One of the key differences between an entrepreneur that achieve success and those who fail is the ability to focus on the current project and finish it before starting the next one.
This particular skill which many may call concentration is what separates the best from mediocre. Michael Zetser learned it a long time ago and has a couple of good tips for people who want to learn more about entrepreneurship.
Building without a foundation
What many people do not understand about starting a business is that you don’t need to have a large capital or an existing platform. You can start from nothing. What you really need is an original idea. However, this idea should not be something that completely disrupts an industry.
While it is often a nice thing to propose to investors, the longevity of such enterprises is a weakness.
People need services that can easily transcend the time and provide utility across their lifespans. If you come up with an idea of a product capable of destroying a whole industry, you will face a plethora of issues down the line.
New competition, new rules, and a wide range of challenges that no one faced before will eat your company alive.
Michael Zetser believes that you should always conduct the idea generation process the same way you will develop the product — by iterating for a long time.
Rethinking your approaches and ideas regularly is a good habit to form. It will help you filter out bad ideas that should not be even talked about!
Focusing on delivering an MVP
Creating a minimal viable product is essential for any startup. It should be functional and provide users with a solid image of the full version.
Identify the core functionality of your product and streamline the initial development process to create an MVP and roll it out. Start testing and working with users as soon as possible.
Michael Zetser says that there should be less than a couple of months between securing your initial funding and the delivery of an MVP. If you do not want to release it publicly, create an appropriate testing environment and show your investors what you achieved.
When entrepreneur Michael Zetser was building his first online financial service, he spent two first weeks living in his small office together with a couple of most dedicated coders.
They worked tirelessly and created something that they could show as a concept to their investors within just a month.
Never giving up
The world of contemporary entrepreneurship is quite cruel and may frighten even those who usually keep their spirits up even during “bad weather”. Michael Zetser recommends you to avoid stressful situations to not burn out quickly. Searching for a good balance between working, generating ideas, and resting is quite important.
Another crucial skill is the ability to keep going even when everything seems to be going downhill. Michael Zetser shares his story: “there was a moment when we thought that the market is rejecting our product. We had terrible numbers. People did not want to use our service.
Thankfully, the team had a couple of ideas how to add more features. We also pivoted to creating a web browser extension for Chrome and Firefox. It was a good decision. If we gave up early, I would not be giving out tips on how to be a successful startup creator!”
You must keep going toward the goal, regardless of what challenges appear on the horizon. Until you run out of ideas, funding, and determination, pushing the product to its perfect shape is the only correct course of action.
Michael Zetser is working on a project right now
After selling several successful startups, Michael Zetser is focusing his attention on new interesting platforms that may improve the way we see the world of finances. He is reportedly quite interested in digital assets, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and other contemporary financial instruments.