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5 Financial Rules for Startups - The Diigo Meta page

www.businessinsider.com/...5-financial-rules-startups - Cached - Annotated View

Joel Liu's personal annotations on this page

joel
Joel bookmarked on 2009-09-10 Startup
  • So … I spent more.  The money flowed like beer at a frat party.  We hired people right and left – even though we didn’t have time to orient them and put their talents to good use.  We sponsored events and went to tradeshows – even though our time would have been better spent on making individual sales calls, rather than the distractions of picking out tradeshow booths.  We spent oodles of money and, worse, time commissioning swag and marketing materials and advertising creative – even though we had little revenue coming in.  

    In the end it didn’t help the business.  While speed is important, a startup paradoxically also needs time – time to iterate on product development, time to get the team aligned with the business vision, and time to focus on closing sales.  Startups are like babies – you can’t force babies to grow up faster just by throwing money at them.
  • Be picky.  In the words of Evan Williams, a founder of Blogger and Twitter, startups have to be willing to say no – no to partnerships and unnecessary product features and the wrong employees.  More wasted money and time comes from going in too many directions than from focusing.
  • Now, I realize some of this may sound anti-marketing.  Trust me, it’s not.  I am a big proponent of paying for good marketing – for a business that can afford it.  But first things first. Be ruthlessly stingy on marketing expenditures and every other kind of expenditure in the beginning.  

    The good fiscal habits you practice in the startup phase tend to stay with you as the business grows.  You’re much more likely to remain on a solid financial footing throughout your business’s life cycle.

This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 10 Sep 2009, by Joel Liu.

  • 10 Sep 09
    joel
    Joel Liu

    Startup

    • So … I spent more.  The money flowed like beer at a frat party.  We hired people right and left – even though we didn’t have time to orient them and put their talents to good use.  We sponsored events and went to tradeshows – even though our time would have been better spent on making individual sales calls, rather than the distractions of picking out tradeshow booths.  We spent oodles of money and, worse, time commissioning swag and marketing materials and advertising creative – even though we had little revenue coming in.  

      In the end it didn’t help the business.  While speed is important, a startup paradoxically also needs time – time to iterate on product development, time to get the team aligned with the business vision, and time to focus on closing sales.  Startups are like babies – you can’t force babies to grow up faster just by throwing money at them.
    • Be picky.  In the words of Evan Williams, a founder of Blogger and Twitter, startups have to be willing to say no – no to partnerships and unnecessary product features and the wrong employees.  More wasted money and time comes from going in too many directions than from focusing.
    • 1 more annotations...

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