By Fernando Berrocal

‍

Launching a small business can be exceedingly challenging for first-time founders. Finding a product-market fit for these types of businesses, raising startup financing, and gaining customers are difficult tasks for any type of business. However, with the prior expertise obtained as a startup entrepreneur, it might be a little bit simpler as a second-time small business founder. Think about it: if your first organization gets acquired, you’ll probably contemplate launching a second one!. 

‍

‍

Working for oneself can be an immensely satisfying experience, especially in the early stages of a startup business. You could discover that second-time entrepreneurs really have benefits and can move more quickly than first-time ones. In this blog post, we will discuss five concrete benefits for second-time small business owners.

‍

Startup Hiring Process

‍

The recruiting process is undoubtedly one of the most crucial steps in creating a business, and it will play a significant role in your first daily operations. You haven't employed anybody before as a brand-new startup entrepreneur, so you will likely make your fair share of missteps in this area. Additionally, leading a successful hiring procedure is something new for you, and an experience you will learn a lot from–it won’t be the last time you have to go through the process! Optimizing for minimal cost–and low experience–is one of the worst errors a new startup can make.

‍

As a second-time entrepreneur, you will understand the need of selecting candidates with more experience who can perform the labor-intensive tasks necessary to launch a firm. Similar to fundraising, you will be able to use your prior networks to assemble our core staff this time. One of your initial recruits may have been a former co-worker from your previous small business or someone you met via networking from your first job. To find knowledgeable and experienced workers, maintaining your business networks from your prior business to the new one might be extremely useful.

‍

‍

Capital Raising for Startups

‍

Regardless of your prior expertise, raising money is a time-consuming and challenging procedure for most startup owners. However, this process is vital for the development of small businesses. It might be difficult for a first-time founder to join the angel investors and venture capital (VC) business networks. Additionally, since securing finance often involves a one- or two-week timeframe, it might be challenging for first-time entrepreneurs to acquire the representatives and schedule as many meetings during that time. That occurs since the fundraising process is essentially a numbers game.

‍

As a second-time entrepreneur, you will be able to make use of many of your connections to angel and venture capital investors as well as previous small business investors. You might not think that the process of raising money, making a pitch, creating a deck, and so forth is all that much simpler, but scheduling meetings during a limited time frame is. It is far simpler to plan almost 100 meetings within that constrained window after having previously raised money. It's crucial to keep in mind that this time, you will be able to psychologically be ready for the unavoidable moments of rejection and "ghosting". You'll find out that these are merely a component of the fundraising procedure. It is best to avoid taking anyone's encounter too seriously. It's crucial to just keep going on with an "on to the next" mentality.

‍

Establishing the Business Back Office

The majority of business entrepreneurs will agree that there are always many operational duties to complete. Additionally, the operational chores add up quickly during the crucial time of expanding from one to five or so employees. For an early-stage founder, tasks like setting up payroll, the accounting processes, the primary benefits, and the corporate regulations might take a significant amount of time. However, since you have done it all previously as a second startup entrepreneur, you'll be able to put it all into practice in less time than half. You will be pretty much aware of which startup suppliers to use, which legal policies to delegate to them, and how to put up a reliable early-stage financial stack.

‍

‍

Exploring the Small Business Market

‍

Getting clients is becoming increasingly challenging nowadays. Even though the number of venture-backed businesses that compete in such channels has grown, it has also grown the number of contact channels. You might not have any professional expertise in sales or customer acquisition as a first-time startup. However, over a few years of working at your first small business, you could have discovered which channels you were proficient in as well as how to put together a growth team.

‍

As a second-time entrepreneur, you will be aware of the channels you should test out first, such as a startup blog or other types of content creation. In addition, you will be aware of the channels you should avoid in the first phases of determining product-market fit. For an early-stage business, the online tool Google Adwords is an example of a highly pricey channel. This time, it was much simpler to establish contracts, obtain legal counsel, and purchase insurance that was required by the final consumer.

‍

The Capacity to Reach Confident Decisions Quicker

‍

You will notice that you can make business judgments more quickly and confidently as a second-time entrepreneur. You could suppose that inexperienced founders have the propensity to overthink things, which slows down the entire firm. You will be able to hone my pattern-matching abilities for everything connected to growth, sales, recruiting and funding after a few years of developing your initial business. That might be the greatest benefit of all for second-time entrepreneurs. All areas of the business are under pressure to boost velocity as a result of the capacity to make choices more rapidly and use resources efficiently.

‍

Overall, the result is a better product that is produced faster, has more clients, and has shorter feedback loops for every aspect of the business. In your organization’s early years, these compressed feedback loops consolidate and grow. You might not consider anything other than a founder, and as a second-time founder, you were better prepared to steer our business through its early growing pains. Even though starting a business is always challenging, you'll find that the second time around is slightly less challenging. Many of these points may be put into practice by any first-time founders who are reading this. Move swiftly, keep up your networks, employ qualified individuals, and–most importantly–never give up.

‍

Ready to bring your startup to the next level? Apply to MassLight’s next batch. MassLight supplies capital and a dedicated tech team. We take equity in return. Have questions? Refer to our FAQ page.