From my experience in starting two rookie teams:
Find experienced people to work with. Latch onto another team if you can. It'll be a smoother season if you have somebody there to pick you up when you stumble. Spend some time networking and finding as much financial and technical support as you can.
And once the season starts:
Build the kit-bot ASAP. You'll be able to change it later, but the support given around the kit bot lets you give students amazing experience in a short period of time. I actually recommend that all teams throw the kitbot together as soon as they get it. For some teams it's the final product and for others it's just a platform to build off of, but it's rarely beneficial (as far as I've seen) to let it go unfinished for any team.
I've personally found this to work well comparing the two teams I've worked with. Results may vary
