There’s a lot of confusion about what being an entrepreneur means. At its core, its about building the daily habits that lead to the creation of value.
Steve Jobs said, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”
Focus begins with saying no to your comfort zone, and getting up with the intention of making the best use of your time. It’s much easier said than done. Often times in software companies, time is spent either building or marketing a product. As an entrepreneur, you have to be good at both. Choosing when to do what, is critical to your success as an entrepeneur in the software industry.
Here are some things to avoid:
- Spending 100% of your time for months on end building a product, without actually developing new skills along the way, or learning anything new.
- Spending 100% of your time marketing an unfinished product.
- Building a product without really being excited about some — or any — part of it.
- Building a product because other people said that this was going to be the next big thing. If you learn about it, and believe it, its fine. But if its not a belief you truly hold in your heart — be careful. No one knows what the next big thing is until it becomes the big thing. And working and failing in something you dont believe in should be avoided. Dont force it.
- Going to other people or accredited groups (like YC) for validation, rather than believing in yourself, and your ability to design and build beautiful things.
- Telling too many people about what you’re building, before actually building it.
Making the move
There’s a lot of advice out there for people stuck in their 9–5 jobs that want to make the transition to entrepreneurship, but a lot of the advice is unrealistic.
A very common piece of advice is build your startup on weekends, and when its profitable, then leave your full time. This is horrible advice for one simple reason, entrepreneurship is an inherently vulnerable process. Its the process of creating something from your heart with the potential of making your wildest dreams of changing the world come true. It’s so vulnerable, that people often dont want to talk about it, they protect that side of their heart and desires like a mother bear defending its cubs — because the thought of things not working out, or failing miserably is almost unbearable. So this results in advice that aims to protect you from failure, strife, and true commitment. They add the safety vest of “keep your full time job, so if your side hustle doesn’t work out, you don’t have to regret anything and simply go back to your full time job.” With this attitude, you are already setting yourself up for failure.
Here’s the truth, if you want a shot at building something, you have to take the leap. Take the plunge, into the wide cold ocean of entrepreneurship, its the only way you can learn the craft. It’s like learning to swim, you cant do it if you’re not submerged in water. You cant be an entrepreneur if you cant withstand the uncertainty of building new things.
And just like swimming, you learn it much faster once you’re in the water.
I’m ready but what do I need to know?
The only thing we carry with us, in work, and outside of work, that acts as our compass, is our values.
To start in entrepreneurship, simply start practicing your values, rather than simply professing them. Honesty, reliability, integrity, and perseverance are all necessary to build a product you love — and in turn, other people love.
The two most important skills to build as an entrepreneur are:
- Product Development skills: You have to be able to translate a good idea into a fully built functional, and beautiful, product.
- Sales and marketing skills: This is so critical to success, learning to spread the news on what you have done, is necessary. Most programmers dont like this part of the work, but without it, it’s hard to succeed.
Let’s go through them.
Product Development
What made Apple so successful is its incredible aptitude for product development. Every excruciating detail of Apple’s most successful products from 1997–2007 was thought out, and it set the stage for it to become the most valuable company on earth.
You need a few things to start developing products, and these practices are transferrable to any field.
- Taste: This, like any skill, is a muscle you can build. It’s based on your own view of the world and how you believe things can be. Developing your taste in products is simple, look at products you like, ones you admire and appreciate and ask yourself: What is it about this product that makes it so great? This answer is different for different people. Some like the way things are designed, its colors, its materials and feel. Others like the functionality, simplicity, practicality. There is no wrong answer. You need all of these to build a great product. The most important part of this is: that you are happy with the final result of your product. Thats it.
- Architecture: What are the pieces that need to come together to form your product? If its software: What are the components? Can you build parts of it yourself without using any libraries? What makes great software? Start from these places. Then move on to what platfomr to use, the best programming language to achieve your goals, the right tools to put in place, etc. For hardware or physical products, start with low priced materials, how can you use them to build something different? Etc. The goal is to develop confidence in finding the right pieces in order to make the product come to life.
Sales and Marketing
Sales, marketing, and brand development are all different things. This serves as proof that sales is very complex, simply because its different for different products.
A good starting point is: if its software, building an online footprint — if its physical: start with friends, family, and community. Pick people wisely, you want honesty. People who say what they do.
Selling SaaS is tricky, because a lot of people seem to be content with what they have. The good news is, what they have is usually bad, and so building something better is easy — it’s selling something better that’s incredibly hard.
The idea that, if the product is good enough, it will sell itself, is false for very early stage companies. It will sell itself after people know about it.
In startups, having a great product but no distribution plan, will doom you to failure, the reverse, not so much. Sales — summarized in an all-encompassing term: Distribution — is critical, and if youre an engineer, I can already say with confidence, you are underestimating its importance (as most engineers do).
I get it, how do I create a distribution plan?
Lets start by clarifying a few things.
Ok, so a distribution channel is simply: the set of steps it takes for a product to get into the hands of a key customer.
Distribution channels are direct or indirect, physical or digital. Superior sales and distribution by itself can create a monopoly, even with no product differentiation.
To build a plan, first look at ways you can generate interest without spending money. Build an online presence and be consistent with it.
Next, go out and talk to people. See what their problems are, reach out to friends and get introductions to people in the space you’re looking to serve. Arrange zoom calls, meetings, and just spend time with potential customers. A lot of entrepreneurs struggle with networking with their customers, they just dont know where to start. Truth be told, thats the hard part, its finding people, reaching out, asking, when you’re too afraid to ask. Keep at it, you’ll get your first customer.
From there, build your network, start reaching out to more people, maybe having someone help with sales, and now you can start with digital ads, with confidence. The problem with starting with online ads, is you never get that close customer relationship that allows you to find the faults and tweak the product. This stage is essential, it’ll lay the foundation for network effects and viral growth.
If you’ve done the above great, you’ve done the steps it takes for a product to reach a key customer — you’ve built your first distribution channel.
Keep going, and growing it. You got this.
I guess I’m an entrepreneur now
Yes you are.
And more so if you’ve built superior skills in product development and distribution.
That’s it. It’s about getting excited to build something great that could change the world, then actually taking the difficult steps to sell it to people, and to watch the product evolve as it leaves your own hands.
That’s entrepreneurship, and to people like me, its the most fulfilling use of our time on earth.
To others, its just not as sexy as being an astronaut, or doing cutting edge research for years on end. Everyone is in love with different things, but the beauty in entrepreneurship, is that it could be applied to almost any area you’re passionate about — all you need is to go through the pains (and joys) of building a good product. The love is in building.
Sellou is an online marketplace for artists, designers, and creatives. Download it on iOS by clicking here.
