What I’ve learned as I build…

…Consult O'clock, my new company. It launched in January 2012 and I’ve spent the first 9 months prepping for that moment and building the technology. There are lots of blog posts written by experienced entreprenuers sharing their advice after founding several businesses, but I wanted to write one from the perspective of a person in the midst of building their first. Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

1. Modesty isn’t helpful in the early days. If you don’t speak confidently about yourself and your company, your audience won’t be as compelled to try out what you have to offer. You can be introverted (I am), but when you already have people’s ears, take full advantage of it.
2. Having a design and technology bent is neccessary to build a company today even if you’re not a designer or developer. In other words, if you enjoy spending your “free time” reading about such things, you’re in good shape. A well informed CEO, is a more-likely-to-be-around-in-10-years CEO.
3. You have a lot more people that are “customers” than you think and you should understand how to talk to each of them differently. There are many people who don’t directly lead to revenue, but they directly affect those that do.
4. Marketing and personality has so much to do with beating competitors. You should remember this even as you’re knee deep in developing your technology. I’m biased as a Consultant, but widgets are a dime-a-dozen, it’s how you sell yours that builds a long-term business.
5. Know when to spend time learning. I desperately want to learn how to code, but begrudgingly know that my time wouldn’t be best spent that way right now. (Someday…)
6. You will be surprised by the people who are willing to help you, or not help you. Learn from those surprises and use those lessons to guide your future requests for assistance. Your personal network will always be there. Before you tap them, see how far you can get by simply reaching out to smart strangers.
7. Be mindful of what you say in social media. It’s ok to be snarky and complain, but do so intelligently and in a defendable way. In other words, have a thought process behind your opinions. That way when you get called out, (and you will) you can mitigate the issue.
8. It’s incredibly valuable to have some years of experience in the corporate world. Nothing against the kids graduating from college (or dropping out) to start companies, but not having spent time working with or for massive companies can create obstacles in the future. Primarily, it means you’re going to have to learn far more lesson while building your company. You’re also more likely going to have to overcome the perception that you’re ignorant.
9. Blog posts that offer advice (like this one) aren’t supposed to be instructions, they’re reminders. It’s likely that you can refute every point I’ve made above, and every point shared in similar types of posts. Everyone has a different path, but yours will be smoother if you analyze it along the way. Let this type of “advice” primarily act as opportunity to reflect on your past decisions, and think more critically about the ones that you’re going to make in the future.