So, in the Fall of 2014 my lovely wife got a book for me off my Amazon wish list (Thanks Cate!). It was called the $100 Startup. This book addresses something I've always had a problem with; the followthrough. Maybe you're the same way? Does this sound familiar to you? The Vicious Idea Cycle
- Get a pretty-okay creative OR business idea.
- Fall in love with the idea. Blow it up to a GRAND scale.
- Keep improving the idea your head... long term goals, 5 year plans, congratulate yourself on your genius!
- Make excuses to not follow through. This idea is too big or complicated to tackle. What if it fails?
- Lose interest and repeat with a new, more simple, minimum viable product idea... which gets overbuilt, and so on and so forth.
This cycle is also explained really well in this video about "Brain Crack" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDHb3vC9OmE My brain crack addiction got so bad, I created a blog to try and keep me honest. I told all of my friends about it so the lack of activity would become my public shame for followthrough. This book really helped me take an inventory of the skills I had "laying around" to put together something that really had no barriers to get started. The result is STADIUMGRAPH. I wanted to quickly share a couple of things that I've learned so far in this experience.
- You really don't need to file any kind of paperwork to start a business. You just need a product and someone willing to pay for it. Think "Lemonade Stand" and do the paperwork later.
- Microbusinesses are fun! Like hobbies mixed with a little commerce.
- It literally costs ZERO dollars to setup an e-commerce business if you have a little bit of know-how and patience. I started used Woocommerce & Wordpress (FULL DISLAIMER: I was already paying like $1.99 per month for hosting on 1and1)
- There is THE MOST EPIC feeling when you process your first order for a total stranger.