🎙 Inventive Journey | Real Stories From the Startup Survival Club

Remember that everybody sees the world through their own lens. I was using the example of a telescope with somebody and we all have the view that we see and so as you're starting off in business, or even later on in business, everyone's gonna have that amazing piece of advice. So just really take everything in with a ton of gratitude that people in their heart desire to help you.  But then recognize that everybody's wonderful piece of advice is from their very focused view, from their experience, and it's tinged with all of the the baggage they bring with them in life. So to listen to it but also always make sure that it rings true to your experience. If it feels right double check it. Ask other people if it's well meaning. But again we all have our own perspective and just recognize that everyone's advice is coming from their perspective.

Really do the homework and hone in on your target market. Research, research, research. You have to be clear and spell out your value proposition.

Don't get ahead of your skis. Don't think your idea is so great that you're going to bet the farm on it. First of all, you need to make sure that your business model is solid and the best way to do that is to try it out in a small scale. You find a small venue like a restaurant or any kind of a franchise, you build one and make sure that it works, and I don't mean just hope it works. Run the numbers like I did with that first gift shop. I knew how much my CD's cost, I knew how many I sold and how much I sold them for and I knew what my net profit was. Bingo it's hard numbers you can't argue with them. So make your model, make sure it works, and once you've got a working model then you can go as hard as you can run with it.

Have a good plan. Because I pulled a little bit of a TF2, if people know that video game, where one of the characters asks a support, are you sure this will work and the support replies I have no idea. I just had the idea and then just punched through it really. I just kept punching through it until things started to mold together. If you can sit down and give yourself some time in the day to give yourself a couple hours to look up business establishment. Understanding your company mission, your company values, your mantra, developing an early press kit. Something you could provide to potential investors or employees to show you have a business plan. I'm convinced I could work for you comfortably because your a man with a plan, and I can contribute my plans to that as well.

Find the best solution for every problem. Read professionally or personally. There's a saying of mine, figure out the solution the very first time otherwise you have to figure it out again and again until you master it.

We tell people who your going to hire is most important. As a small business owner that is what I always think about. Our firms slogan is to hire slow and fire fast. We do our best to hire people based on culture and our values, but it doesn't always turn out to be a good hire. We try to be transparent and set goals and milestones for them so we can quickly assess if there a good fit for our company.

Honestly, understand what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve it. You hear that all the time right but, you hear it all the time cause its important. Really focus on making sure you're not limiting yourself and bottlenecking your own growth. Check out that book the Big Leap by Hendricks. One thing I did not mention but is pretty important to me is making sure I write down my goals. Plan my goals ahead and keep track of them daily. One thing I always tell the team is to slow down to speed up. take the time to plan out what you want to do before you go for it.  Lastly remain a student. Don't stop learning when you feel like you've gotten to where you want to go. Keep looking for educational opportunities.

Go all in, I mean it's something if you're going to get into, it's like Parks and Rec, like don't hold a half asset you got to get a whole asset. So go all in. You know you can't sit there to the side and say you know I'm going to work on this small business but I'm going do it under the confines of nine to five. Like if you jump in and you're not the founder or you're someone early that's joining in you need look at it as this is your baby too. And so just because you join in and there's no huge equity stake that's given to you out of the gate, it still behooves you to help out.

Take the time to structure things correctly. From a legal, financial, and tax standpoint, you want to get your business set up correctly. Intellectually property. I think it's very important to get the right counseling and to get the right structure in place beneath you to have a foundation to go forward.

Get involved in content. Investing in your personal brand. Spending time on social. Whatever that looks like have a strategy for that because it's more important than you probably think.