One Entrepreneur On the Start: Craig Muth

This is part of a series called "The Entrepreneurs On The Start."  This interview is with Craig Muth.

What was your first business venture?

I joined forces with a gym owner to start a web company to bring personal training to the web.  We did a bit of marketing and became the personal training provider for a large local gym, but it didn't go much further than that.  I interviewed most of our trainers, which was an interesting experience.  My partner eventually moved to Florida.

What made you want to go into business for yourself?

For my latest business, I knew I had to do something as soon as I had the idea.  It's something that excites me during the fun times and the tough times, which I think is the true test for whether you should take a risk.

What were some of your biggest lessons learned about starting a business?

One tough lesson I learned was that you really have to push to get your idea to where people will be able to see it.  No matter how great an idea is, it is very rare for an idea to market itself.  As you observe other people's ventures, you see many mediocre ideas without much originality that succeed because of successful marketing.

What advice would you have for others considering going into business for themselves?

If I had one piece of advice to give others considering going into business for themselves, it would be: give yourself some time to vet it out and prove to yourself that this is something that will really drive you.  If it's not, find something else that will - it will be worth the lost time.

Any final thoughts on starting a business?

People underestimate the importance of motivation.  If you are conviced something can make a good business and think you know the steps it will take to get it there but it's not something you will be motivated to do, you don't have anything.  If you have the motivation and not the rest, the rest will come.

Craig Muth is the founder of memorize.com, a tool for memorizing all kinds of things.  It is used by professionals, students, and anyone who needs to memorize something in an easy efficient way.  He is a frequent speaker at tech events in the Columbus area, has taught programming courses for Fortune 500 companies, and is the author of the Xiki open source framework.