANY entrepreneurs without financial resources are still resourceful. They develop the skills needed to create what they don't have the money to pay someone else to do. 3. Get some cash so you can pay someone to do the coding. You'll probably have to have some knowledge of coding to direct the architecture of your idea. So you will likely still have to become knowledgeable even if its not you personally doing the coding. (This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of options... And I'm sure some of the other experts here on Clarity have others to add - and I hope they do) To wrap up - Here's my final tip to you that I hope you "get"... It's FAR more valuable to have an idea that a very specific hungry crowd is clamoring for right now - One that THEY would love and pay you for right now - Maybe even one they'd pre-order because they just have to have it - Versus YOU being in love with your own idea. [Notice I didn't say "an idea that some as-of-yet-undetermined market would probably love"] I wish you the best of luck moving forward.DB
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I love this question. If you have to work on the side while building your business, I recommend doing something you absolutely hate. That keeps you hungry to succeed on your own. You'll also typically save your energy for the evenings and weekends where you'll want it for your business. Don't expect to make much money at your "other job" but you can work it to pay the bills while you build your business. This approach also forces you to build incrementally, and it keeps you frugal. This is not necessarily ideal. Having a bunch of money set aside sounds nice and luxurious, but not having the resources puts you in a position where you have to figure it out to survive. I love that. I started my business eight years ago on $150 and today we do a million a year. Don't wait until you have the resources to start safely. Dive in however you can. And avoid shortcuts. Don't waste your time scheming to make bigger money on the side. Do something honest to live on and create a business that drives value.CM
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