We are three women have different skill sets. One person is a web developer, i’m a database analyst, the other person is a designer( color, graph). We are all well educated and had many years experience on our expertise. We want to start our own business. What type of business should we do?
I have 35+ startups in my background in multiple industries and multiple roles.
There is good advice from others on finding a real problem you inherently know and build a service you and others would find valuable to use. If you do not have this idea (not one suggested by us), it could be the fish and a bicycle cliche, a solution seeking a problem to solve.
What you have not made clear is why you all want to start a business *together*. If it is only that you are three females in a tech-bro world where you all have frustrations where you all (individually or collectively) work, that is not a strong platform for success. Is it that you deeply like each other? Is it that you deeply trust each other? Do you share a common bond or interest in a specific subject (not what you do professionally, but something human)? Do you have other bonds than skills (hint, you all have the insufficient/wrong skills - as all of us did, so you will need more) and gender?
In the 3 Ts - Team, Technology, and Traction, the reason you all want to work together is crucial since it is why you will not fall apart.
Having skills is one thing, and you sure have some useful ones… You need an idea… What hobbies do you have… often you can use your skills to take hobbies to a different level… Here is a cool exercise… go through a day, and make notes of daily challenges… and i mean the smallest every day hassels… after doing that for a day… brainstorm solutions for these everyday issues…. Do you know what is cool about every day issues… everybody has them, so any solution is probably scalable…. So dont reinvent the wheel… find a simple solution for simple everyday issues
There are many businesses you could start. Some with relatively low funds to get started. When it comes to starting a business you need to set monetary objectives on what you want to spend to get started. I would love to chat more with you. Message me and I would love to set up a time to chat.
Good for you 3 to take the initiative.
Creating something based on a personal skill is a huge advantage and helps through the grinds. Every business I have created has been based on using our personal skills and it has paid off.
You may look at a digital consulting firm or one that manages everything website relate for clients.
The other option is a online business with some more technical knowledge required. I have started (and sold) several businesses that solved a personal problem that you feel.
The data Antalyst is important in building the systems for the business and making sure everything runs smooth. Example is removing repetitive manual processes which can be handled my software.
Two extra tips
1. When I started a business I looked at personal needs and wants, problem I can solve, my skills and business pontential to grow. Be clear on all requirements and evaluate a business based on that.
2. You 3 are experienced and successful. To get to the pay you have now will take time. I see this all the time, where someone earning a good salary expects that return from biz on day 1. It does not work like that. Speaking from my experience before I left my job in 2007, I had a solid side business with good income, but did take a short pay cut and worked up.
Cheers,
Mukul
If I can help, call me
This is a tricky one to answer as there are three of you in the mix. I would suggest you get together to look at your common values and what your intended outcome for the business is to make sure that is aligned first. For example, are you building a business that will sustain your lifestyles versus one that has the potential to be come a listed entity or one that you are building to sell. Starting with the end in mind can help you see things more clearly. If you would like to go into detail on this topic, feel free to set up a call with me.
One way you could figure out what you want to do is to recap what you each did first and then figure out if there were any gaps in the offerings. So, "I was a developer, but my clients always wanted X." or "I was a designer, but I wish I had X." What tools did you each lack? What did clients want in addition to the service provided? If you find a common ground here then you're creating a business that is really needed in the market instead of replicating what's out there already.
First find out what problem you can solve using your existing skills. Next, create customer profile who face these problems, and define your target market. Build operation, marketing and sales plan to get started
Feel free to setup a call if you need help in creating your business road-map
Together, the three of you have the skills to offer internet marketing/branding services. I would then decide on a target market/industry that all three of you are passionate/interested about. Then, offer your services to companies in this area. For example, it could be dentists, veterinarians, women's shelters, jewelry boutiques, etc.
A good start would be, for you to share with us what each of you ladies has experience in (industry applications, markets ... ) And your target market (expected country of operations....) And what would be the expected funding allocated for your project and operations. Any previous experience in working together as a team? What challenges have you faced?...
I am a management consultant with more than 10 years of experience across many industries (both online and offline) and providing consulting both on a national and international level and at all levels of projects' timeline from idea stage to maturity.
And only with enough information would we be able to schedule an effective and satisfactory call.
Well... First item that comes to mind is to create a Web Design agency.
Also, you can expand into traffic + conversion management + maybe hosting + high deliverability email management... for your continuity income.
Tip: Always, always, always design your ad-hoc hourly work so this drives to continuity.
Tip: Just scan through Clarity + find Q&A threads which look like the person responding can be helpful. Then book calls with each of them to do a quick call with all 3x of you to help you rough out a design for your business.
Tip: Partner with other agencies for referral business.
Example: I focus on hosting high speed, high traffic, WordPress hosting + high deliverability, custom, email systems for clients with large lists.
I partner with many Agencies, who do traffic buys, ad buys, site design.
You might find partnering with other Agencies to be a good model for you also.
Tip: Scan Clarity for posts I've made about abusing... er, I mean hyper-using https://Meetup.com for lead generation, so once you work out your organizational details (should take no longer than a shared dinner for this), then use my Meetup lead generation techniques (mentioned in many previous answers) + you'll have more work/money than you might have imagined.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Agency work!
a super advise suppress millions ...
1. find a collective passion
2. identify the niche market
3. how a wonderful solution can serve the market's needs
4. Are 3 of you skillful to do it?
5. what to do next?
Instead of checking what can you do, proactively checking what the market needs and can you do it? If you can't do it, will you decided to drop the idea? ,,,
hope the above helps
You are perfect candidates to work through the book Disciplined Entrepreneurship. It is an MIT-based workflow that helps you explore why you want to start a business, what your assets and strengths are, how to validate your ideas, and much more. It would have saved me countless headaches and tons of money if I had used it when I started my business in 2010.
There are plenty of great pieces of advice here but Disciplined Entrepreneurship is literally a step by step guide to solving your question. I highly suggest getting it and working through the book as a team.
Please feel free to touch base if you'd like to chat about the book or anything else.
