Mistakes to avoid when starting a business at University
At the start of the first year of University, I decided that it would be a good idea to make some money by doing basic computer repair and maintenance work. Upgrades, installing Windows, data recovery. That kind of thing. One of the guys in my university accommodation wanted to partner up with me, and I consented because I thought the guy knew enough to manage what we were looking to do. What happened next was a horrifying exercise in wasted money and frustrating. I write this blog post not to bash the guy who I worked with, but to share the lessons I learned in the hope that people don’t make the same mistakes I made.
1.) Make sure your partner knows what he’s talking about.
This seems obvious, but I made this fatal mistake. I thought my friend knew a fair bit about computers, how they work and basic computer diagnostic methods. Boy was I wrong. The guy didn’t understand that you have to boot into a CD to install Windows XP. He would constantly come out with ridiculous remarks about how he didn’t like open source software because it didn’t look professional (Somebody tell this guy about FreeBSD, Apache and Wordpress). His knowledge of computers fell down once he left the realm of the online game Eve Online. He managed to convince me that he knew how to fix, build and maintain computers though. I didn’t ask him to demonstrate his supposed skills though, and that was a fundamental blunder on my behalf.
2.) Make sure you have access to the website control panel and CMS.
When we were setting up shop, I didn’t make sure that I had access to the CPanel. This ended up biting me on the arse, as he retained all creative control, and ended up making a website that didn’t give out the impression that we were a young, professional IT tech support team.
The website looks like a bad flashback from the Microsoft Frontpage days. Phrases like ‘Is your computer slow? Does your broadband connection feel like you’re still on dial-up? Are you worried that your computer might be infected with viruses and spyware? If you’re screaming “YES PLEASE HELP ME!” at the screen then you should probably bring your computer to us.‘ make me cringe. This monstrosity has my (old) phone number and name linked to it, and there’s nothing I can do to change it.
He chose the pricing model and the services offered. He also misspelled ‘Trojans’. Enough said. Also, what on earth is a ‘routekit’?
3.) Make sure that you and the other parties are as interested in your business as you are. This would seem obvious, but the guy who I was working with ended up giving up the project as a result of Eve Online induced apathy. This was after we had spent close to £200 on tools, equipment, mobile phones, web hosting and business cards! That’s a lot of money wasted.
Every experience is a learning experience, and I don’t want to be too harsh to my partner. The problems lay in his lack of desire to commit any time to the project, a lack of honesty when it came to declaring his computer skills (or lack of), and an inability to accept constructive criticism with regards to the development of the website.
I probably could have handled the entire situation a lot better, in retrospect. I should have demanded that I had cpanel access from day one and that we ran Wordpress as a CMS, rather than a website hand designed in Kompozer. I also should have made sure that I knew that my partner knew what he was talking about, and wouldn’t lose interest to play a video game. Still, I’ve learned lessons which I’ll apply when I start a business in later life.
