The bmannconsulting.com website
bmann.ca
1---
2tags:
3 - WIP
4---
5_Startup and small business operations and efficiency_
6
7_Note: this page is undergoing major renovations. Skip to the bottom for other resources tagged with startup_
8
9**"Startup"** is this weird phrase that means lots of different things. For me, one of the things that it means is really internalizing a couple of different concepts.
10
11One is the [[Lean Startup]], which has lots of baggage associated with it today, but at its core there is the **Build - Measure - Learn** loop.
12
13You start with a hypothesis (another key concept), like "adding an ecommerce channel will lead to more sales", and then you build the minimal version of that that you can, measure the results, and learn from that.
14
15Did you make a Return on Investment (ROI) of your time / money / interest? Does it look promising, but you need to build a more complete store or have a person dedicated to running it? Did you learn that you don't enjoy the process of figuring out an ecommerce app and online marketing, but want to have someone else do it as part of your business?
16
17I also associate efficiency with my version of startup. This efficiency can come from:
18* "operationalizing" or "productizing" parts of your business so that you understand what runs your business, what the steps are, and how you might apply the next two concepts
19* using digital workflows and automation
20* outsourcing parts of your business / workflows so people can focus on what they like to do, are good at, or simply make more money by working on their core
21
22# Types of Startups
23
24## Venture Startup
25A venture startup is a business that can grow (or "scale") to a very large revenue over time. The classic number is, can your business get to $100M in annual revenue in 5 years?
26
27[[Venture Sized Business]]
28
29The other line you'll hear a lot at the beginning of a venture startup is "do things that don't scale".
30
31You don't know what the most valuable parts of the business will be, so you are optimizing for learning and insights from your customers rather than efficiency.
32
33## Digital Small Business
34
35TODO
36
37## Deep Tech
38
39TODO
40## Moonshot
41
42TODO
43
44Also [[Vancouver Moonshots]]
45
46# Capital Investment
47
48* Angel vs VC
49* Crowdfunding
50* IndieVC-style investment
51* Revenue Financing
52* Future of Venture
53
54# Getting Started
55
56All businesses, companies, and ideas get started somewhere, and over time have various setup and improvement needs.
57
58I say over time as well, because changes in the business -- either a growth in the size of the business, adding more people, or trying out new ideas -- will need new things to get started.
59
60These are a set of recommendations of tools, generally aimed at the "just getting started".
61
62* [[Canadian Incorporation as a non-resident]]
63
64## Web Presence
65
66TODO: write up "spend $0 or $5K on a website"
67
68* [[Namecheap]]
69* [[GSuite]]
70* [[Fastmail]]
71* [[Squarespace]]
72* [[Webflow]]
73* [[Ghost]]
74
75## Company Information
76
77TODO: Using Discourse Forum & Discord Chat for Company and Community
78
79* [[Discourse]]
80
81## Company Formation
82
83TODO: write down a couple of different options, esp. venture startup vs. small business
84
85* [[Ownr]]
86* [[Stripe Atlas]]
87* [[Clerky]]
88* [[Startup Lawyers]]
89* [[Small Business Lawyers]]
90* [[Reverse Vesting]]
91
92## Banking, Finance, and Accounting
93
94* [[Xero]]
95* [[Wave Payroll]]
96* SMB / consulting finance vs. Startup finance
97* [[Budget Scenario Template]]
98* User Model / Business Model Worksheet template
99* Sprout Accounting
100
101### International Payments and Transfers
102
103[TransferWise](https://transferwise.com/invite/u/borism73) will give you the best foreign exchange rates and also will give you USD, GBP, EUR bank accounts (amongst others) that you can accept money into from others.
104## Metrics
105
106* [[Posthog]]
107* [[Metabase]]
108* [[Plausible Analytics]]
109# Resources
110
111Other notes tagged with startup:
112
113<ul>
114{% for post in site.notes %}
115{% if post.tags contains "startup" %}
116{% unless post.tags contains "organization" %}
117<li><a href="{{ post.url }}" class="internal-link">{{ post.title }}</a></li>
118{% endunless %}
119{% endif %}
120{% endfor %}
121</ul>