I wanted to get some insight on a difficult topic. How do you create a business from scratch with an evolutionary idea that could or did alter an industry? We’ve seen businesses like Uber, Airbnb, and Tesla completely come into an industry and disrupt conventional thinking. What do those steps look like and how did these companies work their way to the top? When introducing a new concept to the market, how do you handle backlash or nonacceptance?
These are “good problems” as they say. If you’re facing a wave of backlash, it means you have at least gotten attention from a sizable audience, which is a good start.
Uber and AirBnB succeeded by addressing one small problem really well. Tesla is an outlier and I don’t think their success is all that instructive for most entrepreneurs (Elon Musk had a small personal fortune to start the company with).
Keep in mind, Uber didn’t start as a global force in transportation with hundreds of thousands of drivers in 70 countries. They started by operating one kind of vehicle (black towncars) in one city (San Francisco) for one kind of customer (rich tech elites).
You have to choose an idea that you’re capable of pulling off. You have to assume that things are going to be much harder, and that they’re going to take far longer than you think they will. Projects always take longer than we think they will.
These companies worked their way to the top by creating a service people loved first and foremost, then by methodically expanding that service into more and more cities over a period of years.
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The Top 10 Mistakes in Online Business
Every week we talk with entrepreneurs. We talk about what’s working and what isn’t. We talk about successes and failures. We spend time with complete newbies, seasoned veterans, and everything in between.
One topic that comes up over and over again with both groups is mistakes made in starting businesses. Newbies love to learn about mistakes so they can avoid them. Veterans love to talk about what they wish they had known when starting out.
These conversations have been fascinating, so we compiled a list of the 10 mistakes we hear most often into a nifty lil' guide. Get the 10 Most Common Mistakes in Starting an Online Business here »
