| Inside Entrepreneurial Minds |
| What was the biggest obstacle you faced while starting your business? |
My one biggest obstacle was needing the money. My family depended on my income. We had several small children, I had the fancy MBA degree and the only income. We had business school debts, a mortgage to pay, and running expenses. All of that, against the background of quitting a good job to do my own thing instead, with all of the related risks, was pretty hard to overcome. I might cite confidence, but it could also have been a bad decision with a good outcome, due to plain good luck. A lot of people who need the money keep the real job, and don't set out to do their own thing, or build a new thing. Furthermore, as I look back on it, I don't want to be advising anybody else to do as I did. If you do, then at least make sure you plan really well. Reduce the uncertainty as much as possible. I built Palo Alto Software from zero to 40 employees and 70% market share without outside investment. |
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The biggest obstacle in launching the website for my strictly 'Net-based business was finding the Web programming and implementation talent ... in a reasonably affordable package. I started the business small, and money was incredibly tight. The pros I found online were out of my budget range, and the acquaintances I initially contacted weren't able to both build the pages and publish the site live with a payment-processing system. (Budget-wise I just had to find someone who could do both.) I spent months asking around until I found someone -- a coworker of a coworker who did Web work on the side. The lesson I learned here was: When trying to find the right person through acquaintances, ask *everyone* you know, no matter unlikely. Some people will surprise you by doing some asking-around on their own. Once the site was up and running, however, the biggest obstacle was promotion -- actually getting the right people to come to the site. I wasted a lot of money on ads before trying Google sponsored searches. However, that was a few years ago, and that option would be too expensive for me today -- the popularity of green tea has pushed up the prices of related keywords. Looking back, what I should have done from the outset is join a relevant business organization and ask its members for advice. Much later, I ended up joining Co-op America's Green Business Network, and I've gotten a lot of good advice and feedback from them. |
Kim Bertron
Paul Kotta
