

Ask HN: Tips on starting a tiny business? - sli

I'm a college student looking to make a few extra dollars here and there. With a friend of mine, I've started a small internet-based record label without about four artists.I have a small bit of secondhand small business experience from my father, whom I worked for through high school, and his home-based business. Aside from that, however, I've never done any real business before.<p>I'm looking to keep things very small, maybe 10 musicians maximum, but potentially more after college. Any tips to help me along with this smaller than small business?
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matthodan
Congrats on taking the road less traveled. I too started a business while I
was in college to pay the bills-- turned out to be one of the best experiences
of my life. Looking back, the most important thing I had going for me was a
great co-founder that complimented my interests and skill set.

When we were starting out we thought about the following questions _all_ of
the time:

\- Do people want our product?

\- How are we differentiated?

\- What will this cost us?

\- How will we make money?

\- Who can we ask for advice?

\- What are we forgetting?

Focus on making something people want-- this is paramount. A good rule of
thumb is that your product needs to be _good enough_ that people willingly
recommend it to others. Make sure your product is differentiated-- people
won't trust you at first (and they will trust an established competitor) so
you need to offer something customers can't get elsewhere. Charge for your
product-- sounds obvious, but you can't make money without it and it's not as
easy as it sounds. Network, network, network-- too many founders forget to
network with customers, vendors, business partners, future employees, etc.
because they get too focused on developing the product. Networking will be a
great source of feedback and will open doors you may never have known existed.
Remember, you're creating a _business_ not just creating a product.

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SaurabhGarg
Hi,

I wrote a longish post on what I did when I started. May be it helps.
<http://www.cyntax.in/blog/2009/09/tools-of-the-trade/>

And I think there is only one tip ... Save cash. As much as possible. No fancy
cars, no fancy offices, no fancy nothing. Just save cash. Thats about it.

Regards, SG

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RobEdwards
Couldn't agree more - keep costs as low as possible.

~~~
sli
Luckily, the entire business is being run online from our homes.

