What is the most important piece of advice you've received as an entrepreneur?
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M$15 Answers
Sign up for an entrepreneurial networking site like E.Factor and network with other like minded entrepreneurs. You can even save on health insurance and possibly find an E.Factor lounge in our area.
http://www.efactor.com
Go to events, meetups, tradeshows, etc. and network with other entrepreneurs, live, and breathe the industry you are in.
Get to know your competitors. You can become friendly with a company who may be considered your competitors! Just imagine, your competitor is filled with work, your competitor might provide you with a customer, or even your company might be able to work with your competitor.
Spend more on developing your product or service than on PR and marketing products! If you do spend on marketing products, give them away to meaningful customers.
You can save money on business cards by beaming your business cards with rmbrME virtual cards, but you can get a few cards for those rare occasions.
Save on office space by starting out in your home based office. Lots of things can be done on the Internet.
Get a PO Box or a PMB
Try to get investors or a friend who is a partner, and if you do not have to spend all of your own money, don't!
Find a mentor or an advisor, or a friend who will be there for you!
Do something that interests you! If you are in it just for the money, you are not in the right business! Yes, do realize though, at the end of the day business is about making money, but more important than making money, it's about providing a quality product or service.
Define your mission statement, yet more importantly have a vision statement!
Define your company as a SERVICE or a PRODUCT company!
Don't give up on a customer, and remember the customer is usually right, so if they are not happy, always be sure to provide them with a refund.
Write a marketing plan, and realize most business plans do not always go as planned, they are created mostly for an investor or presentation. However, always rewrite your business plan when you can, and be flexible.
Write your goals down, speak your goals to others, and post your goals on the wall, on your start page, etc.
Enter contests, sign up for newsletters, and read the trade publications and blogs on your industry.
Don't be afraid of loans or lines of credits. All businesses need this, and if you can get a loan or a line of credit, it can make your business improve.
Read a few books or articles on entrepreneurs in industries that you appreciate
Spend less on equipment you do not need, and more on renting equipment (ie. servers etc.)
Keep a journal or a blog.
Right down your thoughts on post it notes or online notes.
Realize you can be anything no matter who you are or where you come from!
Pay your bills on time!
My thoughts as an entrepreneur.
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M$Jason's List
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M$"Just go and do it"
It sounds simple, but the hardest part is actually taking the risk and doing it
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M$
Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did.
You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
--- Steve Jobs
Commencement address
Stanford University
June 12, 2005
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M$
Write down what you plan to do, how and why you plan to do it. If you go back later and have to change it, understand why and learn from the experience.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
This doesn't mean that you should buy an expensive office space right off or any other extravagance, but that you should set your policies and practices initially with an eye toward how your business will continue to run. It's more than your business plan. It's thinking about good practice with an eye toward its future sustainability, rather than doing things quick and dirty "for now."
Good luck in your new endeavor!
Troubleshooting an existing business for someone else, learning from the experience, and incorporating some of that business's income streams for our own.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Do business with other people money.
The first time they told me they quickly had to add "LEGALLY" after looking at my face!
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M$
That's called leverage. When you win, you win huge. When you lose you're Lehmann Brothers. :)
"Do business with other people money. "
That's a matter of opinion. Has some disadvantages. You might not like vultures. You might not want to to give up pieces of your company. But depending on who gives you the money, you might be better off taking it.
Don't be afraid to take chances because those chances distinguish you from the rest of the pack!
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M$First, subscribe to Jason's List.
https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/jason
Now that that's out of the way..
Learn how to manage criticism.
People are going to make fun of you and/or tell you that you won't succeed. "How's the real estate business?" I would often be asked by my best friend's brother. Each time, I always smiled, and told him the honest truth, good or bad, because I didn't really care what he had to think; I was running my own show and I was only interested in people who were helpful. Any criticisms given to me were considered, and either thrown in the trash as rubbish or used to better the business. The people giving you s**t are just the people who are either jealous or unfamiliar with what you're doing. No worries, they live in their paradigm and you live in yours.
There are no mistakes; only lessons to be learned.
Have you really screwed something up yet in your business? I have, but I don't see it as a mistake. Rather, I see it as a lesson. It's tough not to beat yourself up over things, but eventually you'll get over it and learn something from it. That's the point. If you haven't failed at something, you're not trying hard enough.
"No" means "no today".
When someone tells you "no," they're telling you this based on the facts and circumstances of now. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Point is, something may have changed in their life that changes their answer the next time you ask them the same question.
Find a mentor.
