10 tips for entrepreneurs
Running your own business is extremely fulfilling but the immense amount of freedom and the unlimited possibilities that comes with it can be overwhelming. So to make your life easier I’ve compiled a list of tips that I wish someone told me when I started my journey as an entrepreneur 14 years ago.
1. An idea is just the beginning
An idea is where any great piece of innovation starts, but an idea is just 1% of the whole. It is easy to forget how much effort and time goes into making something a reality and that is your 99%. One doesn't exist without the other but we tend to give too much credit to the 1% making it feel that it actually is the other way around as if coming up with the idea was the hard part and putting in the work to bring that idea to life is just a ride in the sun.
This is a cycle that goes round and round indefinitely. Getting work done on your idea sparks more ideas which inflict more work which then sparks more ideas of what could be done and so on. So remember, coming up with ideas is essential, but that is just the 1%.
2. Aim for perfection, settle for greatness
I’ve learned about this rule during my video production years. Would you rather have a movie that you are “only” 70% happy with but it is a 100% completed, or would you have one that you are a 100% happy with but it is missing the last 30% of it’s runtime? It is a pretty easy choice, as the second option is simply an unfinished product, therefore not market ready. And the truth is that only a small portion of your customers appreciate that additional 30% of perfection.
“Perfection only exists in our heads and it is a great motivator to push our boundaries.”
When you are creating something it is just too easy to fall into the mistake of trying to make it perfect. Don’t get me wrong, aiming for perfection is commendable and sets great products apart from just good ones. BUT! Remember that nothing is ever perfect, perfection only exists in our heads and it is a great motivator to push our boundaries. What it really means that you get the best out of your current knowledge and available resources. As you go along your journey your knowledge will grow, your resources will change which will allow you to get closer and closer to perfection.
3. Be organised
It is just too lazy to say that “Oh I’m just not organised”. The truth is, no one was born organised. It is a skill that we learn and perfect over time and you too can become organised if you want to. I was disorganised for the most of my life until I realised how much the lack of this skill was actually causing frustration. So I started writing to do lists, using my calendar and regularly decluttering my physical and virtual space.
Only you get to decide how much you want to be organised to be in a happy place but if you have used the phrase above let me tell you that you aren’t in a happy place right now. Start with decluttering your physical space and find a home for everything you own, an organised physical space will greatly help to keep your mind organised.
4. Set boundaries
You might think that being always ON and available for our business is part of the deal owning one. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes you are the last line of defence if shit comes down, but successful business owners set pretty clear boundaries between personal time and business time.
“Being always on might make you feel important and wanted but you are slowly but surely walking into a trap.”
Being always on and the go to person for every single decision might make you feel important and wanted but you are slowly and surely walking into a trap. Owning a business comes with a great deal of freedom and being always available jeopardises exactly that. You want a business that is full of capable decision makers where you don’t have to look over everyone’s shoulder every single second. When you are on holiday, tell your team that you are off, when you are off work, close your tabs, switch off your emails and be off.
5. Listen
Don’t just listen, but listen actively to what is being said and why. It is just too easy to be caught up in our own heads thinking about our response. What happens when you do this is that you are not listening to what is being said but you are assuming what will be said and you end up listening to your own inner voice.
Active listening means that you wait for your conversation partner to finish their point, you ask follow up questions if something isn’t clear, you pay attention to the words, body language and tone used. And only then you make up your mind about how to respond. Try to speak last to hear people’s untainted opinions.
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6. Have a purpose
Business creates value and is made by people for people, and this means a purpose has to do something with bringing value to people. Making money is not a purpose that is just the vessel to make your purpose happen.
“Find a purpose that is worth fighting for, it will become the glue between everything you do.”
If your only purpose is to make money, that is exactly what your team's purpose will be, they won’t care about the customers or where the company is headed. All they will care about too is money. A good purpose covers one or multiple core human desires such as meaningful experiences, saving time, learning something new, being accepted. Find a purpose that is worth fighting for, it will become the glue between everything you do. And don’t worry, money follows a good cause.
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7. Know your numbers
Knowing your numbers will be a great ally when you are arguing about anything really. Arguing about whether a marketing campaign for example is performing well or not without any figures basically reduces the discussion to be about feelings. Once you add in numbers about engagement, click through rates, conversions, etc. and even better you put these numbers into context the discussion becomes real.
Intuition and feelings are important so I am not suggesting to disregard them, but numbers can be used to prove them right or wrong. And the more you practice proving or disproving your feelings with numbers the more finetuned your business intuition will become.
8. Learn to agree to disagree
My favourite t-shirt says: Why can’t we all agree (with me), and since a t-shirt like this exists I am surely not alone with this feeling. It is only a human desire to be listened to and to have people agree with how we see the world. But being a business owner puts you in a special position as people will be more likely to agree with you, simply because you are the owner of the company. But surrounding yourself with a team who agrees with everything you have to say defeats the purpose of having a team in the first place.
“Complex problems more often than not have different solutions which leads to arguments.”
Humans are the most evolved species on the planet because we have the capability to understand and discuss complex problems. And complex problems more often than not have different solutions which leads to arguments. And that’s fine, agreeing to disagree is okay to do. At the end of the day it is more important to have the discussion in the first place and make the decision based on the most available data.
9. Be reliable
This sounds like a no brainer but it is harder done than said. Being reliable is one of those things where actions speak much louder than words and everyone will get to decide for themselves whether you are reliable or not. If you say that you are going to do something by a certain time, either do it or give plenty of notice that you can’t do it.
Reliability is something that can incredibly strengthen an organisation and the lack of it can cause a tremendous amount of damage. And you as the leader of the organisation are the last person who can afford the lack of it as you won’t be credible “demanding” reliability from your team if you aren’t reliable yourself.
10. Learn from your mistakes
This might be the most repeated advice out there and since it is quite frankly one of the best pieces of advice there is I am going to include it here too. Learning from your mistakes also means that you are making them in the first place, and let me tell you that people who do things and not just couch critics, do make mistakes.
“The ability to make mistakes always should be an organisation wide privilege.”
Making mistakes is one of the most powerful ways to learn, you tried, it didn’t work, you amend course. Where it is easy to go wrong is thinking that this is the privilege of some, whereas it always should be an organisation wide privilege. Don’t come down like a ton of bricks on people who made mistakes, as that won’t stop the mistakes. It will only make them stop reaching you, and when that happens, you will only learn about them from customer reviews.
+1 Nothing is set in stone
Last but not least, business is a never ending story. There is no such a thing where a business is complete and just keeps ticking along for eternity. The world is changing, the market is changing and we humans change, that’s simply the order of things and that is what makes life so exciting and jarring at times.
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