A New Series on Business Startups — Part 11

Many startups plunge into the marketplace on a wing and a prayer. The young, inexperienced hopefuls have great expectations, but little knowledge of the complexities of the business they are getting in to.

The problem with this approach is that, except in rare instances, the new entrepreneurs will be forced into mimicking what’s already out there, including their main competitors. They will be competing directly with hard-bitten professionals and mature operations. They don’t stand a chance.

One way round this head-to-head gambit is to set up the enterprise initially as a hobby project, rather than a registered business.

The advantages of this alternative approach are many:

* You can win your spurs without too much financial drain or loss of face.
* You can gain expertise by copying the market leaders with little comeback.
* You can mature in the job and branch out from your competitors.
* You can gain respect in the market before making big investments.

This path is especially easy on the internet because entry costs are so small. Syntagma Media was started in this way, first as a tentative hobbyish project to test the waters, then as a semi-commercial enterprise with all profits reinvested for growth. Finally, as a registered business earning good returns for its owner.

Where entry costs are low, it’s always best to reach the comfort zone before fully committing yourself to a real business with all its overheads and legal headaches.

After all, you may not like it once you’ve tried it out for yourself.

A New Series on Business Startups — Part 10

In the third part of a long interview John Evans, founder of Syntagma Media, gave to retail analyst Gerry Reynolds, he discusses online advertising in some detail.

If you’re involved with advertising on the internet, whether as a buyer or seller of space, this will give you plenty of insight into how it works and which systems to use for specific purposes.

Here’s a taster :

Gerry : I’d like now to look in more detail at the essence of the business, its income, i.e. advertising. What are the main parameters of online advertising?

John : Online advertising is relatively new, so it still has more than a shade of the Wild West about it. It’s improving all the time, though, and growing very fast …

Read the whole article.