This article was written by Cristian Ángel. He is a computer engineer and co-implementer of development of the online business elMejorTrato.com México for the online insurance and credit comparison.

It all starts with a GREAT idea in our head. We find a problem when we want to take this idea to reality and execute our entrepreneurship. Thousands of aspects to be completed appear along the way: from gathering a heterogeneous work team, correctly implementing the programation code to develop the web page service, to the necessity of creating an enterprise.

The key is to leave these aspects aside and focus our limited resources such as time, money, and effort on what is really vital to successfully take the first steps.

1) Defining our Sustainability Model

Before we even write the first line of code of our program, the first thing to do is to directly define how we are going to generate revenues. If the answer is not clear, direct, and concise, the first step will be skipped over, leading to the failure of our start-up.

Our first priority is to define how we are going support our entrepreneurship in the short, medium and long term.  We are wrong if we think that “advertising” such as adding Google AdSense or Affiliate Networks is going to be the magical formula. Perhaps this mechanism can replace our own income, but it will not be enough to create a big enterprise in the long term.

There are several models that the internet era can offer as an interesting solution. One of them is the model “Freemium” in which the majority of our users will use the basic of our service for free but a smaller percentage (5% or more) will pay to access all of our potential and, as a consequence, keep our job gainful.

There are other options (a lot and totally valid, except for advertising, since a few like Google, Facebook and Yahoo can afford such a luxury.) Personally, the one I like the most is the one of the monetization model through a “subscription.”

There are several simple reasons, but very powerful ones for which I recommend focusing all of our efforts on making our entrepreneurship business model follow this pattern of generating revenues (Subscription Model):

•   It allows visibility of month-to-month incomes. Generally, a certain percentage of clients are still our users the following month and this allows counting on those incomes.
•   It allows having contact with the clients frequently, meeting them, interacting with them and listening to their suggestions to improve our job day by day. They are not clients just once; they are with us along the way.
•   It offers the possibility of starting from the bottom, without an external investment and to grow with the help of our clients. The bigger our user base, the bigger the necessity of our entrepreneurship growing. In a way, we will be “financed” by our own users.

2) Defining our Service in a Direct Reference to our Clients

Today more than ever, with the existing means of communication, from online chats, social networks, to the simple use of the cellphone, we have no excuses, as entrepreneurs, to not talk to our own users, understand their necessities, appreciate their suggestions or respond to their demands and complaints.

Historically, a product was developed, it was sent to the market, it was imposed on, and sales were generated. But this has changed. With the technology we have today in our hands, “imposing” a product is a beginner’s mistake. Now, we can also interpret our clients to offer the best solution as they need it. We will not find anyone in the world who knows more than our own clients what they need (not even ourselves as founders of our entrepreneurship.) It is vital to listen, interpret and implement.

We don’t need to please thousands of clients to be successful. As entrepreneurs, we should focus on a reduced group of people and solve their most important necessities and requirements, and most important of all, that they be willing to pay for the solution we offer to them.

Which is, then, the mechanism to successfully implement this second priority?

I strongly recommend studying the methodology of Eric Ries. He teaches us how to first start with a minimum viable product to then start adding functionality to our service by listening to our users.

Let’s not wait until we develop the product with excellence to put it on the market. Steve Blank, an excellent entrepreneur and mentor, says that no entrepreneurship successfully overcomes the first contact with the client.  In short, develop the minimal functionality that our start-up needs, put it on the market, and start improving and growing with the help of our clients and their concrete necessities.

3) Defining a Scability Model in the Long Term

Finally, once we have defined aspect 1: how we are going to generate revenues, and aspect 2: what is the basic functionality of our entrepreneurship to start with, we go on with the third aspect for which we must define how we are going to grow from an entrepreneurship into an enterprise.

The answer is not simple and it’s ok if we don’t know in detail how we are going to take that important step. However, we must always be attentive to finding this solution because it will be crucial to make the difference in our lives as entrepreneurs.

In our particular case, as our entrepreneurship is based on our own resources (no external investment), we opted for the organic growth with the help of SEO (Search Engine Optimization.) This means that our bet for the growth in the long term was to invest in search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo.

You are more than welcome if you would like to take this path and I take this opportunity to share what we have learnt over the last 5 years.

• It’s not achieved over night. Marketing to generate new clients through SEO takes a lot of time and dedication. We should consider a two-year-period to see good results and at a respectable scale.
•   It’s not simple. It must be studied, implemented, measured and improved day by day. It is, by definition, something changing. Mechanisms that work today might not work tomorrow. The evolution is constant. Our work should be constant too. I recommend the SEOMOZ community to learn with videos, guides and online free tutorials.
•  We must abide by the correct rules. There’s no room for error. There are no short-cuts when dealing with SEO. It’s a constant work. I say this because playing with forbidden positioning strategies can destroy our entrepreneurship overnight. As in our offline world, we should do things right.

Mexico Beachfront Property

Things could get real interesting for foreign retirees if some lawmakers get there way.  Currently, foreigners must set up a trust (fideicomiso) or find a silent Mexican partner if they want to own land on the Mexican coastline.  The proposed change in the law would allow foreigners to buy coastal real estate and own the deeds to the property.

This proposal could drastically change the amount of foreign investment in Mexico and attract many buyers who were previously scared off by the nebulous real estate laws and stories of fraud.  Opponents of the bill argue that the process would make it too easy for foreign millionaires to snap up property on the Mexican coastline, leaving no coastal property for Mexican citizens.

The amendment to the Mexican constitution is currently before the Senate and it must be approved by the Senate and President Peña Nieto before it goes into effect.

While the analysts and the numbers are discouraging, store openings paint a different picture.  Malls are crowded and international retailers like H + M, American Eagle, Express, Sephora, Crate and Barrel have entered the market all within the past couple of years.  ANTAD said that same store sales were up 5.9% in March compared to last year, while total sales were up 11.1%.  Is this a fluke of pent up demand or a sign that things are actually headed in the right direction?

The data shows that Mexicans are spending their money on appliances, cars and more expensive items, while holding off on less expensive purchases like clothing and footwear.

An infographic by the team at CouponAudit

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