Mentors with 'time and inclination'

 Many would-be startups don’t get too far beyond their ideas simply because they lack the tools to make it happen.

Now that can run the gamut from not having the right technology at hand, to not knowing the right people help you formulate a business plan; that’s why it’s important for entrepreneurs to align themselves with a Mentor, according to a Rieva Lesonsky’s post “Why Every Startup Founder Needs a Mentor - And How to Find One.” (http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2012/05/why-every-startup-founder-needs-a-mentor-and-how-to-find-one.php)

 Often times, we’re asking the wrong people---family or friends--- for their opinion, forgetting that whatever advice they offer comes with a bit of bias that can cloud your overall vision for the company. Maybe it’s experience, or good intuition, but in time of need we turn to individuals that have gone through similar situations and who can bring a lot of wisdom to any company founder. You simply do not have enough time and ressources to make all the mistakes you need to make - mistakes your mentor might have experienced and learned from. 

With the popularity of the crowdsourcing concept, finding an expert to help you with advice has become easier than ever. The Small Business Administration’s non-profit, SCORE, for example, manages thousands (13,000) of retired business professions who work in a mentoring capacity that a startup founder can tap into. UFOstart is building a community of experts in order to connect them with startups. We believe in the importance of mentors: They don't only help you reduce mistakes, they help you eliminate your weaknesses to bring out your strenghts.  

Getting that different viewpoint comes from asking all the right questions to the right people. Sounds like an obvious one, for sure, but it’s crucial. Largen your network, get a sense of whose expertise your startup could truly benefit from and communicate your needs. 

It comes down to hooking up with mentors who not only have the time to help, but also the inclination to do so.

Contact us if you're looking for mentorship and want to learn about the benefits of crowdsourcing ideas and advice.

--bmt

Turning your great idea into a business: First things first.

There are some who say that being a successful entrepreneur is a tough road. There is no direct route - you will hit rocks, make turns into the uncertain and will need a pretty good roadmap. Turning your great idea into a viable business is just a dream for many people, but if you are sure you want to try to make it a reality, here are the first things to do.

Think about it some more. The U.S. Small Business Administration offers a free tool that will help you evaluate your skills, experience, and personality and help you determine whether or not moving forward with your plans is a good idea. You can find it athttp://web.sba.gov/sbtn/sbat/index.cfm?Tool=4. This tool will also help you with a list of steps you’ll need to take next.

Research is necessary. Your idea should fill a need in the marketplace, and to determine whether or not it does, you are going to have to spend time in research mode. Many successful entrepreneurs use local resources to help them assess their idea. Community colleges, your local chamber of commerce, and many trade associations are wonderful places to find help.

Write a business plan. Before you start, read Why Your Business Plan is Probably Incomplete by Kevin Hiser (http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/blog/why-your-business-plan-is-probably-incomplete/). The “normal” business plan includes your objective, description, start up costs, sales plan, and marketing plan. Hiser says,

I have the privilege of helping entrepreneurs and startups on a daily basis. And in almost every case, the entrepreneurs I meet have a business plan. But very few have a roadmap of how to achieve their goals or to monitor their progress along the way. That’s what I call the ‘missing link’ among most startups.

Start saving your money. Figure out what it’s going to cost to launch your business and then realize that most entrepreneurs come up with that cash on their own by using their savings or borrowing from friends and family. Investors expect a major return in a short amount of time, and most new businesses aren’t poised to make those kind of big promises. For a detailed look at what it’s going to take to create your financial statements, check out this advice offered at SBA.gov: http://www.sba.gov/content/preparing-financial-statements. Always keep an exit strategy in mind, one that will not put your financial situation and livelihood at risk. Tap into crowdfunding ressources, pay in equity and let us help you! We recommend reading our other blogs about bootstrapping, success in the first year of being an entrepreneur and crowdsourcing in general. 

For more information on how to turn your good idea into a successful business and the way we can help you through our innovative crowdsouring platform, feel free to contact us!

-bmt

Lean it out

Have you ever considered the people behind some of the biggest consumer ideas and products? Who are they, and what prompted them to come up with their idea? Did they spend months, even years, perfecting their concept? You might think that until you read Eric Ries book The Lean Startup. 

As Ries explains in his book, there are too many novice entrepreneurs launching startups only to fail because they build something no one wants. Before you jump into the fire, be sure to ask the all-important question: Will anybody buy this? And once you’ve asked, ask the same question over and over again for everything you do.

Startups need what Ries calls “validated learning.” Instead of learning through failure – a very expensive and wasteful process – they learn through “build-measure-learn.” By obtaining continuous customer feedback, entrepreneurs learn whether to continue on their current path or to “pivot” (take a new approach) in a different direction.

Success isn’t (just) about being in the right place at the right time. Successful startups use “lean startup methodology” to build and improve the product or services customers want using customer feedback and the least amount of effort. Consider the story of Zappos, the world’s largest online shoe store.

In 1999, Nick Swinmurn decided to test his belief that there were people out there ready and willing to buy shoes online. He started by talking to local shoe stores. He asked permission to take pictures of their inventory. He posted these pictures online. Once a customer bought a pair of shoes from his website, he purchased the same pair from the store. Knowing what shoes customers bought helped Swinmurn understand where there was demand.

Launching a successful lean startup means knowing your market – what consumers want. If you have a great idea and are ready to launch your lean startup, contact us. We can help you get the funding and support you need!

At UFOstart, we always have the lean startup concept in mind. We are dedicated to a constant product development and are currently improving the usibility and UX of our platform. What we are working on:

• complete revision of our visual design 
• reduction of entry barriers through development of a new landing page
• improved contact import and project creation process
• seamless integration of social networks
• leverage of social media data to connect community and place users in a social context (contacts, skills, forme companies etc) 
• Bug fixing, performance bottleneck reduction
• improvement of the technical foundation of our app (testing and new CSS framework) 

As explained above, customer feedback is of high importance. We would love to hear your thoughts on the usibility of UFOstart! Please leave us a comment or send us any feedback - we are dedicated to a continuous improvment of the user experience of our platform. Thank you!