Getting a business going on Steem: 100 Steem Business Plan Competition!
Hopefully you're leaving Steemfest and feeling just as pumped about the future of Steem as I am. Hundreds of people from all over the world are passionate Steemians that seem excited by the possibilities that are opening up in front of them. Not only does the Steem blockchain support a decentralized blogging platform that can distribute rewards for posting, but it also has the ability to host successful businesses.
I had a blast talking to content creators and developers this past week, but one of the groups I felt was missing was business people. Steem needs some savvy minds to work together to form teams of people to tackle problems out in the world. That's going to have to include business minded folks. Maybe you have what it takes to level up from dreamer to executor.
There's a lot of starry eyed devs I met that want free things to take over the world, but if I have a central takeaway from this post it would be: it's ok to charge money for a good product or service! Honestly, if you want your business to change the world it can't simply rely on a little bit of curation rewards or even a moderate amount of rewards with a Steemit delegation. You have to actually sell something that people want. You have to collect more money than you spend. You have to make an actual business.
If you want to change the world it's going to take some funds. Curation isn't going to scale well enough to help you significantly. You're going to have to earn it like everyone else in the world. Steem makes a lot of that easy, but there's some stuff you gotta do.
Turn Key
Steem is a turn key blockchain. You have a functioning blockchain that can store your data that other people pay for. You have a functioning community of 50,000 active steemians every day that come here and enter our marketplace. You have a fluctuating currency and a fairly stable currency. You need an idea, a plan, a team, and some execution and you can make it happen.
Competition
I'm incentivizing writing up some business plans with a 100 steem business plan competition. **Edit: @jackmiller is kicking in another 50 steem for the prize) . The prize is small but with it will come some good exposure, allies, devs, more money and some good exposure for what you want to do.
To compete you owe me a post with 5 sections in it. This has to be related to a business you would want to make on the Steem Blockchain.
- Problem: Describe to me the problem that you see out there. What challenge has been especially frustrating that you want to solve.
- Vision: Put together a vision of what the solution to the problem would look like
- Mission: Briefly describe how you'll go about doing business with the world. In this is a little bit of value, ethos, and some idea of what's at the heart of making your business successful.
- Plan: Tell me a handful of concrete steps that you can do in the next 3 months to start executing on vision.
- Budget and team: Try to work through some numbers to figure out what is the bare minimum amount of money to try to put in place the tiniest inkling of a business that can actually generate revenue. If you have team members in mind list them. If you know a position/role, but not the person to fill it just mention the role and give a brief description. If it requires some infrastructure try to scope it out.
Overall this should be a 1-2 page document. If it's more than that you're doing it wrong. Keep it concise.
Submissions should be made as a post and linked in the comments below. Submissions are due by post payout.
It's my contest and I'll judge it personally. I may bring in some other folks to review and if your business plan seems cool I may even try to network some on your behalf to make it a reality.
Key takeaway
If your business loses money it's just an expensive hobby. If it makes money it's a profitable entity with a chance to make some changes around us. Make sure that as you design this thing you show how it's going to make money.
Good luck. Let's get another Steem Monsters on the block!
I love this post and the initiative. If we want to bring more business developers to Steem we need Steem inc. to have more of a presence at big blockchain conferences like the one I attended last week in Athens.
Decentralized 2018 took place from November 14-16, 2018 at the Divani Caravel Hotel.
This world-class summit featured 70+ speakers and 1,200+ attendees from over 50 countries, exchanging knowledge and ideas on the innovative business and political implications of blockchain technologies.
It was put on by the University of Nicosia which is the only University to offer degree programs on Blockchain technology.
If we could get @ned, @andrachy,
You and others there to speak at the conference and have a booth that would be great.
The guys from @oracle-d did a presentation in the main auditorium which I wrote about and it was great.
Let's get enrolled, get on the list of speakers and have a booth there!
Steem Monsters are profitable?
Rly?
starter packs cost $10, booster packs cost $2. Someones getting all that green dough! Those are USD too not SBD.
Has potential to be a great game.
@aggroed and his team generated $800,000 USD in income during their first year (less than a year) by launching @steemmonsters so yes, it is profitable @bronevik.
