Advisors

Advisors come in all shapes and forms. All you need to begin with is one person who's got some experience in running a business and has a clue about what you're doing.

Believe me, they're worth their weight in gold. Our main advisor gave us a grounding in business structure, referred us to a good accountant, discusses software design with us and knows the answers to silly questions like how GST works. Advisors help you move forward whenever you come across something that might paralyse your progress - and when you have limited money, that clock is ticking.

Eventually, you'll build a small collection of advisors for various aspects of your business, and in time they'll turn into an advisory board. But for now, try to find one person who has "been around the block" with businesses, whom you trust.

Contractors

Your startup will probably need a contractor or two, to cover the skills that you and your co-founder(s) need, but don't have.

In my case, and I'm sure this is true of many IT geeks, I'm hopeless at graphic design. But because we knew an awesome graphic designer, we were able to build a site that looks amazing. The cost is in precious capital, but given the alternative of slaving for hours in the gimp to produce cat vomit, it's quite a reasonable tradeoff.

Identify what skills you'll need in the early days of your startup, and find contractors you trust to plug any gaps. If possible, choose from contractors you've had dealings with before. If you have worked with them previously and know their work is good, you're set.

Remember that you'll be strapped for time and money in the early days, so a contractor you don't yet trust will be an additional burden that you should avoid if possible.

A Co-founder

You almost certainly need a co-founder. They're there to boost your morale, help with the business, provide complementary skills and more. You need to pick one carefully. There's reams of advice out there about this.

I won't go into much detail about how to pick a co-founder, as I've only done it once before. I can only strongly suggest that you take this task seriously. In my case, I'm lucky that the choice was easy - Martyn Smith is one of the very few truly smart developers I know, shares similar opinions to me about work and I've played indoor football and futsal with him for years.

Found a Company

I would consider this mandatory if you get a co-founder involved. And since I think you should get a co-founder, then you may as well found a company too.

Here's the deal. Founding a company sounds like a big event - like buying a house - but it's not. In New Zealand, you will have to spend some money (about $160) and a couple of hours flailing wildly on the companies website - but that's about it to start with. After that, there's the occasional amount of paperwork to do, but if you have no revenue, a GST return can be done online and takes two minutes to fill in, once every two months.

You might be thinking that it's a bit of work and a bit of money, so why do it? Two words: Intellectual Property. Assign the rights to any code you're writing to the company, and force anyone working on the code to do so as well.

Why? Because the last thing you need when your company is taking off is a lawsuit from someone who helped you in the early days but gave up on the idea. You'll say they barely helped. They'll say you stole their idea. The courts will give them millions. Just ask Zuck.

Having all the IP owned by one entity makes future investors happier, as they'll know there is no issue with code ownership.

If you're not sure what you want your startup to be called yet, then incorporate a consultancy and assign the code to it. You can do a one-time copyright assignment to a new company founded for your startup later. That's what we did.

Finally - talk to an accountant before you found the company. They'll tell you how to structure it in a way that makes sense, and you'll need to know what structure you want before diving into the registration process.

General Principles

You'll need the resources I've listed, but depending on your situation, you might need others. It's up to you to identify what you need. Get someone to advise you and ask them what they think you're missing. Talk to family and friends and see what they say as well. Even if they have no idea, the act of talking to them may give you some insight. And of course, never stop scouring the web for advice as part of your ongoing education.

Useful Resources

• Copyblogger is a popular blog that discusses all aspects of copywriting. This is another skill you may not have, and may not realise you need.
• Venture Hacks is a firehose of useful advice for startups - for example, check out these articles on advisors.

Next: The Plan