Being on my own

I finally left IBM and started my venture in Financial Planning Services. Its been about 3 months and of course it feels great. I am much relaxed now, away from day to day tensions of the job. However, far from saying it's all great here :)

I am working hard...probably even harder than the job. Sometimes I end up working for 15 straight hours on desk but I am enjoying it. Our website (Click here) is live, offerings are developed and revenue model has kicked in. We have signed up 30 Customers for our Financial Planning Services so far. I am seeing a decent response for our service though a lot yet needs to be done. We have now hired freelance writers for our website and we also have a Financial Planner working for us. Expanding the scope of services would be a key factor in the months to come.

A quick summary of lessons learned as an Entrepreneur, so far:

1. Whatever I thought would be my Unique Selling Proposition, someone is already doing it :(  So learning here is to move faster, much faster
2. Web has amazing amount of free goodies available for small businesses. You can get free stuff right from Domain to Site Hosting to Visiting Cards to Email Campaign Software. 
3. Try and balance financial commitments. We can't spend too much too soon. That said, we also can't spend too less, too late. There is no easy answer here. 
4. Since we learn as we go, try and take small steps. A good example - I ended up ordering 1500 Visiting Cards in two orders but most of them would not be used now. Yes, we have changed the Company Name, Tag Line, Card Description, Logo and now very soon the address :)
5. Talking helps for Customer Acquisition. For me, nothing else is working right now :)
6. I am glad we invested in procuring images, software and decent hardware. We could save money but then going on the wrong side of the law does not help in the long run. 

Regards, Rohit