Steve Ells Quotes

A lot of people want to start a business, and they're like, 'I wanna start a business, give me some money to invest.' Where is your business plan? Are you investing money yourself into your own business? How is this going to work? People think that they can just come to you with an idea and have money.

I don't think you should ever start a business and move in a direction where you can't see it becoming a business.

Most entrepreneurs come up with a product, or they come up with an idea and they think they can be successful with it. But if they don't know the financial side of their business and understand credit and working capital and what it takes money-wise, you can't be successful. The product is just a product.

I think a lot of entrepreneurs think they need money to build the business faster when they actually haven't figured out the business equation yet.

If you want to build a startup that has a good chance of succeeding, don't listen to me. Listen to Paul Graham and others who are applying tons of data to the idea of startup success. That will maximize your chance of being successful.

Well, I think that there's a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you start a business without financial backing, you're likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line.

For me, the winning strategy in any start-up business is, 'Think big but start small.'

After I met my partner, Mr. Protherow, we decided to start a banking project, and at the same time we started to think already about a business on a bigger scale. At the very beginning we thought more about gaining money, to have a normal life with our families, etc.

Many businesses fail because the owner wasn't willing to invest and wasn't educated on the difference between spending money frivolously and investing money into the business for growth, and the risks and rewards of that cash infusion.

My first business deal was with my mother. I invested in chickens. I sold the eggs to my mother.

Most people end up owning a business by accident. Therefore, they don't usually have a thought process and a strategic plan in place.

As the years passed, and I was nine, 10, 11 years old, it became obvious I was going to start up a business of some sort.

Start small; get to know the landscape. We take risks but not major risks. We always started with small capital - €4m in Holland, $10m in Russia - and as we get to know the landscape of a country, we think about other businesses.

I think the mistake people make most often when they invest in other kinds of startups is they say, 'This is totally different.' And so the things that matter, like making a product that people desperately want, like talking to customers, they throw this out the window. That is a recipe for heartache and tears.

I consider each business investment based on concept and revenue.

I'm not saying M.B.A.s can't be great entrepreneurs. They can. But you don't need a degree to figure out it's costing you $5,000 per month to run your business, so you need $30,000 to keep it going for six more months.

The swamp is a business model. It's a successful business model.

If opening your own business is the dream, then it must start with a Dream - not only to understand what it is that you want to do, but also, how you are going to build something better than the same chaotic environment you just left.

If my businesses or my investments are not profitable, then I don't eat. And I like to eat.

I don't invest in ideas because ideas are a dime a dozen. I could steal the idea pretty quickly.

The economic costs of starting your own business can be significant; in fact, most new startup companies fail because of undercapitalization.

Before acquiring a project, take the advice of experienced trade pundits in the industry and analyse the risks and business propositions thoroughly.

It's an error in judgment to bounce into starting a small business before you cash in on building a strong foundation.

I know plenty of entrepreneurs who are numbers first. They tend to be highly analytical people, and before they pull the trigger, all the numbers have to line up just right.

When you're starting your own business it's really important to think through your plan: what's the idea, why is it relevant to the market, how much money you are going to invest, how are you going to tell people about it.