My Business, It’s Official

Well I’ve finally gotten my business venture officially registered as a New York State LLC so now I’m the owner of my own company. Admittedly, I have no clients yet, but I’m working on it ;-). I’ve been putting off work getting the business launched during the past month for various reasons, but I’m moving along again at full speed. I just spent the entire night (5 hours or so) thinking about and reworking the website to present information about my services differently and also changing some prices.

I’m feeling good about the prospects for the venture. Internet growth in 2005 up until October has already eclipsed the growth during the dot com boom and the year isn’t even over. This growth is strongly driven by small and medium sized businesses getting online. That’s saying something. Web hosting, design, and development is very much a market that’s in very rapid growth. Some argue it’s a saturated market with relatively low barriers to entry. I would say there are low barriers to entry but high barriers to success. Entering a market doesn’t guarantee success.

More firms are exitting the market all the time. Everyday I see firms that started less than year ago close its doors. Why? They’re inexperienced, have no marketing strategies, have poor logistics and operational support, no sense of cash flow, no target customer groups, no direction at all, and they think price is everything. Wrong - to serve business clients and establish lasting customer relationships, you need to provide reliable and responsive service. Business owners are willing to pay much more for consistently reliable service, and they will continue to pay as long as you provide value for their business.

I’ve talked about or thought about starting a web development/hosting type of venture for years. But I knew I didn’t know enough about the market to enter it effectively. I’ve read and read and read and I think it’s about time I make my mark as an entrepreneur (hey you know the average entrepreneur fails 9 times before succeeding - my count is at 3). Plus I really have nothing to lose at this point and no matter what this will be a tremendous learning experience.