OnStartups.com offers the following tips for startups including:

1. Seek transparency and understanding with your partners early.  Issues get harder as time passes.
2. Startup founders work long hours for a reason.  There’s more work than there are people.  If you’re seeking balance, seek it elsewhere.
3. Bad customers will drain you of passion.  Really bad customers will drain you of both passion and profits.  Unfortunately, most bad customers will degenerate into really bad customers if you don’t do something about it.
4. If you’re changing direction often, worry a little.  If you’re changing people often, worry a lot.
5. It’s lonely at the top, but even lonelier at the bottom.  In the early days of a startup, hardly anyone wants to talk to you (except some desperate vendors).
6. Eventually, your product will need to work and do something useful.  No amount of marketing or strategy will get you around this.

Some are definitely “tough love” but valuable nonetheless.

Related posts:

1. Taking the Hassle Out of Startups The Washington Post’s Business Page has an Article Posted on how confusing licensing and certification can be when starting a...
2. Staying Excited Bizzia has a short Post by Stephen Kersey on “Staying Excited About Your Startup Company”: In the early days of...
3. Business Quote of the Week – Seth Godin “There is no correlation at all between success and hours worked.”  – Seth Godin Commentary: A common theme among business...
4. Take the Leap and Follow Your Passion Entrepreneur.com has an Article Posted detailing one young entrepreneur’s journey from the financial sector to starting his own sports marketing...
5. Characteristics of a Great Startup Opportunity From Sam Decker comes the 25 Qualities of a Great Startup Opportunity including: Defendable and differentiated Competitive cost structure Attractive...

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 27th, 2006 at 9:37 am and is filed under Starting A Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.