I’ve just read the following book. 50 great e-Businesses and the minds behind them. By Emily Ross and Angus Holland. It includes all our favourites over the past 10 years. Put simply it’s insightful.
I really think you should read it, but if you’re time poor like most entrepreneurs here’s my bullet point summary for you:
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More than 80% of these businesses were founded and run by non-technical people (web designers / coders etc)
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Only a handful actually went viral and had overnight success
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‘Fun parks’ build traffic & members quicker than ‘real commercial sites’ (see next blog entry)
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The majority did not have VC funding, fancy offices, or even staff. They bootstrapped.
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Most took much longer than 2 years to build
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The most unexpected and common thing that drove success was cold calling & collaboration
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The entrepreneurs behind them we’re driven by the idea, belief and excitement – not only the potential for big money.
Worth a read.
Thanks for the bullet points Steve…. 🙂
Don;t mind if you put more! hahaha!
Thanks for the bullet points Steve 🙂 Would love to see the extension of the fun parks idea.
Great review – especially highlighting that most are not overnight successes. The rules of the game for small business are the same, even in the internet age!
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My one man operation – http://www.1manop.com