For first time entrepreneurs there is always much to learn. After a year in business, doing consulting and working on web projects I know I and my partners have learned a lot. Starting a business. has been a huge learning experience for myself and my partners that has proven as valuable as any college, any book, any seminar. In this article I will share with you the top three lessons I have learned this last year.
 Lesson 1. Things take far longer to accomplish than imagined.
In the last year I have found that work and projects take time, lots of it. Starting out my partners and I had many big dreams and goals. We thought that in a matter of a few short months we could do anything we dreamed up. We were very wrong; we took on many projects and spun our wheels. We had a lot to learn about patience. After a year we now realize how long projects can take. This has lead to much better time management and results with our projects for clients and ourselves. If we had known this lesson in the beginning we could have saved ourselves a lot of stress.Â
 Lesson 2. Be ready for unexpected opportunity.
When we first started our company we had designs on being a huge global power in a few short months. Starting out with some web business ideas we felt that our great ideas would make us rich, however we were out maneuvered and we lost out on our initial opportunities. We did however during this time find smaller scale contract work. While not as exciting as what we wanted to start out doing, this work has allowed us to stay in business and prepare for our next big push.
 Lesson 3. It is all about the people.
To start a business, you have to have the right people on board. This does not mean you have to have employees to fill every need. We strong believe that outsourcing is a good answer, but your accountant and lawyer are still part of your team. Before starting a business we recommend lining up multiple resources and people to fill every functional area of your business. Have backups for everything, as we have discovered fast that lots of people claim they will help, but disappear quickly when they are working for the cheap or personal favors.Â
 A second part to this lesson is too avoid trying to do everything yourself. Starting up on a budget we wanted to do it all ourselves. This cost us valuable time, perhaps even months of progress. So take it from someone that has been down that road, hire an accountant, hire a webmaster, hire out graphics, save yourself time and do what you're good at.
 I hope this article has proven useful in helping some of you out there to avoid some of the pitfalls we fell into. Apply these lessons and hopefully you will get off the ground running faster than we did.
About this Author
Nehemiah Wyant is President and Co-Founder of Innovative Algorithms Inc. He is passionate about start-ups and helping his various consulting clients succeed. Please visit his site at [http://innovativealgorithms.com] for more articles, insight, and info.
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