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One year ago, I concocted the idea of gpsAssassin - a location aware game played on your mobile device. It was a long journey, but we (myself and Jackson Miller) finally took our little side project and officially launched it into the AppStore.

Now that we’ve completed the project/journey, I’m humbled and reminded of how difficult it is to actually develop and launch a ‘finished’ product that others will use on a daily basis. We do this for clients every day, but its easy to forget just how much goes into a project beyond the raw idea and development.

With gpsAssassin, I was amazed at the difficulty of small things like:

1. Setting up the LLC
2. Creating a basic infrastructure for Email, Documentation, etc.
3. Establishing an email marketing process

Notice how I didn’t say anything about ‘developing the game’… While that was amazingly difficult in itself, it was something that you EXPECTED to take time. On the other hand, I never expected customer support to take up 4+ hours per week. I never expected basic information management to take hours upon hours. It all takes soooooo much time.

So, what can I tell those that want to start a business (or even a second one). Nothing of revelation, but I can say it with more conviction:

1. Your new endeavor will take 4x as long as you initially think (and even longer if you’re not a conservative planner)
2. Double your expected budget. Then make sure you can find double that should the need arise. Expenses are everywhere…
3. Tenacity will set you free. There will be MANY dark days when you think you’ll never finish or that all the cards are stacked against you. The good news: You CAN finish! The bad news: Yes, all the cards are stacked against you - deal with it.
4. Accept the things you cannot control and work around them. This is particularly relevant if you’re building iPhone apps!

Last: Side projects have a strange tendency to become primary projects. When this happens, something else in your life will require sacrifice. In my case, the first sacrifice was my sleep, followed by family time, and capped off with a reduction in my work focus. It happens, so be ready to deal with it or you’ll need to keep your side project in its place.

PS: To all the entrepreneurs that I’ve worked with in the past 6 years… I’m sorry :) The further I got away from my ’start up’ days, the more I forgot about all the struggles of entrepreneurship. gpsAssassin gave me a chance to reconnect with my roots and it was a heaping dose of humility :)