Street Smarts: My First Year as a start-up
Thirty years is a long time to be in business, and it’s sometimes difficult to recall exactly what happened when. But there is one period that, looking back, most people remember clearly, mainly because it represents such a sharp break from whatever they were doing before. I’m talking, of course, about Year One.
My first year in business began on August 13, 1979, about the time Inc. was coming out with its fifth issue. On that Monday morning, I started my first company, Perfect Courier, a messenger and delivery service. (I’d had a law office before, but that doesn’t count.) I remember the year as incredibly exciting — I mean, just overwhelmingly exciting. Whenever I turned around, new opportunities presented themselves, and I spent way too much time thinking about them. Like most first-time entrepreneurs, I didn’t understand the importance of maintaining focus — of not letting yourself get distracted from building your main business until it’s able to sustain itself on internally generated cash flow and you’ve begun to establish a good reputation in the marketplace. Read more:
Technorati Tags: Norm Brodsky, Bo Burlingham, The Knack, Inc., NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology
…
