Saturday, January 7, 2012

Early Mistakes I Made While Starting A Company: From Idea to Company

It was a bright day – the weather was friendly and the birds sang while my heart whirled penetratingly on the highway of emotions. Arrant happiness - it was.
I thought I just became Bill Gates and Tovald Linus because a fantastic idea rolled up. An idea, I thought, will revolutionize my country and later on, the world!
As a secondary school boy, I had always dreamt of inventing things. And these led me to follow my adorable friends, Celestine and his brother (Francis) to a library almost every day. It was exciting!

Ideas, I understand flows to the brain that absorbs knowledge and silence (or loneliness). For me, it was all about enhancement.
What had I done that made me feel like Bill Gates? Was it because Bill Gates was going to step down as Microsoft C.E.O for me to take over? Dream on…
Well, it was a (software) solution to a big problem that came while I was preparing for my exams. I rejoiced like a man who just won a lottery.
The main aim about this post isn't about the idea, but the mistakes made. I hate seeing people make mistakes others have already made. The core objective of this blog is to tackle that.
And this idea gave birth to my startup company, formerly – Sadox Technologies, now Orangeville Systems. It was founded to create certain software products. I believe in good products even if it takes quality time to develop it.
My Mistakes>>
-INDISCIPLINE: The funny habit of being carried away by interesting ideas, experiments and knowledge cost me huge time. I did much random coding. My PC crashed twice and I had to restart the project (idea) twice. There was no good back-up. I paid a tearful price for my procrastination when TWO years (2007) later I saw the idea launched by another company. It was painful.
Lesson: The world is moving, so move (with discipline). Don't postpone your future! Do it now!
-WRONG TEAM: You see I tried to convince myself I had partners (value adders - not time wasters) but I was wrong. I invited (in 2005) two FRIENDS to join Sadox because I wanted them to help discipline me and ease the workload while I teach them programming. It never worked. It drew me back because I became a 'Manager'. Amongst them was a male who needed much training. Upon several trials to make him solid, it never worked because he was passionate about money- not codes.
I then decided to help a friend, and made him CEO while I do coding, but he just wasn't it. I loosed focus as I had to learn business management, accounting and all sort of non-techy things. I did business plans and strategies but no code. A terrible mistake! It has caused me years of slow growth - Now history. The lady, on the other hand, is doing just fine. She is passionate, responsible and learned.
Lesson: Surround yourself with passionate and strong people when starting. A weak startup team is like a learner on a racing bike. Friends aren't the best business partners. Look for skills first – character thereafter.
-BEING A PERFECTIONIST: I spent more time on look-and-feel than on actual coding. Too much time was spent tweaking I was never satisfied with. Too make it worse; I really wasn't good at UI graphics.
Lesson: Your computer wasn't built in a day. Learn with each step.
My dear, I encourage you to improve your self-discipline ASAP.
Its a rough road out there and sometimes you are all you've got.

By the way, kindly vote for TestBox (http://testbox.com.ng) .
There's a global business competition & TestBox is in the list(http://www.seedstarsworld.com/startups/)
Kindly visit the link and vote for TESTBOX by clicking Like next to TestBox logo. :)
Thanks



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