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It takes three years to build a business

jacquesmattheij.com

11–20 of 74 posts

Re: It takes three years to build a business

#11
post #5

I think it was freakonomics that said it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert...which is pretty much 3 years full time. Could this be a universal law?

I don't think this applies to starting companies. You're probably already some sort of expert in the field you're starting up in (otherwise you've really got the deck stacked against you). Sure, there's some overhead in learning how to do all the other things, admin, hiring, selling etc., but it's not something you become an expert in.

Re: It takes three years to build a business

#12
post #5

I think it was freakonomics that said it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert...which is pretty much 3 years full time. Could this be a universal law?

I don't think this applies to starting companies. You're probably already some sort of expert in the field you're starting up in (otherwise you've really got the deck stacked against you). Sure, there's some overhead in learning how to do all the other things, admin, hiring, selling etc., but it's not something you become an expert in.

Well, no, you're not an expert in the field of running businesses - and that's the expertise we're talking about.

Running a, say, engineering business, is a very different skill set than being an engineer that works in an engineering business. Many people are experts at the latter and totally clueless at the former.

Re: It takes three years to build a business

#13
post #2

You're right, and this doesn't just apply to I.T. Startups. My step father (who is 70 years old, and still on the board of 6 companies) used to always say to us kids it takes "2 years" to start a company. In the article it says you break even somewhere through year two, which I think is what my father was referring to. My own experience this seems likely too, I started my own startup about 6 months ago,( solo founder…

Congrats man! What are you working on?

Re: It takes three years to build a business

#14
post #10
post #2

You're right, and this doesn't just apply to I.T. Startups. My step father (who is 70 years old, and still on the board of 6 companies) used to always say to us kids it takes "2 years" to start a company. In the article it says you break even somewhere through year two, which I think is what my father was referring to. My own experience this seems likely too, I started my own startup about 6 months ago,( solo founder…

I'll chime in with the others in saying that the morning thing is a great idea. I've been trying to do evening coding for a while but end up just not having the energy. I put in my best hours of the day at work and coming home to work by myself on a project often just doesn't pan out. Switching this around, I can put in time for myself first then head into work and keep going for the remainder of the work day.

Yes mate, my logic was the same as yours ... I got fed up with being tired in the evenings and decided that my startup deserves the best of me, and my day job deserves just "regular" me

Evenings are for time off with my partner, we play ps3 together and generally relax ... I also spend the evenings reviewing my own code / doing administration and billing and other non brain intensive things ... makes for a good work/life balance

Re: It takes three years to build a business

#15
Another data point to support the three year number being thrown about, this one from the founder of Yipit writing about their early struggles: "It took us almost three years to know what exactly we had to do during those three days."

http://viniciusvacanti.com/2011/09/12/the-long-grind-before-...

Re: It takes three years to build a business

#16
post #5

I think it was freakonomics that said it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert...which is pretty much 3 years full time. Could this be a universal law?

Think you meant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_%28book%29 .. at appx 40 hours per week, that's more like 5 years.. which is same as a PhD, black-belt etc.

I'd argue business owners don't work just 40 hours a week on their business. 60 minimum in my experience, even more in those early days.

Year 1, Building the business, Year 2, Adapting the business, Year 3, Improving the business.

That's my take on it.

Re: It takes three years to build a business

#17
post #2

You're right, and this doesn't just apply to I.T. Startups. My step father (who is 70 years old, and still on the board of 6 companies) used to always say to us kids it takes "2 years" to start a company. In the article it says you break even somewhere through year two, which I think is what my father was referring to. My own experience this seems likely too, I started my own startup about 6 months ago,( solo founder…

Congrats man! What are you working on?

I dont work on a single "Next Big Idea" .. I have several small projects that I am advancing, all of which use A.I. somehow, because that's what I'm interested in, that's what I love.

Some projects are: Optimal restaurant placement in large cities (based on demand and existing restaurants)

Prediction of mechanical failures in industrial systems (sorry I cant be more specific on this point) .. basically I predict mechanical failures based on MASSIVE amounts of sensor data so a technician can perform preventative maintenance on the equipment. This gives my client a huge competitive advantage because their equipment appears to never break down.

I wrote a sales prediction software for a large food company in Australia that predicts sales based on some important external factors (cant specifically mention them) but it gives them much better inventory management.

Re: It takes three years to build a business

#19
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this applies to starting companies. You're probably already some sort of expert in the field you're starting up in (otherwise you've really got the deck stacked against you). Sure, there's some overhead in learning how to do all the other things, admin, hiring, selling etc., but it's not something you become an expert in.

Well, no, you're not an expert in the field of running businesses - and that's the expertise we're talking about. Running a, say, engineering business, is a very different skill set than being an engineer that works in an engineering business. Many people are experts at the latter and totally clueless at the former.

The point I was trying to make is that I don't think you become an expert in running a business in the same way you can become an expert in programming or playing the piano. Running a business is too dynamic where the 10,000 hour skills are more static in nature.

Re: It takes three years to build a business

#20
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think you meant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_%28book%29 .. at appx 40 hours per week, that's more like 5 years.. which is same as a PhD, black-belt etc.

I'd argue business owners don't work just 40 hours a week on their business. 60 minimum in my experience, even more in those early days. Year 1, Building the business, Year 2, Adapting the business, Year 3, Improving the business. That's my take on it.

Righto. Fair enough. I just have a general aversion to these sorts of rules, mostly because there are around a ton of exceptions .. to the point where one wonders about it all.

You may have more expertise in this, so deferring it to your good judgment. I was delimiting my stuff to the Gladwell book which attacks " mastery ".

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