When you’re starting a new business, you need advice from experienced entrepreneurs who have been in the game. You can scour the Internet for endless articles about how to approach running a small business, or you can look right here for a condensed version with the bullet points of successful entrepreneurship.
The following are a few gems of wisdom from seasoned business owners that you can use to fuel your own small business or startup.
1. “Get into good habits early on, such as creating meeting agendas, sticking to meeting times, and walking away with actionable plans.” —Jennifer Mak
2. “Give your employees the right education: Our sales per square foot is above the industry’s average, and that’s due to our extensive training program. If your staff is trained appropriately, they can offer better service and be more efficient.” —Christi Rudolph
3. “Stay away from the 5-word kiss of death that plagues most women business owners: ‘I’ll just do it myself.’ Asking for help is the key.” —Frederique Irwin
4. “Don’t forget the ‘ask’. We network, build relationships and strategic partnerships—but wait for people to offer to buy, help, or build. Get out there and ask! Ask for the sale. Ask for help. Ask for guidance. Ask how others who went before you got there.” —Talmar Anderson
5. “Remember why you started your business in the first place. Embrace the business you love. When you start by reminding yourself of your passion, the ideas, the motivation, and the success will come.” —Hillary Berman
6. “Love your customer. People look at their customers as a challenge and sometimes adopt an ‘us against them’ mentality, but I think the relationship between a business and its customers is like a marriage. You can decide to either be in a marriage of convenience or a marriage of love, so you absolutely need to find a way to love your customer—and you’ll find that positive business outcomes follow as a result of that.” —Martin Halpen
7. “Never stop testing. If you never stop testing new things and your website, your business will never stop improving.” —Alec Lynch
8. “Focusing all your effort on your niche, refining the product to perfection, and focusing your time and energy in the core product gives your business a higher chance of succeeding.” —Ben Duncan
9. “Finding a mentor early, who’s been there before and has experience in the areas you don’t, can really help guide you through important decisions and help you prioritize what’s important.” —Bertrand De Oliveira
10. “Make time to eat good food, exercise, get out into the sunshine, learn to meditate, and most importantly, sleep!” —Kate Troup
*Excerpted from articles published by Huffington Post, LinkedIn, and Business Insider. Sources cited below.
SOURCES:
1. “The Best Advice from 8 Successful Business Owners for Fostering Productivity,” HuffPost, August 6, 2015, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/30/productivity-business-owners_n_6706212.html
2. Monika Jansen, “Kick Ass Small Business Advice from 15 Women Business Owners,” LinkedIn, October 11, 2016, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/kick-ass-small-business-advice-from-15-women-owners-monika-jansen
3. Sarah Kimmorley, “The Best Advice from 26 Successful Aussie Entrepreneurs for Small Business Owners,” Business Insider, June 7, 2014, https://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-best-advice-from-26-successful-australian-entrepreneurs-for-small-business-owners-2014-6
Stephanie
Stephanie is the Marketing Director at Talkroute and has been featured in Forbes, Inc, and Entrepreneur as a leading authority on business and telecommunications.
Stephanie is also the chief editor and contributing author for the Talkroute blog helping more than 100k entrepreneurs to start, run, and grow their businesses.