Are you a budding digital entrepreneur or a tech innovator looking to start your own business venture?

Broadband Genie is one of the longest running broadband sites in the UK, and thanks to the dedication and hard work of its team has gone from strength to strength to become one of the leading comparison services.

But when Broadband Genie launched in 2004 the digital landscape was very different. Now startups face an incredibly competitive and rapidly changing environment. In order to find out what it takes to create and grow a successful digital business in 2014, Broadband Genie has gone straight to the source to ask people who have been there and done just that to give us their business insights and advice.

Below we have insights from Wyatt Cavalier, the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Honest Coffees, a startup that sells single origin, specialty grade and Fairtrade coffee online.

What made you decide to start your business?

I'd spent several years working in banking (basically helping other banks make more money) and I wanted to do something more meaningful, something I'd be proud of fifty years from now. So I, along with my co-founder and wife, created a company that was basically the opposite of a giant bank. It's a company based on transparency, craftsmanship, honesty, quality, and maybe most importantly: treating people well.

Did you experience any difficulties when setting up your business?

Loads! An entrepreneur's job is mostly about learning how to do a million things you'd never thought about before, from minor things like setting up business banking accounts and registering with HMRC, all the way to creating a product people will want and getting the message out in a way that's congruous with your brand values. As an early CEO, your job is chief problem solver, and there's very little glamour to it.

What's the best thing about running a digital business?

It's the meritocracy of it all. It's got so cheap and easy to start a digital business these days, which means anyone with an idea and a tenner can do it. There's so much information out there about how to build a website, how to market it, how to grow your customer base, on and on, that you don't have to be well off or even well connected to make it work. The other side is that it gives a great platform, a megaphone really, to share your (hopefully) incredible product with any and all. No matter where they are in the world, producers of amazing stuff can find a target market.

What advice do you have for others looking to set up a digital business?

It's a long hard slog, and you'll have more bad days than good. Be conservative with your plans (multiply costs and timings x 3 and divide projected income by 3), have a strong support network and take a break if you're getting burnt out. A bedraggled you working 80% of the time at 50% will never compare to a bright and focused you working 60% of the time at 100%.

We also have advice from Joshua Davidson, the Managing Director of Night Zookeeper, an educational game that inspires children to create their own characters to live in a magical world.

What made you decide to start your business?

I had thought of the idea for Night Zookeeper seven years before we started the business. I thought it was a very exciting and important idea, getting kids to be creative with technology rather than just consuming it and I was amazed that time was passing by and still no one was doing it. It got to the point where I felt that it just had to happen. Importantly I also had close friends around me with skills to start making the business a reality.

Did you experience any difficulties when setting up your business?

We have faced lots of problems. The whole process was a massive learning experience. This was my first go at setting up a company and there was so much to learn. The main problem we had, which I suspect will be the one most commonly faced by people with an idea out there today, was a lack of money and technical expertise. It is very easy to dream big with digital, but if you can't code yourself, short of learning, you will need to find a developer who will share your vision and build the product with you.

What's the best thing about running a digital business?

I think the best thing about setting up a digital business, is the potential for huge scale. It is very exciting when you realise your product has been discovered and used in Osaka, Japan and Fargo, USA. It is also such a new field, the next idea could be the one to really explode your product to the world. NightZookeeper.com is the first website of its kind in the world. Children draw their own magical animals, write stories about them and then collect the work of other children around the world.

What advice do you have for others looking to set up a digital business?

Ask yourself just how much you love your idea. A business takes a huge amount of effort to get started, especially one with a novel concept or with an untested business model. It is incredibly rewarding if you put in the hours but to do that you really have to love what you do. If you demonstrate the long term commitment to make it successful it could be the best decision you ever made in your life. It was for me. Night Zookeeper is my passion and now it has fans around the world. We make children smile everyday. I couldn't ask for more from my career.

We hope you’ve been inspired by the experiences and advice of these two entrepreneurs. No matter what kind of digital venture you want to embark on, take on board the experience and acumen from these tech startup pioneers in order to make your digital dream a reality.