The following question was asked on another forum:

What is the one piece of advice every small business owner should hear that will maximize their chances for success? What do you wish someone had told you?

There is lots of advice that can be given..

- how you handle your resources
- the best way to deal with difficult customers
- how you should do your marketing
- how you should do interviews to get the best person for the job
- what you should invest in
- know your objectives
- do market research
- …

The list seems endless and when you’re just starting out this might seem overwhelming…

The very best advice anyone can get when they are starting out is that they should devote a distinct part of their time on developing a great entrepreneurial mindset.

As a businessowner you need to be realistic, you need to have patience, you need to have commitment, focus, be able to manage money, be creative, be solution focussed, you should be able to handle your fears, doubts, insecurities, you got to trust your coworkers or your partners, be able to see opportunities and take them, …

Sure we all have our moments and that’s ok, we’re after all humans. And one day goes better then the other, but you should work on improving your attitude and mindset on a consistent basis.

You do not want any fears,doubts, insecurities,.. to get in the way of your success in business and life.

If you grow, your business will grow.

Actually it happens so often that a business grows to fast for the business owner to keep up.. and then it starts slacking…

Realize that you are the driver of the business, and how you drive will have an immense impact on if the business is successful or not.

And that’s the ONE thing business owners are overlooking when they run into a problem and get stuck.. they tend to lay blame, on a technical aspect, or a coworker, or the market, or the economy, … but they fail to look at how they are dealing with the problem. And to any problem in a business there’s a solution, but you gotto to be willing to see where the real problem is…

In the IM business people could be easily tempted to start out by the image that they could easily make thousands of dollars with no work at all..

Well anyone buying into that has a success rate of close to 0.

I see lots of people buying into the four hour workweek illusion. This only will work if you already have a business, with implemented auomatisation procedures, BUT when you are just starting out it’s gonna take lots of hard work and long hours...

The MAIN reason why small businesses fail, is because the person in charge is not great at managing themselves

Basically the one best advice is: get your attitude and mindset in sync with where your outcome is.

Have fun

Bart

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Be passionate about whatever you do?

John

z8000783 wrote:

Be passionate about whatever you do?

John

It certainly helps... but you need more then just being passionate.. you need to have the strategies and beliefs in place to be able to handle the things that might get in the way, or the stumbling blocks that you might be experiencing along the way.

Being very passionate about something often tends to blind you from what's really working.. you see this so often when people are starting out in business and especially the online business these days. They have a great idea and they are so passionate about it that they're blind to the fact that the world isn't sharing their same passion... One of the basic mistakes in business is that people are only focused on their product or the thing that makes them thick.. but they overlook that one day if they wanna make this into a biz.. they need to shift their focus to marketing and selling.. and that might just be the thing they are not really passionate about..

I've a great awesome smart and beautiful sister.. who's creating and loving art, having phd's in art (didn't even knew they existed) but she don't want to shift her focus to the marketing part...

So having passion about what you do is great.. but there is much more to building a successful business...

And in business there are so many things to do .. you really are not gonna be passionate about everything that you need to do.


Have fun

Bart

bart wrote:

And in business there are so many things to do .. you really are not gonna be passionate about everything that you need to do.

...and that is precisely the point when you will fail.

John

z8000783 wrote:

...and that is precisely the point when you will fail.

John

I don't think that's an either or issue. It's not because you're not passionate about some sides of your business that your business can't be successful or that it will make you fail. A reason why there are accountants, marketeers, website builders, and why people outsource things is because they don't like doing this all themselves and want to spent their time on the things they are really passionate about in their business... This does not mean that they will fail.

Have fun

Bart

bart wrote:

I don't think that's an either or issue. It's not because you're not passionate about some sides of your business that your business can't be successful or that it will make you fail. A reason why there are accountants, marketeers, website builders, and why people outsource things is because they don't like doing this all themselves and want to spent their time on the things they are really passionate about in their business... This does not mean that they will fail.

