3 lessons from my very first company (on its 10th birthday)

You know those moments when you realize, “wow – has it been that long?”

That happens to me when I see that “Clueless” came out 23 years ago, or Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam is 53 years old.

It happened again last week when I saw that the very first company I started is now 10 years old.

(image below – if you don’t have images on, click Display Images above).

That business I started in 2008 wasn’t a consulting business at all. It was an online community for cyclists in Chicago called The Chainlink.

I started it because I’m a cyclist, and even though there were a ton of cyclists in Chicago, I couldn’t find people to ride with. So I set up a website, created a calendar of rides, did outreach to local groups, and invited a few of my friends to join.

9 months later, 1,000 people had joined. 6 months after that, 2,000 more members. Then 10,000 members. The growth was pretty amazing.

When I left Chicago to travel, I sold The Chainlink, and it’s still thriving today.

It would be an understatement to say that I learned a ton from that business, but three lessons stand out in particular.

So here are my Top 3 Lessons From My Very First Company

The first two are things that worked well, that you can apply to your business.

1) Focus on providing one critical value first; don’t try to do everything.

The piece I knew was missing from the Chicago biking scene was a centralized calendar: one place to see all the rides, clinics, and other events going on. I knew that if I could get this feature right, it would provide immediate value to cyclists.

So instead of trying to work on every site feature, I focused on building out the calendar first, populating the event calendar with every ride I could find. So that when people visited The Chainlink, they could immediately see how the site could help them.

When I work with entrepreneurs now, I often see people trying to do All The Things, but who still have trouble getting clients. Instead, I encourage them to focus on providing clear value. When they start to do that, their potential clients start to respond differently.

Key Takeaway: Focus on providing one clear value rather than trying to offer a little bit of everything.

2) Talk about your business to EVERYONE.

When I started The Chainlink, I told everyone. Friends, family… everyone I met on the street. Other cyclists stopped at a red light with me. I was excited, and I wanted other people to be as excited as I was. And it worked: The Chainlink grew like wildfire with zero ad spend.

Now I talk to entrepreneurs who fret that they can’t get new clients. But without knowing it, they’ve been making it very, very hard for their clients to find them.

I ask them: Have you told every single person you know about your business? Have you given them the tools to refer people to you? Are you showing up daily on social media? Are you sending out a newsletter at least once a week? If the answer is no, then, as my friend Monique Mayers says, “Your clients aren’t hiding. You are.”

Key Takeaway: Show up for your business every. Single. Day. Your success depends on it.

(Image: Me telling everyone about The Chainlink at a bike swap meet in 2008)

This last lesson learned is a mistake that I made, that I hope you can avoid..

3) Get out of your own way.

A few weeks ago I wrote about how I had wanted to run ads on The Chainlink. I knew I was building an audience that would be highly desirable to advertisers like bike and apparel companies, ride organizers, nutrition companies, etc.

Knowing what I know now about online entrepreneurship, list building, etc., any entrepreneur would kill to have a list like I was building.

But it seemed daunting to get that all set up, and I didn’t see a clear path to do it. And if I’m going to be honest, I was afraid of not doing it right. I was completely in my own way.

So you know what I did? Nothing. So I missed an opportunity to turn this passion project business into a real business.

Key Takeaway: Get out of your own way. Ask for help, get a coach, take a course… whatever you need to get out of your own way so you can make your vision a reality.

It was an amazing ride. Happy 10th Birthday, Chainlink.

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What about you? What lessons have you learned that you would share with others? Share them in the Smart Gets Paid community!

To your success,

Leah

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