What are some tips for starting a new company to prepare?
A tough question that can only be answered well by looking at the big picture. “Tips” implies simple little things, but none of these are tips really. They “must do” things if you want to have good chances of success.
Prepare for years in advance, building your skills in management, domain expertise and marketing/sales.
The CEO & Entrepreneur Boot Camp - CEO Bootcamp US
Get a mentor who has experience as an entrepreneur growing a company successfully
Read at least 2 to 3 books per month
Bootstrap taking your time to build out your plan doing market research, competitive intelligence and talking to prospects and iterating your business model. Be sure it is 100% differentiated and unique, and you can create some sustainable competitive advantage. Without both of these, raising capital will be near impossible.
Set up financially to need no income for 6 to 12 months minimum after you quit your job. Moonlight until you are very clear on the plan and vision, and get others interested as founders too.
Adding a cofounder will greatly increase your chances of success with the right person (but have a formal written agreement on vesting shares, as most do not work out long-term). They must compliment your skills, not duplicate them. So, if you are the technical person, get someone with ten to fifteen years of marketing and/or sales experience. Those are usually the two biggest risk factors.
Here is a list of the skills we teach at The CEO & Entrepreneur Boot Camp to be ready, and I think taking this intensive training will triple any entrepreneurs' chances of success:
1. Recruiting
2. Management
3. Marketing & Branding
4. Product Development & Innovation
5. Operations, customer services
6. Finance
7. Sales
8. Raising capital
9. Leadership
10. Competitive Intelligence
11. Market Research
12. Vision
13. Competitive Strategy
14. Organizational Development (OD)
15. Industry/domain expertise
Now the CEO does not need to be expert at all these, but that expertise is needed on a team, and they need to understand how to manage each area including know when someone else is good at it to execute. That is easily said, but requires many years' experience.
I have created a 3-part video course here reviewing this in more detail called The Entrepreneur's Journey here.
And you should also download my free eBook The Top 20 Reasons Startups Fail - And How to Avoid Them here:
https://www.ceobootcamp.us/top20
Join the course How to Raise Millions from Outside Investors
Bob Norton is a long-time Serial Entrepreneur and CEO with four exits that returned over $1 billion to investors. He has trained, coached and advised over 1,000 CEOs since 2002. And is Founder of The CEO Boot Camp™ and Entrepreneurship University™. Mr. Norton works with companies to triple their chances of success in launching new companies and products. And helps established companies scale faster using the six AirTight Management™ systems. And helps companies successfully raise capital.
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