The dream of having your own business is lived by 48 million Brazilians, as revealed by the ‘Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2023’ research, conducted by Sebrae in partnership with the National Association of Studies in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management (Anegepe). Between thought and action, some tips from those who understand the trade help in the process of setting up a company.
For Roberto Oliveira, CEO and co-founder of Blip, the leading conversational intelligence platform, as an entrepreneur, one must be prepared for the unpredictable, balance personal and professional life, and always be mindful of the cash flow. ‘No one beats compound interest. Being aggressive in the market and cautious in finances is certainly a good practice to have a successful business. Always keep an eye on the cash flow. Unfortunately, the Brazilian financial market operates with high interest rates and short deadlines, which are not compatible with the development of a growing business, where profit expectations lie in the future,’ points out Roberto.
He also recommends reading two books: ‘Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making’ by Tony Fadell and ‘The Hard Thing about Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers’ by Ben Horowitz, works that address career, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
“Those who undertake need to believe a lot in the business, have focus and resilience. The moments of highs and lows will always exist, but we can overcome the difficulty and withstand the turbulence, if we believe in the business and have a trusted team with us,” says Roberto.
Marcelo Linhares, CEO and co-founder of Onfly, the largest B2B travel tech in Latin America, lists as a priority the search to help alleviate a relevant market pain. “It is essential to see the problems that happen in people’s daily lives or in companies and how they can be solved in some way with your service or technology. Then, understand the size of this market and validate the solution with a few clients,” says Marcelo.
“Another pertinent issue is to start in a more contained way and scale as you acquire more clients. And, of course, never spend too much money on a solution: it is good to run tests with as little money as possible,” indicates Marcelo. The executive explains that the whole process involves many failures, but they need to be fixed quickly.
“There will be countless errors, the important thing is to have learned and not repeat them. Finally, good guidance is to have good partners. Startups with lonely founders take 3.6 times longer to scale the business,” concludes Marcelo.
Tiago Mavichian, CEO and founder of Companhia de Estágios, a leading company in intern and trainee recruitment and selection, since childhood wanted to be an entrepreneur. For him, before actually starting a business, one must research the segment of activity, have a good business plan and evaluate whether to have a partner or investor as a strategic partner.
“Today, even on the internet, you can find well-structured business plan models to use as reference. The idea is to gather all the data and information from the research you are doing and create a document that will serve as a guide for business decisions and practical actions,” says Tiago.
According to him, there is no right age to start a business, but it is important to have professional maturity. “More relevant than worrying about age is preparing yourself to face the challenge. When in doubt, do a pilot project, test the concept, work in the sector, and seek ways to gain more professional maturity,” concludes the executive.
