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Startups: every article
36 articles, newest first.
23 September 202622 pieces
- StartupsClose One Day a Week and Don't Apologize for ItThe jobs you lose by not answering on Sunday cost you less than the owner you'll lose by answering every single time.
- StartupsPick the day you don't answer the phoneYou'll lose a few jobs closing one day a week. You'll keep your head, your marriage and a business you can still stand in five years.
- StartupsThe food truck costs that aren't on anybody's spreadsheetThe truck is the cheap part. It's the commissary, the generator hours and the days you don't sell that decide whether you're still open in year two.
- StartupsThe family cleaning business runs on roles, not goodwillCleaning is one of the few businesses a family can start this month for under a thousand dollars. It's also one of the easiest to quit by March.
- StartupsBuy the tool before you hire the personA second set of hands costs a lot more than the paycheck. Run the payback math on the machine first, and be honest about what it can't do.
- StartupsA five-page website is all a local business needsYour site has one job: make the phone ring. Most of what agencies sell you actively gets in the way of that.
- StartupsYour Farmers Market Stand Isn't a Hobby, It's a BusinessThe Saturday math that decides whether the market pays you or quietly bills you, and why half the stands are gone by September.
- StartupsOne Hour on Friday Is All Your Books NeedDo your bookkeeping in a fixed weekly hour and you'll always know three numbers that decide whether your business lives.
- StartupsRunning a Business With Your Wife Without Losing the MarriageTwo people, one bank account, zero clocking off. The rules that keep the company from quietly eating the thing it was supposed to serve.
- StartupsRead Item 20 Before You Read the Franchise BrochureThe disclosure document is 23 items long and boring on purpose. Two of them tell you almost everything you need to know.
- StartupsAsk for the review before you pull out of the drivewayThe two-minute window after the job ends is worth more than every follow-up email you'll ever send. Use it, and stay on the right side of the rules.
- StartupsStarting a Handyman Business Without Getting FinedLicensing thresholds, the four holes in a cheap liability policy, and why hourly pricing quietly bankrupts good handymen.
- StartupsWrite Your Quotes So The Job Can't Come Back On YouThe number is the smallest part of a quote. The scope, the exclusions and the change-order line are what keep a good job from turning into a fight.
- StartupsStart Mowing With One Truck And One TrailerThe equipment list is the easy part. Drive time, February cash and the customers you say no to are what decide whether you're still cutting in year three.
- StartupsOpen the business account before you take the first dollarA free EIN, one checking account and twenty minutes every Friday is the whole system. Skip it and you'll pay for it in April, with interest.
- StartupsThe first year with your name on the vanMost new trades businesses don't fold because the work was bad. They fold because of cash timing, one ugly job, and a rate set by guesswork.
- StartupsHiring your first employee without blowing up your businessThe real cost of employee number one, when you can actually afford them, and the mistakes that sink most first hires inside a year.
- StartupsThe hourly number you need before you quote another jobMost small service businesses price off what the guy down the road charges. Do the arithmetic on your own costs first, then decide what to do about the market.
- StartupsBuild a side business that survives a bad week at workMost side businesses don't fail on economics. They fail the first time your day job eats a Tuesday, and the work has nowhere to go.
- StartupsTwo hundred pounds is enough to find out if your idea worksSpend none of it on a logo. Here's the order to spend it in, and the stop rule to write down before you start.
- StartupsSix real hours a week is the whole side business planMost side businesses die in month four because they were designed for twenty hours and fed six. Build one that fits the time you actually have.
- StartupsTwo hundred pounds is enough to kill a bad business ideaMost ideas die at the price, not the pitch. Spend the money finding that out in two weeks instead of two years.
22 September 202612 pieces
- StartupsThe side business that survives a full-time jobMost side businesses die of exhaustion, not competition. Pick one that runs on your clock and it can outlast the job that funded it.
- StartupsTest your business idea for two hundred pounds or lessMost ideas don't survive contact with a paying customer. Find out in three weeks, on a small budget, before you quit anything.
- StartupsHow to tell the difference between slow and deadMost founders quit too late, not too early. Set your kill criteria in writing before you're too tired and too invested to read them honestly.
- StartupsWrite the breakup clause before you write the logoMost business partnerships between friends fail quietly, and the friendship goes with them. The paperwork you avoid is the paperwork that saves both.
- StartupsThe paperwork you can't skip in your first yearMost of it takes a weekend. Skipping it turns a slow month into a business-ending one, usually about fourteen months in.
- StartupsFind ten customers before you build anythingThe cheapest way to kill a bad business idea is to try to sell it before it exists. Most people skip this and pay for it later.
- StartupsHow to price trade work without guessingMost trade businesses that fold aren't short of work. They're short of margin, because nobody ever worked out what an hour actually costs.
- StartupsHow to Run a One-Man Business That Doesn't Eat Your FamilySolo businesses fail two ways: they go broke, or they survive by quietly consuming everything at home. You can design against both.
- StartupsQuit when the work is already there, not beforeThe honest test for leaving a paycheck to run your own service business, and the seasons when staying put is the braver call.
- StartupsThe first ten thousand dollars teaches you everything elseYour first ten grand in revenue isn't about the money. It's the cheapest, fastest way to find out whether you have a business or a hobby.
- StartupsRaising your rates after years of charging too littleThe arithmetic, the notice, the clients who leave, and the four ways people talk themselves out of it at the last minute.
- StartupsGetting your first ten customers when nobody knows your nameYour first ten clients almost never come from marketing. They come from a list of names, a plain message, and the willingness to send it.