Just Do It
April 3rd, 2010 | Published in Entrepreneurial Advice | 6 Comments
In July 1999, I launched with my partners my first ever online venture – PinoyExchange.com. The website launched with a front page designed with Microsoft Powerpoint, and a hastily implemented third party message board software. To be honest, the site didn’t look like much, but we were the first Filipino stand alone message board out in the market.
In 2001, while I was an employee in iAyala, two of my partners and I decided that money could be made by supplying fun content through your cell phone. We disagreed at that time with our former company’s direction which was to offer mobile banking software so we left and started Xurpas.
In 2002, my first international venture was established. My partners in Xurpas and I decided that the success model of offering mobile content in the Philippines can be replicated in other countries. Starfish Mobile was born and today it is the largest mobile content provider in the African continent.
In all the ventures I have been involved in, I have not once made a business plan. Contrary to conventional wisdom, I’ve found that business plans are more important for mature companies than for start-ups. My partners and I spotted opportunities in the market and we seized it. In every industry we entered, we were always one of the first entrants so we were able to grab market share while the space was still empty. We were successful because of our ability to swiftly execute while others were stuck in the analysis stage.
My advice to all the start-ups out there is to skip the heavy business planning stage. The way to move forward is to clearly understand the problem your idea is solving, establish a fair business model, and find the right partners who will share and help you accomplish your vision. Then do a small scale test of your business idea. If it works, then scaling things up should be fairly easy as funding and talent tend to gravitate towards successful businesses, even if they are still small.
Unless you’ve really tested your idea, even if just in a small isolated setting, you will never really know what its potential is. Just remember that the worst feeling in the world for any thriving entrepreneur is seeing your idea successfully implemented … by someone else.
April 3rd, 2010 at 9:59 am (#)
Sometimes finding the right partners is the difficult part when you want to implement an idea.
April 3rd, 2010 at 12:39 pm (#)
Finding the right partners is perhaps the most crucial part. Statistics show that start-ups with 2-3 principals is much more likely to succeed than a solo venture. The great start-ups of our time – Microsoft, Apple, Google all started with 2-3 people.
Also, sometimes you fit the plan to the people you have rather than find the right people to execute a plan. This works both ways – to use a sports analogy, you could execute a triangle offense and find the right people to run it or you could get the best players you can get and structure your playing style based on the personnel.
April 4th, 2010 at 9:46 am (#)
Great information! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now. Thanks!
April 4th, 2010 at 8:47 pm (#)
Wanted to add also that the advice to “do a small scale test of your business idea” works for ventures that have low capital requirements – the mobile and internet spaces are ideal. But for other industries such as say banking or manufacturing, this may be more difficult to execute in the absence of a formal business plan which can help in say getting you the loan you need or convincing investors to fund your idea.
April 8th, 2010 at 12:09 pm (#)
I like the pilot test idea but I would have to agree with Batang Uliran in that in some larger scale ventures, a business plan is quite helpful.
April 24th, 2010 at 8:20 am (#)
Hi Caths – I guess I am referring to Digital Businesses in particular which tend to have lower capital requirements at the onset.