by Aaron Simmons 由Aaron西蒙斯

The best “mistake” of my life taught me a lot about how not to run a business.最好的"错误"我的生活使我领悟到了很多关于如何不经营企业。 You see, I have a confession to make: I’ma Dot-Bomb CEO.你看，我有一个自白：我是斑点炸弹首席执行官。 Here’s the story of Midwestern Cybertising, and the lessons I’ve learned:这里的故事中西部cybertising和教训，我学会了：

Prior to 1994, the Internet existed as pages and pages of text, with hyperlink shortcuts that brought you to other pages of text or to new sections on the same page of text. 1994年以前，在互联网上存在一页又一页的文字，与超连结的捷径，这给你们带来了其他网页的文本或以新的章节，就在同一页上的文字。 Text, text, text.文本，文本，文本。 Not bad if you like to read, but people today would hardly recognize it as “the Internet”.不坏，如果你想读，但今天人们很难承认的那样，是"互联网" 。 Then, a little program called “Netscape” changed everything by making the Internet a visual, multimedia experience.然后，一个小节目所谓的"网景" ，改变了一切，使因特网成为一个视觉，多媒体体验。 That moved it from the world of computer nerds and placed it firmly into the hands of businesses and consumers alike.感动了，它从世界各地的电脑则Nerds放在牢牢把手中的企业和消费者一样。

Enter Midwestern Cybertising.进入中西部cybertising 。 Some friends and I realized that this could be the new media for customer service and advertising, and jumped right into creating our own web development company.有些朋友和我意识到，这可能是新媒体，为用户服务，广告，并跃升到创造我们自己的网络开发公司。 It was the classic garage biz — all of our HTML and graphic design was completed in my bedroom at my parent’s house!这是典型的车库合作-我们所有的H TML和图形设计完成后，在我的卧室，在我父母的房子！ Our monthly server fee of about $15 comprised our entire operating budget.我们每月的服务器费约15元，包括我们整个的业务预算。

One thing that I am proud of to this day is that my friends and I were YEARS ahead of the curve.其中一种说法是，我很自豪的这一天，是我的朋友和我今后几年的曲线。 If you can believe it, our biggest obstacle was trying to convince businesses that it would be valuable to have a web page!如果你能相信它，是我们最大的障碍是试图说服企业，它将是有价值有一个网页！ Our entire company consisted of three people — two of us planned to return to college at the end of summer break — unless, of course, our company made us phenomenally rich.我们整个公司组成的3人-我们两个人打算返回学院于去年底暑假-当然，除非我们的公司，使我们丰富的挑战者。

Unfortunately, our company did not make us phenomenally rich.可惜的是，我们公司没有使我们丰富的挑战者。 By the end of summer, we had sold only one account (for $500, which we were never able to collect), and had one additional prospect that we were unable to close on.到去年底，夏天，我们已经卖给只有一个账户（ 500元，这是我们从未有能力搜集） ，并增设一个前景，我们无法接近。 Eventually, we lost interest in our company and moved on to pursue other interests.最终，我们失去了兴趣，我们的公司和转会去追求其他利益。

Here is what I learned from our adventure:这里是我的教训，从我国的冒险：

You are not in business to make money . You are in business to help other people or businesses — just don’t do it for free. 你是不是在业务上要赚钱 ，你是在业务上，以帮助其他人或企业-只是不这样做免费的。 Being clear about what your business does and how it benefits your clients makes it a lot easier for you to sell your services and products.要明确界定什么您的企业是否以及如何有利于您的客户，使很多你更容易出售你的服务和产品。 My friends and I constantly had trouble explaining why it was necessary for businesses to have web pages as a matter of customer service.我的朋友和我不断有麻烦解释为什么我们有必要为企业有网页，因为这是顾客服务。 We saw only a money river and jumped in. It never occurred to us that we’d have to explain to people how badly they needed our services.我们看到，只有金钱河跳楼进来，没有想过我们，我们也要进行解释，以人有多严重，他们需要我们的服务。 We figured they knew.我们揣摩他们知道。

