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10 Reasons This is the Best Time to Build a Startup

The great people at NewsCred posted in their blog today a great list explaining, in 10 reasons, why this is the best time to build a start up. I won’t steal their content, so I recommend you go check out the entire list. Instead, I want to discuss three of the points they make—numbers 5, 2, and 1.

• #5 - Have a product - A community is not a product. Your users and friends—the site’s family—must gather for a purpose of some sort. Be it better communication, a product that saves them time, or even to share their appreciation for tee shirts. Have something, service or product, to give people.
• #2 - Have a business model - If you don’t have a business model, your project is a hobby, not a business. It’s amazing how many hobbyists have secured venture capitalism, oft in the millions. And some venture capitalists are wondering how they can stay afloat—I don’t know… maybe invest in people who aren’t a surefire loss? Make it premium, freemium, cost per click, cost per action (affiliate link), cost per user, cost per use, whatever. If you can’t charge people for your product, you should look into doing something else. End of story.
• #1 - Be fearless -As they say in the NewsCred post: “You’re an entrepreneur. You’re whole purpose of being is so that you can take scarce resources, optimize like hell and get maximum output from the least input. This is your time to shine.” Too many “entrepreneurs” are afraid to offend anyone or afraid to leave their safety zone, and they eventually get nudged off the cliff by competitors. Stand your ground and be aggressive. You’re taking huge risk by being an entrepreneur, don’t flounder that risk by playing it safe. The opportunity is there for those who want to take it.

One person I think does a great job of preaching this is Gary Vaynerchuk. He goes into good detail in explaining how he would go about building a business relevant to his area of expertise in a recent blog post, and his keynote speech for the Web 2.0 Expo is phenomenal. Read his blog and let his words sink in, but more importantly, get out there and get your business started.

Do you agree with these three main points I covered? What are you doing now to get your business off the ground in these “hard” time?

PS: If you like Gary’s blog, check out his company, Wine Library and his cast, Wine Library TV.