As mentioned above, find a mentor. Realize this may not be easy. It may seem impossible. But when the student is ready, the master will appear. Finding a mentor can shave *years* off the learning curve. But how will you get this person's attention without feeling like you're a burden? Simple: just offer to take us out to lunch.
Reconsider your "interesting beliefs"
Have you ever said "I can't do that" or "That's too hard to learn how to do." Or what about this one: "You can't do that." Give you an example: A $100K house has a $60K 1st loan and a $40K 2nd loan. How much equity is there in this house? Did you guess zero? If so... BZZZZT! That's an interesting belief. It's time to reconsider everything you think you can't do and then put the rubber to the road. *
Work hard.
When I first started working for myself, I almost threw out my alarm clock I was so excited. Instead, I simply turned off the alarm and slept in till about 9 or so every morning. What a lesson that was. All that time I was wasting... then I got serious and my mentor and I met at 6:30 AM to start the work day. Didn't end until about 7 or 8 PM every day. We did this every day. While I was pursuing a business degree. It was tough, but I survived. It takes hard work and dedication.
Do what you love... you MUST have a passion for it.
If you don't absolutely love what you're doing... if you don't have a mad crazy passion for it, you will be hating life after a while and will give up. That's okay--just a lesson learned about what you're not incredibly passionate about. Gary Vaynerchuk is passionate about wine, which is why he's such a blast to watch and why I plug him, even though I'm not a big wine drinker (though I do watch his show!). Bottom line: if you do what you're passionate about, you'll have an internal drive to be the best at what you do and will kick the snot out of people who are just doing what you do to pass the time or make a quick buck. It's like comparing a cheap Pantech phone with a polished iPhone. There's no comparison, really. Both are cell phone makers, but one company chooses to kick the sh*t out of the rest of the market because it has a passion for perfection.
Birds of a feather flock together.
Find people (online or otherwise) who share your values of entrepreneurship, because "you are what you eat." I'm positive that if you hung around with Calacanis for a week you'd learn so many lessons about life and entrepreneurship that you'd be foaming at the mouth to put all you've learned to use. What would happen if you hung out with your normal crowd for that same week? Likely, not a damn thing. So go find some people who are doing things and hang out with them. Pick their brains. Take them out to lunch. Meet-ups. Forums. Chat. Conference calls. Reach out and touch someone who's in like with you.
* How do I figure zero, you ask? Simple: why not see if the 2nd mortgage wants to sell their loan to you at a discount? So now you just bought yourself a $40K note for $5K and created $35K in equity. Sounds crazy, right? I've watched it happen! Many times! It's time to reconsider your interesting beliefs about your own business... and your life, for that matter.
There's so much more I could say about this but it's time for me to go to sleep. Good luck to you, whatever you're doing.
Experience
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M$
Mostly good points, but like I said for another answer, I hate it when they asked for one piece of advice and get a whole laundry list back.
I know it's been over a year since I posted this answer, but I'm still surprised it was marked as unhelpful; these are words from my own experiences--didn't pluck them from someone else's life. Anyway, I had fun answering this question. Brought back a lot of memories. Thanks for asking it.
If you read the question's explanation, it's clear that the asker wants more than one piece of advice: "What were some of the gems of wisdom that you got from your mentors that might help a budding entrepreneur succeed"
"what were some" is different from "what is one"
- "Build slowly and without debt"-- Dave Ramsey
- "The only ship that doesn't sail is a partnership" -- Dave Ramsey
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M$
2. Trust your gut and make decisions quickly
3. Stay out of debt as much as possible
4. Have a real 5-year vision, not a plan, and everything you do should fit that vision
5. Do not be afraid of the big boys
6. Find good, informal, mentors and coaches to bounce ideas/thoughts off
7. Your network is vital, focus on building/leveraging it
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M$One tidbit: The person who wins as an entrepreneur is the one who can handle the most pain.
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M$
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M$
This answer is right on the money.
The question's description calls for multiple pieces of advice, so there's no problem here. From the question, "What were some of the gems of wisdom...." "Some" is not the same as "one".
Though some of the advice is good, I hate it when people ask for the best / most important / your favorite of something and people respond with a huge list.
"Get a PO Box" - "Save a few bucks on your business cards with this service"... are those really critcal pieces of advice?
In this case the guy also asked for the best advice someone gave you, not your own thoughts on the subject.
Give people what they asked for.
If they asked for detailed analysis give them that. If they ask for one recommendation for a website, don't give them twenty.
Good advice there.
It's better to give more than expected sometimes!