The Startup Blog - Week 2

by Startacus Admin

Lauren is starting her own business (here's a handy link to The Startup Blog - Week 1) and on a weekly basis sharing a little of her journey on Startacus. This week she has been thinking about building a management team & getting quotes from suppliers for her prototype.

Week 2 diary

"This week, I’ve been thinking about building a management team and getting quotes from suppliers for my prototype.

When I was writing my business plan, I gave a lot of consideration to the type of management team I wanted to build for the company.  One thing I’ve discovered over the years is my strengths and more importantly my weaknesses. I’ve worked for a number of small early-stage IT businesses and I know how important it is to build a team with skills that compliment and balance my own.  My big dilemma was how to build that management team up. Do I build it up now or wait until I’m further along in the development?

I did have a couple of people in mind but after much consideration, I’ve decided to put it off for a few months and look for people further afield with a bit more experience. The reason being is that I have high expectations in terms of the type of person I’m looking for. And if they are that good, they will be easier for me to win over to my business idea if I’m past that early start up stage and I have a prototype in place and a business that is operating on a small scale.

One issue that has left me with is how to develop my prototype, as it isn’t something I can build on my own. The prototype is a website, so the actual build costs are relatively low. So I’ve decided to fund the development out of my own savings and I have started seeking some quotes out from suppliers: branding experts, designers and developers.

The business I am going into is something I have a little bit of experience in from my working life having worked for IT companies and digital agencies for years, and it has made me realise just how important industry experience is when you are working on a start-up. It’s been really useful to know exactly what I’m asking for when I’ve been getting quotes in. I know from past experience in the business world that when I’ve dealt with clients who have had really clear requirements, quoting is a more accurate process and the delivery is a lot smoother. The other benefit of sourcing a supplier in an industry I’m familiar with is that I have a good understanding of how much it should cost. This was useful when I was estimating the start-up costs as part of my business plan and quotes so far have come out fairly on target with that, so from a financial perspective I have had no nasty surprises so far and haven’t had to dip in to any of my contingency fund.

Next steps for me then are to confirm which supplier I’m going with and get going on the prototype. I’m also waiting to hear back about some possible funding, so I’ll update you all on that in my next post.

About the author:

Lauren is an entrepreneur and author of www.theglitteringeyesbrigade.com – a blog about her journey in starting her own business

Here you can read The Startup Blog - Week 1 and also take a look at the startacus toolkit if you are looking to start a business, for loads of the bits and bobs you will need! 

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Published on: 10th June 2013