Startup

Article 2 min Should you quit your job to run an online store? Not until the store covers your costs for three consecutive months. The pressure to make a store pay this month is what makes people… Read

Article 2 min How do you price a product so the store survives? Backwards from what it must cover, never forwards from what it cost. Start with the cost of goods, add shipping, payment fees, expected returns… Read

Article 2 min What is the cheapest way to get the first hundred customers? People who already know you, and communities that already exist. The first hundred are almost never bought profitably, and trying to buy them is… Read

Article 2 min How do you know when a store is working? When customers come back without being paid for. Repeat revenue rising as a share of the total is the only signal that separates a… Read

Article 2 min How do you know if a startup idea is any good? When somebody pays before you have built it. Every other signal — encouragement, survey results, sign-ups — is people being polite at no cost… Read

Article 2 min Where do good business ideas actually come from? From something you had to do the hard way. Almost every durable business started as somebody solving their own problem badly and noticing that… Read