TheStartup.eu

This is a guest post by Marc Rosenfeld, a web entrepreneur  currently developing a web based platform for productive groups. Prior to that, Marc worked at Ericsson Brazil in the pre-sales department contributing to managed service proposals, and having knowledge sharing responsibilities.

Last Saturday I went to BizCamp Belgium and, as a newly self-appointed web entrepreneur, I could already tell: this was a perfect introduction to the web-sphere world.
There were around 20 sessions, in 3 different rooms, where a lot of useful information could be learned with more experienced entrepreneurs.

Ok, so let’s have a summary of some topics discussed:

Many discussions get around PR and promotion. As you can imagine, networking & word of mouth was the main trend here. But another one catch my attention: printed media. Yes, there are still a lot of people paying and reading their newspaper every morning, and  they are customers too. More surprising was the discovery that printed media can be cheaper than online advertising. One great tip that was shared is to ask questions in a “…by the way, would you like to..?.” style in order to engage users, and I must say, this works pretty well.

A second topic discussed was funding. This is what we should keep in mind:

• Seed capitalists don’t invest only in businesses, they invest in people. In the beginning “you”= “your business” so they need to make sure “you” will grow with your business. If you don’t have all the competences needed to run your business, go partner with someone who does. Places like BizCamp are a good way to start (most of the attendees were looking for partners there).
• Public grants exist and are very valuable to young businesses. In order to give you a grant, governments usually only want to make sure you will still be alive in two or three years, and they don’t ask high rates of return for their money. So, before VCs, get a look into public grants, maybe they’re less glamorous, but it’ll surely be cheaper.
• For all sort of funding, business & financial plans are needed. Give special attention to your break even point, knowing it will give investors precious information about their risk.
• (Maybe the most important point here) You should keep your capital needs to minimum. Investors want their money back, and getting capital is still expensive in all cases. The expression: “capital is like junk food: you know you shouldn’t, but it’s so good you can’t resist to ask more.” sums it up pretty well

Finally, there were some good discussions about breaking the rules. The main idea is that, if you are an entrepreneur, you already are an exception and you shouldn’t be afraid to look bigger than you are or even to lie, a little, if this will be good for your business. An example? Well, if you need to be an artist to receive a government grant, then you are an artist! But, note, this doesn’t mean you should cross the limits like void paying taxes. You should always run your business responsibly and obeying the laws.

Concluding, there were also a lot of good business tips shared and a great entrepreneurial vibe, but this, I can’t summaries in a blog’s article