Most people who are employees have thought of starting a business at some point in their lives. These people have a good idea of what the challenges are of starting a business. Even the simplest forms of businesses require true dedication, seriousness and proper planning. However, there are very few people who understand the emotional and sentimental association that an owner has with his/her business. Once you have owned a business for a couple of years, it is nearly impossible to let go of it just like that, even if you know it’s the best decision to take.
In simple words, you would never want to go through the pain of closing down a business. It is therefore highly recommended that you listen to the business advice given by people who have successfully run their businesses despite great hardships. These are the people who understand your passion, emotions and feelings. Their words can touch the very points that worry you about your business, established or startup. Here are some great pieces of advice coming from entrepreneurs who have been to the deeper side of the sea to tell you what it’s like there.
1. Be Wise When Choosing Friends
This particular advice comes from Tim Ferriss, who has his own TV show called The Tim Ferriss Experiment, and he is also a three times NYT bestselling author. He says that he always believed in the words of the great authors who said that a person is an average of his or her closest 5 people. The same people believe that the network of a person is that person’s net worth. It does not mean you have to make friends from your industry only. If you are in the IT field, you don’t have to be forced to make some experienced IT experts your friends. The point here is to find friends who encourage you to do good things rather than pulling you back from doing them.
The people you are mostly surrounded by have a huge influence on you. If they mostly have a skeptical viewpoint of life, you will soon see your viewpoint conforming to theirs as well. Be around people with goals who are working to achieve something in their lives.
2. Be A Delegator
This particular thought not only haunts the business owners, but country leaders too. People who have spent their time and invested their efforts in creating a company are often very hesitant when it comes to delegating their responsibilities to others. Whitney Moerings from White Water Agency has gone through the same. When Whitney started her company it was her, who had done every single thing. Not only did she name her company and get it registered, but she even designed its logo and found the clients for it. She says that it is tough for a business owner to believe that someone would be able to take care of things like themselves.
It’s best to delegate responsibilities as soon as you feel the need to. Postponing this idea and constantly trying to manage it all by yourself will eventually overload you and cause burn outs.
3. Don’t Accept the Failure
No matter how tough the circumstances are, there is always a way out of them. You can always renovate your strategies or business ideas when you think things are not working in your favor. However, the best entrepreneurs of the world agree on the fact that “no” is not an option when you want to achieve something big. The best example is of Sophia, the owner and founder of Nasty Gal. Nasty Gal started out as a store on eBay that was focused on selling clothes from the old times. The start was not very pleasing, but Sophia kept her patience and kept moving on.
Today, her business has transformed into a multi-million-dollar business despite the fact that she did not have any experience of the fashion industry before she started this store. She says there were people who kept saying no to her, but she kept her passion up and proved them wrong.
4. Know Your Customers in All Possible Ways
This particular advice comes from Tara Gentile. She is a recognized business strategist and entrepreneur who mentors owners of small and medium sized businesses on making the best out of their opportunities. She believes it is better for a business to know its best customers rather than focusing on a large group of people and managing to convert even less than 1%.
She says that businesses should create their products and services with certain people in mind. They should then pitch these products and services to those chosen people rather than going after everyone. She thinks that business owners should not be thinking about people who might be interested in the product and rather create product that they know will definitely be bought by a certain group of people.
5. Don’t Be Comfortable
Sara Rotman is an advertising entrepreneur and she preaches to the world what she once learned from her accountant. She has an ad agency called the MODCo and some great names as her clients such as Tory Burch and Vera Wang. She says that she was in the middle of discussing her business plan when her accountant told her to not have too much cash for the business. The accountant thought that too much cash will put Sara in a comfortable position and the hunger to achieve more will be gone.
Sara took this advice and went with it as she started her business. She says that not having enough keeps her on her toes, and she thinks this keeps her motivated to do more for her business. In the simplest words, if you have enough cash to make you feel comfortable, you are bringing up an enemy in your own hands.
All the people mentioned above are the recognized entrepreneurs in today’s world. All you need to know here is that they were all just like you before they became big people.
Featured photo credit: Business Advice Coming Right from the Successful Entrepreneurs via chha-nl.ca
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