Marketing is a start-up business’s most important activity . 市场营销是一个开办业务的最重要的活动 。 When we started our business, the first thing we did was incorporate.当我们开始我们的业务，第一件事，我们所做的只是把。 That used up almost all of our start-up money, and in hindsight did nothing for us.即用完了，几乎我们所有的开办资金，并在事后却没有采取任何我们。 We were three college kids who had nothing; if we were to lose everything we had in our business, we wouldn’t have lost anything.我们三个学院的孩子无关，如果我们失去了一切，我们已在我们的业务，我们不会失去什么。 In the end, our business imploded because nobody knew who we were or what we did.在年底前，我们的业务imploded ，因为谁也不知道谁，我们或我们应做的事。

Plan to fail or plan to succeed, but have a plan . 计划失败或计划成功，但是有一个计划 。 Planning is a critical step in starting a business.规划是一个关键步骤，在创办企业。 By the time you’ve invested your first dollar in your business, you should already have a clear idea of what your business’s primary product or service is, how much you plan to charge for those products and services, who your ideal clients are, where you expect to find those ideal clients, how you plan to contact those clients, how much goods or services you must sell this month (and next month and the month after), and how many prospects you need to contact to make that happen.经过一段时期你投入你的第一个美元，在你的生意，你应该已经清楚地知道什么您的企业的主要产品或服务，有多少你打算向政府收取这些产品和服务，谁是最理想的客户，如果你期望找到这些理想的客户，您将如何接触客户，有多少货品或服务，你必须将其出售，这一个月（和下月后一个月） ，以及有多少前景您需要联系，使这种情况发生。 Time is critical for a start-up business.时间是至关重要的一个开始，后续的业务。 By doing detailed planning before you begin, you can hit the ground running.做详细规划，在你开始之前，你可以撞到地面运行。 My friends and I did our planning all summer long — as much as 90 days after investing in our business.我的朋友和我本来我们的计划，所有夏季长-多达9 0天之后，投资于我们的业务。 By the time we had worked out the details, we had to return to school…which brings us to the next item:经过一段时期，我们曾进行了细化，我们不得不重新回到学校… …从而把我们带到下一个项目：

Give it your all, or don’t give it anything . 给予你的一切，或者根本不考虑任何事情 。 Don’t have something to fall back on.不有所依傍。 If a business is worth starting, it’s worth giving it all you’ve got.如果一个企业经营状况的价值出发，它的价值给它的一切你。 My friends and I approached our business as a hobby for the most part, thinking it would be neat if we made a lot of money at it.我的朋友和我接触，我们的业务，作为一种爱好，在大多数情况下，思想便整齐，如果我们赚了很多钱这件事。 We never seriously considered dropping out of school to build our business.我们从来没有认真考虑过辍学现象，以建立我们的业务。 But, if our business had actually grown as well as we thought it would, quitting school would have been necessary.但是，如果我们的业务实际上已成长以及我们以为它会离开学校将被必要的。 So before we’d even begun, the business lost out to our education.所以才'd甚至开始，其业务失去了我们的教育。

Ability isn’t enough . 能力是不够的 。 I don’t want to brag, but my friends and I were truly cutting-edge.我不想吹嘘，但我的朋友和我自己真正的尖端。 We utilized all the latest technology, had beautifully designed pages, and were utilizing search-engine optimization (SEO) before it was even being talked about.我们使用了所有最新的技术，有设计精美的页面，并利用搜索引擎优化（ SEO ）之前，它更是大家谈论的焦点。 If ability was what makes a successful business, you would have read about us in Time magazine.如果有能力，是什么使一个成功的企业中，你会看到我们在时代杂志。 However, it is sales and marketing that bring in the clients.但是，它是销售及市场推广，使一些在客户。 After all, what good is it to be the best if nobody knows about it?毕竟，有什么好处是它一定是最好的，如果没有人知道这个情况？ Ability brings satisfied customers back, but sales and marketing brings them in the first time.能力，使客户的满意度会回来的，但销售和市场推广带来了他们在第一时间。

One final lesson I would offer is this: If you learn from everything you do, nothing you do is in vain .最后一个教训，但我想提出的是： 如果你学习到您所做的一切，没有什么，你这样做是徒劳的 。 I have never started another business, and may never again.我从来没有，开始了一个新的业务，而且可能永远不再发生。 But I’ve never regretted my experience with Midwestern Cybertising.但我从来不后悔我的经验与中西部cybertising 。 I learned a lot from the experience, and not only what not to do.我学到了很多从经验中，不只是什么不可以做。 I have also learned a lot about the right things to do, too — in business as well as in life.我也学到了很多正确的事情做，太-在业务上，以及在生活中。