Now is the Best Time to Start a Business

Chris Anderson from “The Long Tail” and “Free” came today to the class I am teaching at UC Berkeley to talk about entrepreneurship. He spent some time going over the concepts presented in the Long Tail, but geared the lecture to youth entrepreneurship and helping my students start a business.

While he touched on a lot of subjects in class, the one that really stood out in my mind was the fact that he said NOW was the best time to start a business. On a basic level this may not seem true. After all the economy is in a recession and consumers are more careful in monitoring their spending habits. However, he took another approach and analyzed the extremely low barriers to entry which exist today when it comes to starting a business. The “democratization of the tools of production”, or ability for anyone to create anything, make it very simple to start a business. Open source is a great example. Open source software helps motivate new entrepreneurs to pursue their ideas as the intellectual property it took to start a business which previously was quite expensive is now free and available to all.

While the concept of the long tail applies to consumer goods and entertainment, it also applies to entrepreneurs. In previous generations the barriers to entry were often so high that only a select few entrepreneurs could accumulate the capital and resources needed to start a business. However, as entrepreneurship moves down the long tail, countless new niche opportunities arise that anyone can take advantage of.

Mr. Anderson also talked a lot about how he is not a fan of venture capital and said that any idea worth doing should be done with a partner. If you can’t find a partner for an idea, don’t pursue it.