Often we ask attendees to tell us one thing they learned from this morning’s bootstrapper’s breakfast. Here’s a couple … and please add your own!
“I am always surprised by how much I learn in two hours. The quality and enthusiasm of people that show up and the things I find out that I never knew about and how time flies.” – Dorai
“I was impressed with this group. People really took time to brainstorm around the issues I face in developing and marketing my local search web application. It’s one thing when people advise you to ‘focus’ – but its entirely different when they say ‘focus like this’. Great actionable advice. Great networking too” – Tom
“This was my first time to participate in a Bootstrappers Breakfast meeting and I was impressed with the quality of advice that was provided to the entrepreneurs. The challengers facing an entrepreneur were discussed and some great ideas were exchanged. What a great community for entrepreneurs.” – Herman
Want to read more — check out:
One Thing I Learned 2010 & 2009
One Thing I Learned 2008
I learned that software developers are generally really bad at estimating how long a project will take, particularly if it is a longer (multi-month) effort. It is much better to break the project down into smaller chunks of a few hours or days each, then get an estimate for each one – those are more likely to be more accurate.
Today was interesting discussion on 1099s and who requires them. As well as the credit card exemptions to them.
Networking opportunities and a presenter that was able to answer some pertinent CPA/Tax issues and add some pearls “e.g. new tax rule exempting c-corps formed between 2009 and 2011 that are manufacturing a product are exempt of first 10,000,000.
I was surprised to learn that the City of San Francicso has a 2% payroll tax.
You never know who you are going to meet, and its going to be an incredible experience to be open share freely.
Sean suggested that I read the book, Four Steps to the Epiphany written by Steve Blank. I took his advice and found it to be one of the most practical business books I had ever read. When I heard that Steve was going to be the speaker at this Bootstrappers Breakfast, I had to attend to hear him talk in this intimate venue. I learned much, but the best point was the suggestion that Steve had to read the book, Business Model Generations. It is on my To Do list.
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I learned the some of finding a co-founder is kismet, in other words, that the universe has to conspire to make it happen, but you need to ensure that mostly your goals are aligned, that you have the same vision, and that your values are very similar. If you have these, it would seem that nearly any hurdle is overcomable, otherwise, nothing will keep things together. Awesome that KV Rao joined us!
I liked the 3 questions… what people ask about public relations. It gives me another way to talk about my PR business. Also the narrower the market focus, the more customers I attract and the more others can refer business to me and vice versa.
One thing? I learned a lot more than one thing. I got great feedback on my question (what to look for and find a startup partner), as well as other useful things (such as the relative role of Google AdWords in developing web site traffic) that will be useful later. All in all, time very well spent.
Different perspectives, that’s the one thing that I learned. Of course, each perspective is a thing on its own. So, I guess I should say I learned many different things today and I am grateful to this wonderful and friendly meetup. Thank you.
I got some great ideas for moving forward on my blog.
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