start-up

Andreas Dittes founded the online marketing agency KlickHelden, which specializes on Google Adwords optimization, search engine optimization and social media marketing. Prior to KlickHelden he co-founded telewebber, a company for interactive television. Andreas is an active member of the german startup scene and organizer of several event formats like barcamps and webmondays. Further information on his work and him can be found on his blogs and http://andreasdittes.com/.

What was the most interesting project you have implemented?

Thats a tough question since I’m really passionate with almost all of my projects. One of the most interesting and also longest projects I was working on is telewebber – a service to give broadcast television an interactive community-backchannel. But I’m also really excited about the new social media projects I’m working on.

What was the most difficult experience you have had with a customer?

Well I think it’s important to learn how to deal with every customer you have – especially if they are difficult. So I think it’s about trying to understand them to avoid problems. But like everyone else I’ve had some stressful customers aswell – stressful mainly because of an discussion overhead on relatively small projects.

What was the biggest challenge that you had to face?

I think the biggest challenge so far was to quit the 9to5 job and start my own business. It’s a huge step to do that and bureaucracy doesn’t really help here. Maybe thats why only few people are starting their own business as an entrepreneur or freelancer – it’s not as easy as switching a regular job.

Are there customers for whom you would not work?

There are certainly some industries I would not feel good working for. Though I think that especially with social media there is often an opportunity for a lot of companies to finally get some good karma. But still thats rather uncommon.

Who is the client of your dreams?

Luckily most of my clients are like that. I think this is mainly because they can trust me and therefore give me a lot of freedom to do what I think is best for them. So the client of my dreams tells me about what he wants and lets me decide whats the best way to achieve that. And the client of my dreams also pays in time…

Which qualifications characterize your dream team?

I think the team is key for the success as a company. So I would always try to get a team of enthusiastic people. If people love what they do, then work is fun and they give their best. My clients always notice that i am passionate about what I do – and they see that I’m the best for the job…

What was your best performance for free?

There are several projects I did to help others in an altruistic manner. Some of the most known include organizing several networking events like webmondays and barcamps in germany. Another project I did was building a platform that helped web 2.0 startups with their staffing. I’m really passionate about connecting people and helping them out and I see the positive backlash of that aswell.

How often have you changed your specialization?

I love to learn and explore new industries, but I only did a hard change in my specialization once when I changed from being a technology guy to an entrepreneur and marketing guy.

Can you imagine to take another job?

As said above, I love to dive into other industry sectors and niches as long as they are related to the internet.

What will you do in 10 years?

I can’t really tell what I will do 10 years from now, but I think I will still work in the Internet field. Maybe launching my 7th startup by then or so…

A study conducted by the german institute for the study of labour “What’s the difference?! Gender, Personality, and the Propensity to Start a Business” asks why women are less likely to start their own business than men.

Across industrialized countries men are self-employed more often than women. In Germany the start-up rate even differs by one third comparing men and women.

Socio-demographic factors fall short on explaining this gap. On the contrary socio-demographic factors would even propose that women had higher start-up rates: E.g. the average level of education is higher for women than men.

So the gap is more likely to be explained by differences in personality traits and behavioural components. Women tend to act more cautiously: Unrealistic optimism and entrepreneurial overconfidence are less prevalent. What sounds good on the one hand, also stops women more often from undertaking promising projects. Women seem to be more risk aversive and therefore make the step into owning their businesses less often.

What can be done to change those behavioural patterns that most likely evolve from society and upbringing?

What is your point of view: Is it really more men owning businesses?

Or do you know a lot of women starting businesses as a matter of course?

We all know that financial success will make you happy when establishing your own business. What other factors determine start-up satisfaction?

A poll on the German homepage gruendungszuschuss.de amongst 2.221 founders suggests the following:

1. Monetary achievement
Founders having an above average income are 16.9 percent happier than those having a lower income.

2. Content and self-determination/autonomy/self reliance
The achieved level in creativity (+ 4.1 percent) and the achieved level in autonomy (+3.7 percent) have a positive impact on contentment.

3. Employment biography
Founders who build up their business after being unemployed for longer than a year are less content (- 8.7 percent) while earning the same as those not founding out of unemployment. On an average, founders who have experience in their respective field are 3.6 percent happier with their achievements.

4. Demographic characteristics
Senior founders are 3.2 percent less content than younger ones. Female founders are 2.7 percent happier than male ones.

5. Emotional stability
The better founders can cope the better with backlashes the higher their contentment with founding (+ 1.4 percent).

6. Working hours
Founders working more hours are 2.6 percent more content than those working little.

Do you find points relating to you in this list?
What is your personal experience and what makes you happy about having your own business?