This article is archived. Take a look at our new website for the latest news from the Travel Massive community.

5 Useful Tips For Starting Your Own Start-Up

This month in our series, The Travel Start-Up we feature Guest Post Contributor, Lennart Sönke Ruff of recorrido and Start-Up Chile.

Travelling is one of the most educating and life-changing activities you can pursue in your life. By exploring other countries and genuinely connecting with the local people, you extend your personal horizon and gain new perspectives on life. At the end of your trip you will likely come back as a different person.

This happened to me on a backpacking trip through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile in 2013, which was the initial trigger for developing a business idea and pursuing it until today in Santiago de Chile. I don’t have a classical entrepreneurial background. I didn’t start any businesses in my youth, neither did my education push me consciously into that direction.

So here are 5 things I learned within the last year that helped me start my own start-up – and that could help you too.

1. Creativity can’t be forced

Many people have the desire to start a business, but they lack an idea and thus a point to start. I tried to come up with ideas through brainstorming sessions, but it never worked for me. Creativity occurs in those moments where your mind is the least focused and a new idea is often being generated through an interplay of various experiences you made in your past.

Start with a problem.

I returned from my backpacking trip and was already working for some weeks in Frankfurt. Together with Julian, one of my co-founders, I was waiting in the cinema lobby to watch Iron Man 3 and I told him about my experiences of travelling around South America. One very present memory at that time was the intercity buses I travelled with – not just because they were an adventure in itself to get around – but also because it was not possible to easily purchase bus tickets online. It dawned on us that we had a starting point for solving this problem on our own.

Reflecting on that process, an interplay of 3 things was at work:

i. Having gained new experiences through travelling
ii. Not forcing myself to come up with a business idea through brainstorming, but rather letting my mind wander, having thoughts come and go, and
iii. The focus on solving a problem were my ingredients for our business idea.

A great source of inspiration is the series Destination Entrepreneurs by Hugh Whalan on Fast Company. Whalan writes how travelling has inspired everyday people to start their own business in a developing country.

2. Build a strong team

startup

So you’ve come up with an idea, now it’s time to execute. Execution is the most important part when starting your business – ideas are dime a dozen, but strong teams and very good execution are very rare.

Your co-founders are your inner circle, they become your family. I’ve known my co-founders since freshman week at University of Muenster in Germany in 2009. I lived together with two of them for 3 years. After graduating in 2013 the four of us moved together while working in Frankfurt.

We know each other very well on a professional level. More importantly we know each other  on a personal level, our characters, attitudes, individual strengths and weaknesses.

Surround yourself with the right people.

When you’re starting a business for the first time you don’t have any experience. You can read a lot about entrepreneurship and get book-smart, but you’re not street-smart. This is why it is important to surround yourself with the right people and build up a trust-based and supportive network for your inner-circle.

We met our mentors and business angels while working on our business plan in Frankfurt and without them we wouldn’t be where we are today. Not only did they support us with an Angel investment and helpful business contacts, but they continue to play a major role in our ongoing process of personal growth and overcoming challenges.

The help of mentors in the early stage of a start-up is a personal investment in you as a person. Be grateful for their time, advice and shared knowledge and let them participate at your company. In case of success, everyone who contributed – either to you as a person or to the business itself – benefits.

3. Be prepared to weather the storms

It’s like jumping off a cliff and having to build your own parachute – Drew Houston, Co-Founder and CEO of Dropbox


Starting a business isn’t easy. It is very hard – especially when you’re doing it for the first time. It’s one thing to have an idea, but it’s a whole other story to pursue it.

At the very beginning it’s all about you, it’s a question of self-confidence and trust in yourself. Be prepared to face a lot of rejection. Chances are high that you will fail. Maybe nobody’s going to like your product. You could spend hours on business plans and pitches, but investors won’t even answer your email. Having a great team helps you to lift you up and to weather the storm.

If You Want To Go Fast, Go Alone. If You Want To Go Far, Go Together – African Proverb

4. Get into a growth mindset

Starting a business has a lot to do with your approach on life. If you’re a person who’s afraid of taking risks and you give up easily when you’re facing challenges or when you’re being rejected, you’re not ready for the entrepreneurial way of life.

I used to follow the “safe path” in the past and today I can say that this choice has everything to do with yourself. Leaving your comfort zone isn’t easy – in fact, I still work on this myself. As a starting point I highly recommend reading a very good book by Stanford psychologist Carol S. Dweck: Mindset – The New Psychology of Success.

She differentiates between two types of mindsets: a fixed and growth orientated one. Understanding the concept of a growth orientated mindset helped me to approach life in a different way:

  • Embrace challenges – instead of being afraid of them
  • Persist in the face of challenges rather than giving up
  • See effort as the path to mastery; not as a sign of missing talent
  • Learn from criticism by seeing it as a privilege instead of ignoring it
  • Find inspiration and learnings in the success of others instead of feeling threatened by it

5. Enjoy life

Being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean you’re playing a game with a definite outcome, there won’t be a clear win or defeat.

Being an entrepreneur is a decision for your life and it will affect every aspect of it. This is why it is important to learn to enjoy life despite of having setbacks and appreciate the small things that make your life worth living. To come to this point I got a lot of inspiration and life advice from Leo Babauta, who is the creator of the blog Zen Habits.

Lennart Chile Travel MassiveLennart Sönke Ruff is the co-founder of recorrido, a start up for bus travel in Chile and a member of Start-Up Chile. He is passionate about travelling and coffee. He is a member of Travel Massive since 2014 and the co-organizer of the Travel Massive Chapter in Chile. You can connect with him on Twitter and Facebook.

 

***

The Travel Start-Up is a monthly series that profiles unique online travel start-ups in our Travel Massive community around the world.


© 2011-2021 Travel Massive Global P.B.C.
👋 This article is archived. Take a look at our new website.