Re:What to do if your startup is running out of cash
by hef19898 on Thursday March 26, 2020 @03:27AM
(#22691343)
> Sell more.
This is so obvious, that is easy to miss.
To share my story (which contains a lot of luck, so, or rather good "timing"). I started my small logistics / supply chain start-up last October, theplan was to have first, meaningful discussions about prices and contracts in June / July and have first revenue in August / September.
Pretty privileged to be ablt to afford almost a year without revenue, right? My targeted market was solar modules from China / Asia to Europe and eCommerce fulfillment logistics.
Now, with logistics in place (software not so much), covering th whole chain from China to consumers in Europe I am talking to organisations in germany to help them et supplies from Asia to hospitals and so on. I am basically selling three months earlier than planned. And i realized that my enxiety about reaching out to customers and try selling my services is all but gone after a couple of days.
So: Sell more. Get revenue.
And don't be greedy. The whole idea of getting into medical supplies (I am not going to charge more than my own minimum salary and actual costs) comes from an inquery to run logistics for a business importing hand sanitzer to be sold through Ebay and Amazon. Show some business ethics. Nobody expects companies to turn into charities, but at the very least don't charge more for customers during crisis because of the crisis than you would have otherwise. Should be great for a long-term relationship.
This is so obvious, that is easy to miss.
To share my story (which contains a lot of luck, so, or rather good "timing"). I started my small logistics / supply chain start-up last October, theplan was to have first, meaningful discussions about prices and contracts in June / July and have first revenue in August / September.
Pretty privileged to be ablt to afford almost a year without revenue, right? My targeted market was solar modules from China / Asia to Europe and eCommerce fulfillment logistics.
Now, with logistics in place (software not so much), covering th whole chain from China to consumers in Europe I am talking to organisations in germany to help them et supplies from Asia to hospitals and so on. I am basically selling three months earlier than planned. And i realized that my enxiety about reaching out to customers and try selling my services is all but gone after a couple of days.
So: Sell more. Get revenue.
And don't be greedy. The whole idea of getting into medical supplies (I am not going to charge more than my own minimum salary and actual costs) comes from an inquery to run logistics for a business importing hand sanitzer to be sold through Ebay and Amazon. Show some business ethics. Nobody expects companies to turn into charities, but at the very least don't charge more for customers during crisis because of the crisis than you would have otherwise. Should be great for a long-term relationship.