@aggroed did a presentation about it in the first Steemfest 3 Live Stream.
Nice.
Thanks for the numbers
Im adding 50 Steem to the pot
That's great! I see that you really liked the proposal by @steemgg.
Love this idea and am excited to see the entries.. we need more projects like Steemmonsters ❤️
Already working on it ;)
Couldn't agree more @llfarms!
@aggroed here's my entry, it's a brief overlook on my future project without giving out my secrets lol Thanks for the Opportunity !
https://steemit.com/lionsden/@cryptotash101/steem-jungle-dapp-breif-overview
Sorry Aggy, I'm sure your intentions are good but this seems like a great way for people to steal your ideas. If you actually have a valid business idea, why would you publish it, especially before it's up and running?
Indeed. I think that is a valid concern. Intellectual property theft is a real thing.
That is a very good point.
I've had an idea that I have been letting simmer for awhile that I believe could be revolutionary (but who doesn't think that about their own great ideas, huh?) but there is no way I would post about it for that very reason. Heck, I'm thinking about putting on the tin foil hat just to prevent others from eavesdropping on my brainwaves.
GoogleSkynet could be listening right now.No, but seriously. I am going to make sure I have at least something established where it would be too much work for someone else to replicate. Maybe that's what people gotta do these days.
That is making ones project have intentional elements of complexity to throw off would-be intellectual thieves. Kind of like the same line of thinking against becoming victim of any enterprising criminal. That is making one's self or product a "hard target".
Agreed with @choogirl on this one.... How can we be so sure our ideas are safe from prying thieving eyes. If it's not someone scamming you for your gold dragon it's another scamming your idea's that have yet fruition... All for a lowzy 100 steem... @aggroed I can understand you would of walked out of steem fest feeling the itch... Heck I even heard some lost a voice like @coruscate in those walls... But yeah I don't know about throwing business ideas on the public blockchain..
Posted using Partiko Android
Voice is still recovering @neddykelly. LOL
Having a unique idea is not always a guarantee of success. Most of the benefit is in getting a head start. However, once others figure out what you are doing, it is possible for a well-organized team to duplicate and improve upon the idea much like Google did to Yahoo! in the search engine space. Furthermore, even if two ideas are in the same space, they may serve different tastes, like you see in photo hosting services. There simply has to be enough differentiation that matters to your customers.
I often see new entrepreneurs come up with nondisclosure agreements, fancy graphics, business, cards, websites, and business plans before they even make a dollar. In the end, they never focused on learning how to sell their product or service to demonstrate a viable business.
Intellectual property can be important. However, execution will ultimately be the deciding factor on a successful venture no matter how brilliant your idea is.
Sometimes the brand is already secured.. like the @crowdfunder business plan I submitted @choogirl.
https://steemit.com/steem/@chrisrice/creating-a-start-up-on-steem-or-crowdfunder-xyz
And in that case, I cannot do it on my own but publishing it on @aggroed's contest might get the attention of investors or future co-founders that can help me get the idea off the ground.
The reward of 100 Steem + 50 Steem from @cryptoctopus can also help me get started!
And finally, there are also cases where a person has a really good idea but is incapable (or maybe unwilling) of doing it. In that case, it is better to submit the idea, help the community and win the prize money.
I have another good business idea that I'll submit to this contest soon, and if I start @crowdfunder I will continue to submit business ideas.
seems like the story goes, this is how he got the steem monsters idea @choogirl, digging around a little will turn up a few people that are disgruntled about that.
Why isn't anyone on Steemit selling it on Steem? Doesn't anyone have Paypal?
Great initiative. Look forward to seeing people contribute to this. Resteemed
This is key. Relying on rewards and having a bunch of speculators foot the bill isn't going to be able to take us very far. Generating fiat income streams are absolutely necessary to support the price of STEEM in the long run.
$rewarding 50% 12 min
This is a theoretical business plan that I put together. Mainly because it had been in my head for a while but also from seeing your post. I think it's worth a look and see if anybody can get some ideas from it. If nothing else it should be worth a discussion. I was looking to put it in writing anyway but this gave me the push to do it.
https://steemit.com/busy/@niallon11/steemtransfer-theoretical-concept