"Start Ups" Part 1: Reality Check - Page 2

On September 26 2012 02:17 Deadlifter wrote:
Love the series. Just bought the book you recommended. If I'm not driving a ferrari in a few months, I'll return here and complain to you.

On December 23 2012 16:20 Dubpace wrote:
I got really lucky--when the first article in the TL Knowhow "Start Ups" series was released, my college began advertising for a "New Venture Challenge" business plan competition. I had an interest in entrepreneurship before, but initially did not truly feel as though I had either the skills necessary or a unique enough vision to start my own company.

Lo and behold a month or so later I came up with a fantastic potential solution to a problem that exists within my realm of study. At this point I was geeking out with excitement: I bought all three books suggested (Guy Kawasaki, Richard Branson, Duncan Bannatyne) and got to reading. It's important to note that there is nothing extraordinary about me: although I get good grades, I study classical music performance and don't have the slightest bit of business acumen. Each of these books helped tremendously, but without a doubt "Reality Check" is the must read book of the trio. Here are the most important parts of the book that I find myself returning to as I prepare for multiple business plan competitions later this year:

• Launching a Website with $12,000 - Guy explains in accurate detail every expense that he used to launch Truemors.com, a website that received over 250,000 hits on its launch day. Most interesting is that he spent over $1,000 dollars on domains. His primary expense was over $5,000 dollars in legal fees. I found this to be a great reference when creating my own projected upfront costs.
  
• Financial Models for Underachievers - I don't have the book with me right now, but I believe this is the chapter where the real estate brokers, Redfin.com, reveal all of their initial financial projects and compare them to their actual costs. This has helped me get a good idea not only for the projected cost of certain aspects of my potential venture, but it also revealed many expenses that could easily slip by and be overlooked.
  
• The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint - It's simple--10 slides, 20 minutes maximum, 30 point font minimum. Guy suggests this is the best way to hold interest while using a PowerPoint, and as a student that sits in lectures everyday I can confirm the truth in this logic. I mentioned this to my father and he shared with me an interesting tidbit of knowledge. When my dad worked at Intel he recalled that Andy Grove was without a doubt the most powerful presenter he had ever seen because he only used supplementary pictures--no text. The images got the point across quickly, and the attention is then turned to the speaker again. This is an important lesson to take to heart.
  

Hopefully more readers can share their experiences with the book, as well as chime in on their progress if they are working on their own venture as well. Currently I am preparing my first business plan (ever) and I'm extremely excited. My vision has changed constantly throughout the last several months, and I'm finding that an open mind is one of the most important tools an entrepreneur can have in their belt. Later this break I will post on one of the other blog posts with more important lessons I learned while reading these books.

EDIT: Either I'm blind or the other threads have disappeared. We need a resurrection!