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“錯誤”我的生活教導我很多關於如何不執行業務。 You see, I have a confession to make: I’ma Dot-Bomb CEO.你看，我有一個不打自招：我是斑點炸彈的CEO 。 Here’s the story of Midwestern Cybertising, and the lessons I’ve learned:在這裡的故事，中西部cybertising ，和教訓，我已經學會：

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，在互聯網上存在的頁面和頁面的文字，與超連結的捷徑，給你們帶來的其他網頁的文本或以新的章節，在同一頁上的文字。 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”.不壞如果你想讀，但今天人們很難認識到它作為“互聯網” 。 Then, a little program called “Netscape” changed everything by making the Internet a visual, multimedia experience.然後，一個小節目，所謂“網景”改變了一切，使互聯網的可視化，多媒體體驗。 That moved it from the world of computer nerds and placed it firmly into the hands of businesses and consumers alike.感動了，它從世界計算機則Nerds並將其置於堅決把手中的企業和消費者都。

Enter Midwestern Cybertising.進入中西部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.一些朋友和我意識到，這可能是新媒體為客戶服務和廣告，以及跳右轉入創造我們自己的Web開發公司。 It was the classic garage biz — all of our HTML and graphic design was completed in my bedroom at my parent’s house!這是典型的車庫合作-我們所有的H TML和圖形設計完成，在我的臥室在我父母的房子！ Our monthly server fee of about $15 comprised our entire operating budget.我們每月的服務器費約15元，包括我們整個的業務預算。

One thing that I am proud of to this day is that my friends and I were YEARS ahead of the curve.一件事，我感到自豪，這一天是我的朋友和我今後幾年的曲線。 If you can believe it, our biggest obstacle was trying to convince businesses that it would be valuable to have a web page!如果你可以相信它，是我們最大的障礙是試圖說服企業，這將是寶貴的有一個網頁！ 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.我們整個公司組成3人-我們兩個人打算返回學院在上月底夏季休會-當然，除非我們的公司，使我們ph enomenally豐富。

Unfortunately, our company did not make us phenomenally rich.可惜的是，我們公司並沒有使我們phenomenally豐富。 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.到去年底夏季，我們已出售的只有一個帳戶（ 500元，這是我們從來沒有能夠收集） ，並增設一個前景，我們無法接近。 Eventually, we lost interest in our company and moved on to pursue other interests.最終，我們失去了興趣，在我們的公司和轉移到追求其他利益。

Here is what I learned from our adventure:這裡是什麼，我知道從我們的冒險：

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. 你是不是在業務上要賺錢 ，你是在業務上，以幫助其他人或企業-只是不這樣做，它是免費的。 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.目前不清楚是什麼您的業務，以及如何有利於您的客戶，使很多您能更方便地出售您的服務和產品。 My friends and I constantly had trouble explaining why it was necessary for businesses to have web pages as a matter of customer service.我的朋友和我不斷有麻煩，解釋為何這是必要的企業有網頁作為一個問題的客戶服務。 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.我們看到，只有金錢河，跳樓英寸，它從未發生過我們認為，我們想要有解釋人們如何嚴重，他們需要我們的服務。 We figured they knew.我們揣摩他們知道。

Marketing is a start-up business’s most important activity . 市場營銷是一個開始，後續的業務最重要的活動 。 When we started our business, the first thing we did was incorporate.當我們開始我們的業務，第一件事，我們沒有被納入。 That used up almost all of our start-up money, and in hindsight did nothing for us.即用罄，幾乎我們所有的開辦資金，並在事後卻沒有採取任何措施。 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.我們是三個學院的孩子誰無關;如果我們要失去一切，我們已在我們的業務，我們不會失去什麼。 In the end, our business imploded because nobody knew who we were or what we did.在年底，我們的業務imploded ，因為沒有人知道誰，我們或我們所做的。

Plan to fail or plan to succeed, but have a plan . 計劃失敗或計劃成功，但有一個計劃 。 Planning is a critical step in starting a business.規劃是一個關鍵步驟，在創業。 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.由時間，您的投資您的第一港元在您的業務，你應該已經有了一個清晰的概念是什麼您的企業的主要產品或服務的是，有多少您計劃負責為這些產品和服務，誰您的理想客戶，在那裡您期望找到這些理想的客戶，您打算如何聯繫這些客戶，有多少貨品或服務，您必須出售，這一個月（和在下個月和後一個月內） ，以及有多少的前景，您需要聯繫，使這種情況發生。 Time is critical for a start-up business.時間是至關重要的一個開始，後續的業務。 By doing detailed planning before you begin, you can hit the ground running.這樣做詳細的規劃開始之前，您能打到地面上運行。 My friends and I did our planning all summer long — as much as 90 days after investing in our business.我的朋友和我本來我們的規劃，所有夏季長-作為多後的9 0天內投資於我們的業務。 By the time we had worked out the details, we had to return to school…which brings us to the next item:由時間，我們已制訂的細節，我們不得不返回學校… …從而使我們的下一個項目：

Give it your all, or don’t give it anything . 給您所有，或不給它任何事情 。 Don’t have something to fall back on.不有一些依傍上。 If a business is worth starting, it’s worth giving it all you’ve got.如果一個業務是值得出發，它的價值給它所有你了。 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.我的朋友和我接觸，我們的業務，作為一種愛好，在大多數情況下，思想便整齊，如果我們賺了很多錢在它。 We never seriously considered dropping out of school to build our business.我們從來沒有認真考慮輟學，建立我們的業務。 But, if our business had actually grown as well as we thought it would, quitting school would have been necessary.但是，如果我們的業務實際上已長大，以及我們認為，這會，退學，將有必要。 So before we’d even begun, the business lost out to our education.因此，之前我們希望，甚至開始，商業失去了我們的教育。

Ability isn’t enough . 能力是不夠的 。 I don’t want to brag, but my friends and I were truly cutting-edge.我不想吹噓，但我的朋友和我是真正的尖端。 We utilized all the latest technology, had beautifully designed pages, and were utilizing search-engine optimization (SEO) before it was even being talked about.我們利用所有最新的技術，設計了精美的網頁，並利用搜索引擎優化（ SEO ）之前，有人甚至被談到。 If ability was what makes a successful business, you would have read about us in Time magazine.如果能力是什麼使一個成功的企業，你會看過關於我們在時代雜誌。 However, it is sales and marketing that bring in the clients.不過，這是銷售及市場推廣，使在客戶。 After all, what good is it to be the best if nobody knows about it?畢竟，有什麼好處是它是最好的，如果沒有人知道它呢？ Ability brings satisfied customers back, but sales and marketing brings them in the first time.能力帶來的客戶滿意度回，但銷售和市場營銷使他們在第一時間。

One final lesson I would offer is this: If you learn from everything you do, nothing you do is in vain .最後一個教訓，我想提出是這樣的： 如果你了解的一切，你這樣做，沒有什麼，你做的，是徒勞的 。 I have never started another business, and may never again.我從來沒有開始另一個業務，並可能永遠不再發生。 But I’ve never regretted my experience with Midwestern Cybertising.但我從來沒有感到遺憾，我的經驗與中西部cybertising 。 I learned a lot from the experience, and not only what not to do.我學到了很多的經驗，而不是只有什麼不要做。 I have also learned a lot about the right things to do, too — in business as well as in life.我也學到了很多東西，約權，要做的事，太-在業務上，以及在生活中。