The internet is full of advice on how to run a successful business. I can’t really speak to that, the most I’ve been able to do is some consistent freelancing that produced a modest bonus. More importantly, I don’t know a magic formula beyond try something, see if it works, and keep repeating till it does. What I can tell you is what not to do.

So where do we begin? In my mid to late 20s, I caught the entrepreneurship bug. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, only that I didn’t want to build and sell software.

Too many free prototypes for other people’s ideas.

Django. Rails. Next. Nuxt. They all blend together after a while. Granted none of them were all that complicated; looking back at it, probably would’ve been better to use Microslop Spring. I mean modern .NET. It has a broad standard library and ecosystem. A built in package manager and build system. A good abstraction layer over the database. It’s easier to deploy to Linux and containers now. And the verbosity makes it easy to figure out what and why a section of the code is that way.

Back to the point. Market research.

I looked around and identified a problem. Austin is supposedly the live music capital of the world. But few artists record in the city. Most of them fly to LA or Atlanta. And speaking to producers in the city, they weren’t a fan of the existing studios.

And so I saw an opportunity. Equipment is a fixed cost. Rent and utilities are fairly predictable. I know how to set up and run IT systems. And I have slightly more than no background in organizational finances. All I needed was good labor and advertising, then I’m off to the races.

Now to find the former.

The neat thing about Austin. Everyone seems to have something on the side they’re working on. And it’s usually something weird in relationship to their day job.

I hit it off with a younger fellow from Laredo who was both a rapper and producer. He had no shame hustling multiple gigs if meant he could keep making music. And he learned a bit of C++ as a teenager to modify his DAW. It seemed like everything was in place.

Even better, his studio has been through about as many iterations as my blog. Starting off in a bedroom closet, to now having a unit on Rainy with what used to be a view of the river. He had people coming through, but was equipment constrained.

Verify Everything

Go visit the “skyrise studio” multiple times. If you have trouble parking or signing in, think how difficult it would be for a client.

Run the numbers multiple times. What all is needed? How much does it cost? How has the price changed. Are there alternatives?

Thoroughly vet your partners. How do they work? What’s their process? What outputs have they actually produced? Is their personal life a liability?

Validate any rolodex. I’m all for privacy, but if someone says they have customers. Make sure they’re real and more importantly, that they will pay you.

You’re not Masayoshi-san

You don’t have billions.

You had a line.

Do not cross it and sell your tech stocks to fund a business that is only losing money.

Know When To Quit

It’s never any one specific one of these. But the cluster is never a good sign.

Spending way more than you originally planned.

Money changing hands with the equipment and space you’re paying for without getting a cut.

Little to no communication.

Difficulty physically accessing the space.

Sketchy situations.

Physical violence.

Things getting stolen.

Talking to law enforcement.

tldr

When you get to the price of a new car, it’s a good time to re-evaluate your sunk cost.