On May 10th, the Instituto Aragonés de Empleo together with Congreso Web, organized in Zaragoza a very interesting conference for entrepreneurs: EmprendeRed. The objective was to provide the assistants with tools and key knowledge, together with real experiences to become an entrepreneur on the internet.
I had the honor of being the first speaker of the event. My exposition was about how to build the business model you want to get started. The presentation I used during the exposition is attached to the post.
If I had to summarize in 5 points the most important concepts I would have liked to make clear about my exposition, these would be the ones:
1. Being an entrepreneur on the Internet, is being an entrepreneur
Nowadays, anyone who becomes an entrepreneur must think about the internet as a key tool. This DOESN’T mean that everybody will have to sell on the internet and that traditional businesses head toward failure. What it means is that even though you have a traditional business, you will have to have some presence on the internet. Before, people used to find you on the Yellow Pages, now they do it on the internet…if you are not in it, soon, you won’t exist. Whenever you consider having a web page for your business, think about its objective: to be known, to sell, to be reached, etc. The important thing is not to be on the internet, but to know why you are there.
2. Build the business model
to be able to tell your business story and to establish if your business is viable. If your business’ story makes sense, it will be easier for you to find people who want to become an entrepreneur by your side or just to invest in your idea. Talk about how you deal with the market: who are we selling to, which cost proposal we offer, how we get to be known, how we sell, how we serve, what kind of post-sell relation we build with our clients, how many income we generate. Then, talk about which enterprise you are going to build so you can deal with the market that way: key activities you will develop, key resources you need for that (economical, material, human, etc.) what alliances you’ll build and how much does all that cost.
3. Fail fast, fail cheap
Once you have your business model, don’t wait until you build it completely to start with your activity. If in your model you considered a product with 80 functionalities, make one with 10 and give it to your clients for testing; if they are going to tell you that it doesn’t fit for them, it’s better to learn that investing in 5 rather than 10, right?
4. To become an entrepreneur is to manage
Once you have ordered your business model that will be the first version of it. Many more versions will come afterwards. You will have to build, measure, learn and pivot your business model as many times as necessary. The contact with your clients since the early stages, the environment and experience will make you re-think your model and optimize it. A business model is not a graphic representation that we print, frame and never ever question again.
5. Be inspired by existent business models and patterns
For example: freemium, long-tail, multilateral platform, etc.
For those who didn’t have the chance to get a printed copy of the business model canvas, I leave you here post where you can find tools and files to work with the business model canvas.
From my iZenuis partners’ talks I would stress several key concepts. Ricardo Tayar talked about web analysis. The key points I hold are: bringing people just for the act of bringing to your web site is worthless. You must define and measure your web site objectives. It is important to build the control panel of your business on the internet, it is indispensable to measure so you can analyze and optimize your business’ web, and we must keep in mind that what can’t be measured, DOES exist.
Guillermo Vals, for his part, talked about Search Engine Optimization. Key points I would stress: the SEO is a long-distance race (you have to work on it every day), the 5 aspects of a good SEO position are the web structure, linkbuilding, content, social networks and web performance. In Spain we have no other choice than to follow what Google stipulates. And in the last place, if you want to be well placed, to generate valuable content for the user is very very very important.