Thread by @cryptonator1337, Thread: My personal experiences with building a business, common problems & lessons [...]

Thread: My personal experiences with building a business, common problems & lessons I learnt.

I am 28 years old next month. I am earning money on the internet since I am 14 years old.

Ready? Lets go!

When I was 13/14 years old I knew it. I have to build my own business to be able to live independent and as free as possible. I was very curious how the internet & websites are working and I assumed that this industry won’t decrease. So I decided that this might be worth a shot.

I started with building simple affiliate websites and a blog (blogschrott[.]net which I sold for 6k€ while I was in the 9th grade). But how to get traffic? I ended up looking for different methods. As I had no budget at all back then I was amazed when I found out about SEO.

I already knew my business case then: Affiliate projects + freelancing for other people/agencies in this industry.

So I made two plans:

1. Stuff I would have to learn for achieving this goal
2. Ideal income plan with a fix target (1k€/month were my goal when I was 14)

Not even 6 months later, I reached it. I was working as a freelancer for a known player in the industry and my affiliate projects started to make some regular income.

Lesson: Making plans with concrete goals is more than just important!

With the consent of my parents and the local court, I registered my first business on 1 January 2008 and acquired full legal capacity as a minor.

I was aware about the fact that the SEO industry was pretty small in germany back in the days. So I reached out to other, known pro's, attended different events and built up a network which is useful till today.

Lesson: Contacts just hurt those who don't have any!

My business ran well. Too well. I was making more money than my teachers in some months. Shit was crazy and it was hard for me to stay humble.

Problem: I lost discipline. Missed client deadlines. Had to pay back a lot of money at some point but still went out partying all day.

Lesson: Don't do this. In my age it was clear somehow that this is a real danger but it still applies to anybody who gets money quickly; especially relevant for the crypto community.

When I realized that I fucked it up it was already too late. I ended up in big debt which I wasn't able to pay, at all. Business failed and I had to go for personal bankruptcy while friends just started studying on university.

Lesson: You have to admit to yourself when the party is over. I lied to myself, a lot of times and could have easily avoided this.

I started working as a regular employee in different online marketing agencies - never had to write an application. One mail and I had a job.

I slowly got back into working for smaller clients on the side, attended the evening school to get the german "Abitur" (got it but never went there to get the certificate, I didn't care, just wanted to spend my time "useful").

All the time I knew that I won't end up doing a 9-5 for my whole lifetime, just .. not possible for me. Not made for it. But I started working at a former employee regardless, shortly before I got into cryptocurrencies which changed my life back then.

Thanks to altseason I was able to pay off the debt included in my bankruptcy. What a feeling!

I was hooked. I realized the potential after knowing Bitcoin since 2010. And I started to make plans again: Different (passive) income sources, growing a brand & get the party started.

The next episode started with former business partners from Berlin (serial entrepreneurs, xxM€ net worth) which I was "friends" with. Apparently they dipped their toes into this industry as well and founded a "blockchain accelerator".

They invited me to Berlin - we spoke about everything - and I ended up getting a proposal to found a company with them together.

Problem: They talked me into a dream world. I really thought I already had made it. Massive bullrun, connections like those, founding a comp with them

So we did this.

Problem: The proposal was shit. The accelerator was shit. The timing was shit.

Markets turned, and it was the beginning of the end of this co-founded company.

We went separate ways then.

While I was bound to the accelerator with my business, I co-founded "Coinmirror". A dApp which was designed for pooled ICO investments to get better deals for retail investors. We had a great team, built the tech from scratch and had finally a working live version.

Problem: When we went live, the ICO market was already dead.

Lesson: Industries like those are moving fast. You don't know if the business case you have is worth anything in a year. Always have a plan b!

So, Coinmirror was dead. My altcoin bags went further to the earths core and things got a bit hectic. Nevertheless I focused on increasing my network, trying new things, making new plans.

Next business I co-founded was shitcoingraveyard[.]com. As for Coinmirror, the team was great, again. The ideas we had were great, too.

Problem: Lack of execution!

Lesson: Plans are nice but worthless without execution!

Sometimes you have to make a hard cut then. I cancelled my commitment because I didn't had the time to work for this while just investing but never making money. Heck, I wanted to buy more alts. Not investing in smth you don't know will make money, ever.

Lesson: Cut your "losses". When you have the gut feel that something isn't worth the effort anymore, just stop it. It is not worth it. When you don't believe in what you are doing, quit.

Now I am fully on myself. I will never ever found a company together with a VC/an investor. If you want to be in charge of your business, don't work with VCs if you don't have to. Giving away a minority to a business angel can make sense so.

Ok this was a long thread. And it was just a rough overview. I hope you liked it!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Last advice: Never regret anything. Regrets are for the weak!

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