I was asked recently, what is the best advice you’ve ever received? It was in the context of a bunch of entrepreneurs thinking about good decision-making.
When you start your own business, everyone has advice for you.
“Take every piece of work that comes your way” – Wrong.
“Most businesses fail within the first five years – make sure you’ve got an exit plan” – Gee, thanks.
“Clients are b*st*rds. Get a good lawyer” – Wow, start with a positive attitude why dontcha?
Admittedly, most of this stuff is from people who’ve never actually taken that risk themselves.
When you ask people who are doing it – and doing it well – the advice is different.
Here’s what they said.
Start before you’re ready. Worry less, do more.
Procrastination is the enemy of success. Essentially, if you wait until everything is perfect, you’ll never do anything.
Get your idea, product, or service almost there… and begin. Test it, adjust, evolve, pivot, and test again. Nothing ever perfectly survives first contact with the market. And no product survives forever – everything (even the humble Mars bar) is withdrawn and/or recrafted at some point.
Don’t overcomplicate things. Beware the experts that give you a complex model for every part of your business. If you can’t explain your idea or your business or your product on one side of A4 and in plain English, you haven’t fully understood it yourself.
All you need to do is tell your audience how you can change their lives or their business for the better. Crystallise this message so you can express it in a couple of sentences. You can get heavy with details later down the line when they’re already invested.
Running a business on your own will have you stretched thin and doing things outside your skillset. You should be concentrating on what you do best not sinking time into activities you’re bad at.
Delegate or subcontract things that other people can do better or more efficiently than you. The added cost of doing so will pay itself back if you’re freed up to concentrate on the big fish.
Have lots of ideas
Your first idea is never the best. The ‘serial order effect’ says that the quality of ideas increases the more we have. By the time you’ve had 20 ideas, you’re rolling.
This sounds harder than it is. Getting started takes some effort, but by the time you and your colleagues have been spitting out potential solutions or new products for an hour or two, the ‘what if’ part of your brain is all warmed up.
Creating ideas is a skill that you can practice as well as any other. With only 1 in 10 ideas succeeding, we all need to be better at this.
Just do it.
Remember the quote, it takes a village to raise a child? A business is a bit like that.
If you’re trying to do it all on your lonesome, you’re making life harder for yourself and your business. Look for like-minded people to come on board and help you grow your business from the ground up.
If you’re not in a position to do that, find a community of other business owners or a support community to bounce ideas off until you are.
Business is competitive by nature but it doesn’t have to be dog-eat-dog.
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Looking for advice on your marketing strategy? Give Luma a call and we’ll set you on the path to marketing success.
Homes England, which administers the government’s £11.5bn affordable homes programme, has revealed it has delivered 26,953 homes – 21% off the 34,349 targeted.
Chief Executive, Castle Green Homes
Having a third party ask your stakeholders about your business could help you get to the naked truth about your successes and failures.
Marketing Specialist, Luma Marketing
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Marketing Specialist
Luma Marketing
Castle Green Homes
Luma Marketing
becg
North West
Preston
Preston
Liverpool
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