We launched Advisor Garage in 2004.  At that point, Advisor Garage had cost me just under $20K. I had one really smart guy build it, as I was about as capable of building it, as I am of doing my own dentistry.

When we launched Advisor Garage, we charged members a grand total of zero dollars – that’s Nada, Zip, Zilch, bumpkiss AKA Nothing! And during its four years of life, we went on to charge people zero on a daily basis. During that time, we continued to spend money on the business – servers, programmers, adsense and so on. We were so ‘Not-For-Profit’ we should have received a medal!

That doesn’t sound too smart does it?

…Perhap you’re asking yourself – “So why did you launch it Andrew?”

Good question – well, here are a few reasons I would tell my Start-Up Therapist if I could still afford one…

REASON #1)

We are entrepreneurs too and had been through the challenges and sometimes pain of starting businesses. We realized that not only was it TOUGH but what makes it even tougher is pulling the PIECES together.  The cash, the first few employees, the people to help develop the product or service, the new channels to market, the sales expertise, the legals and accounting stuff, finding the office – ALL of it.  You can only do it all yourself, while sitting in a Starbucks all day trying to make a venti last, for so long – after that, you need to find others to make your business idea real and Advisor Garage was about bringing people together to help make that happen.

REASON #2) 

I had this idea and I couldn’t shake it…I just HAD to bring it to the world. Being an entrepreneur is sometimes like that – you do it because if you don’t, the idea will continue to nag at you like a little yappy dog until you take it seriously and pat its head for a while. With Startups the ‘while’ often turns into ‘years’. Call it a disease but that’s how it happens. Well, it does for me anyhow. Boy do I need that Start-Up therapist!

REASON #3)

And here’s the kicker – we thought by launching Advisor Garage, we would maybe, perhaps, if we were lucky, with the wind in the right direction…stumble onto a few more great ideas to add value for other entrepreneurs. And, as luck would have it, WE DID!

So…we are transitioning into the next stage of Advisor Garage’s existence, and even as I type – the strands of Advisor garage Mark II are being pulled together…but just to make sure we are going to hit the right target - I have some questions for you, our (hopefully), soon-to-be customers…

1. What is the biggest frustration you face as an entrepreneur?

2. What result or outcome do you want to achieve?

 

3. if you could have anything happen as an entrepreneur, what would it be?

 

4. What information do you need right now that you can’t find answers to?

 

5. Do you need help securing angel or venture capital investors? If so what kind of help do you need specifically?

 

You would be doing us a favor if you could cut and paste these questions into an email and sending your answers to:

 

andrew (@) advisorgarage (dot) com

 

If you haven’t already – join our mailing list and we’ll let you know when the NEW and IMPROVED Advisor Garage is launched and also how it can Help You Successfully Launch Your Start-Up.

 

Until next time.

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