Yes. Being honest about and hence accurately assessing and knowing your real strengths and weaknesses is essential. You need to make sure all areas are covered or things will slide. As you say, if something is not a strength then giving that part to someone else is a must.

Some people have real difficulty assessing their own abilities aka the dunning-kruger effect. Its such an amazing distortion of skill self assement and unfounded confidence.

Here's a crazy example I found this week from the company "expert village" of an "expert" teaching bongos who is not even at a beginner level but doesn't seem to realise - he's done lots of tutorials but they are all completely wrong. Perfectly dunning-kruger!..

The idiot "expert" that cannot play and doesn't even seem to realise (he has done lots of tutorials - all totally wrong!).. I pity the fools that go to him for advice..
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_zpLQnmVHQ"]YouTube - Bongo Drum Music Lessons : Bongo Drum Music Demonstration[/ame]


Now compare that to this one below who knows something..

An explanation of 1st basic principle (martillo) that someone who knew would give as the very first lesson.. Look and hear the difference! Any real beginner would know this.. (its in spanish but you could still learn more without an words than a million years of the other guys help!)
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBVtcZWlGtw"]YouTube - BONGO martillo basico[/ame]

Things I've been told that I'm glad I was!!!

"Pull your head in... stop whining... follow through... you made an agreement now be a man and honour it!!!" (women and business contexts)

tied with

"Keep your hands up" (kickboxing context)

---------------------------------------------

A lot of things I wished I learned earlier... but as it reads in Know How by Leslie Cameron-Bandler, et al (slightly adapted)
If you could have had what you wished for... would you really have wanted it?
And doesn't that question unsettle one's self from being content and/or accepting the past with grace and dignity instead of blame?

This question points to me as either:

1. Getting us to recognize the learnings we've had to figure out ourselves

2. Figuring out what we still don't know but wish we did

3. a redundant question of a depressed person spiraling back into the past with regret and indignant blame.

Tricky question... loaded too... can be taken even more ways than I just mentioned...

Cheers Bart... and John, a pleasure always reading your posts. :-)

Rob

My biggest wish is that I could go back to my early, pre-teen years & tell myself to:

1. Lose the weight now - so you don't lose out on all of the girls who'll go ga-ga over you later

2. Learn to play the guitar now to enjoy life, solitude & just flat out jam!

3. Learn how to sell & improve yourself with Tommy Hopkins, Og Mandino, Frank Bettger, Bandler & Grinder, Claude Bristol, Napoleon Hill and Earl Nightengale. Then go look up a good company selling business to consumer direct in-home sales.

No one ever told me about selling or self-improvement. Had I known, I think I'd have turned things out far differently, a lot sooner than going through life spinning my wheels. The only sales people I knew were either car salesmen, realtors or store/retail kind. None of them I knew ever made much money & were always blaming everything on the economy.

The only other salesmen I knew back then were insurance & oy were they ever sticks in the mud! Our insurance guy not only dressed like but talked like a funeral home director. Ugh!

If I had my life to live over,
I'd try to make more mistakes next time.
I would relax. I would limber up.
I would be sillier than I have on this trip.
I would be crazier. I would be less hygienic.
I would take more chances, I would take more trips.
I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets.
I would burn more gasoline. I would eat more ice cream and less beans.
I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones.
You see, I am one of those people who lives prophylactically and sensibly and sanely, hour after hour, day after day.
Oh, I have had my moments
And if I had it to do over again, I'd have more of them.
In fact, I'd try to have nothing else.
Just moments,one after another.
Instead of living so many years ahead each day.
I have been one of those people who never go anywhere without a thermometer, a hot
water bottle, a gargle, a raincoat, and a parachute.
If I had to do it over again, I would go places and do things.
I'd travel lighter than I have.
If I had my life to live over, I would start barefooted earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall.
I would play hooky more. I wouldn't make such good grades except by accident.
I would ride on merry-go-rounds.

I'd pick more daisies!

Nadine Stair

Stay committed and love what you want to do. That would really help asides from prioritizing what you should for your business to be successful.