I’ve heard the many arguments that when it comes to starting a business, it’s usually better to go at it alone. When you open a business by yourself, you are the sole person in charge. There is no need to discuss your strategy or to split up the profits. It’s all you. Of course there are some downsides to being a sole proprietor, you intake all the costs and work. Those downsides are the upsides of starting a business with partners. In the case of BeerBin.com LLC, the factors of splitting the work load and splitting the profits (and losses) became our main reasons to go into business together. I’ve stated before that each of us at BeerBin.com LLC bring a different perspective to the business. Additionally, we bring different talents that help form the core of our start up. By utilizing our individual strengths we become a powerful group of entrepreneurs with one goal: To become the website of beer drinkers across the world. Together we embark on this adventure and together we will succeed. Which is the most important reason, I think, why it’s better to start a business with partners: you’re all along for the ride. The journey is a lot better when you have friends to share your glories and your failures.
Archive for the ‘Building Beerbin.com’ category
3 heads are better than 1
April 5th, 2007Sam
January 17th, 2007Before Ben and I approached Sam about helping us out with our vision, we tried to create the website using our knowledge (which wasn’t too much). Don’t get me wrong, Ben and I were on the path to create the website, but after a while we realized we didn’t have the same passion Sam has when it comes to creating websites.
Everyone has his or her own strengths. The best way to make a project successful is by utilizing everyone’s strengths. Ben and I realized that creating a website wasn’t our strength. Why waste our time and resources when we know Sam can do a better job in half the time?
So it was settled: Sam is the IT guy, Ben is the creative guy, and Gonzalo is the marketing guy. By pooling our strengths, BeerBin.com was taking form.
Can our idea work?
January 17th, 2007CAN OUR IDEA WORK?
Having an idea is the starting point. But not every idea makes it past the starting line. There are various tangibles you must consider when converting your idea into a reality:
1) Is there a need for the idea? (This is the most important, because if no one can make use of your idea, then it will not survive)
2) Do you have the resources necessary to grow your idea? (You can’t make a tree without seeds)
3) Are you committed to developing your idea until it succeeds or fails? (Win or Lose, you will not know what you’re made of until you play the game)
3) Are you committed to developing your idea until it succeeds or fails? (I ask this again because creating a business out of an idea is no easy task. You must be ready and willing to commit extra time and effort to developing every aspect of the idea to make it successful.)
So, can our idea of creating an on-line service that helps you track down your favorite beer no matter what part of the world you are in work? Short answer: “Yes”. Long answer: “Yes, but we’ll need Sam.”
What’s in a name?
January 11th, 2007At first, we were going to call our site(s): FindBeeronDraft.com and FindBeeronTap.com. In fact, we still have those domain names. Those names summed up what we wanted to help people do: finding beer on draft/tap. But the more we thought about it, those names seemed too long and limited us. Plus, I haven’t come across too many successful Internet businesses with a 4-syllable name. Google: 2 syllables. Yahoo: 2 syllables. Amazon: 3 syllables. YouTube: 2 syllables. BeerBin: 2 syllables.
We felt it was very important our Internet domain and business name be easy to remember and catchy. Because if people can’t remember our name or what we we’re doing, then our services will not catch on. After a couple weeks of going back and forth, we settled on the name. The name originally sprang from BeerBen…a play on Ben’s name. To which Ben replied: “Well, why not just make it BeerBin?” Eureka.
FindBeeronDraft.com and FindBeeronTap.com did get our message across, but BeerBin.com does a nice job of summing it up and not constricting us. We’re not just about finding beer on draft, we’re about finding beer and beer related services (such as finding a bar that roots for your favorite sports team and finding bars that have the best daily specials).
BeerBin.com: your beer, in here
The Idea
January 2nd, 2007There are no good or bad ideas. Each idea in your head has the necessary nutrients to grow into your GREAT idea. The idea for BeerBin.com originated in the desire my College roommate, Ben, and I have to travel the world and explore as many cultures as possible. Every culture has its unique food, architecture, wonders, values and drinks (all of which we want to experience). As we talked about places we want to visit and memories we want to create, it dawned on us that there is not one job we can point to and say “That job will allow us to travel the globe and pay us to explore different cultures.” Well, I guess that only leaves us with one option: create “that job.” But how do we create that job? It turns out we were sitting on the answer…more accurately, we were drinking from it: Beer.
So it begins…
January 1st, 2007What fascinates me the most about all this is how a crazy idea turned into a sane idea. This is the story of BeerBin.com. A story that has a beginning but has no ending (yet). Join us as we take an idea that was conceived at a bar and nurture it until it becomes what dreams are made of.
