🎙 Inventive Journey | Real Stories From the Startup Survival Club

Get out of your way. When I get out of my way and, I actually open myself up. I have a business coach we use now. I actually open myself up to allowing someone else to give me some advice and say; hey Sandra this is right. We really need to go down this route, hold back from this, do this. It really opens me up for great things to happen. That's really what has been happening for us now with Tidy Spaces. When I get out of the way, all these things start to happen. It's unbelievable.

Do all of your research up front. You can't do all of your research up front. You are always learning new things every single day. But, do your homework. No idea is had in a vacuum. If you have an idea, make sure you look at the lay of the land. Look at all the competition that exists out there. Make a spreadsheet even. Get out your whiteboard and look at all the ways that your business is different from their businesses. Use that difference at the end to shine or design a marketing strategy around. Double down on those differences.

Try to control the expenses and don't spend on things that are not beneficial and stand on the ground. Don't look at the unicorns and all this. Now yes this is the target but, stand on the ground. This was a mistake that I did and so much was spent was acting as a startup concept that you read about every day and spend a lot based on that but at the end of the day it comes by steps.

Ask for help. It's something that took me a while because I have a lot of pride and think I can teach myself anything, which might be true but, it might take years, and that's not very smart. Every time I have asked for help, it's always led towards more progress. And faster than I would be able to do on my own. And most people want to help you succeed.

And so I think on the lower side, on the block and tackle side, make sure you have your information in excel format or Quick Books so that you can manipulate your information and get it clean. Then on the other side, make sure you have someone to talk to. Whether it's someone like us or whether it's an investor or advisor to talk you through things like profitability and questions that you will need to answer to the taxman but also to future investors.

My biggest fear has been producing an inferior product or a product that won't pass muster. What that has done is it has really shown and taught me that first of don't release something unless it's at least minimally viable. Don't release a crappy product. If you do release one, you are going to have to deal with it in the future. That is what I have learned over these last few months.

This is a very hard lesson I learned. Be careful in how you spend your time. We always are going to get a very rewarding feeling from being busy. And it is going to be answering emails, taking phone calls, and doing marketing. But, if you do not actually evaluate the impact that all this busyness is having on your return on investment (ROI) and what the income is. How are you actually making progress? Are you growing your audience? If you are a podcaster, what your income or profit is. Whatever it might be. If that's not growing or changing, yet you're busy all the time, then you need to reevaluate and perhaps implement different strategies.

I can't tell you the power of networking and reaching out to people and just asking for things directly and not beating around the bush. I think we really underestimate the power of being super direct with someone instead of just sending in your resume and hoping for the best. Find the side doors. That's not just for starting a business and getting your dream job. Find the side doors for everything. Do you want to start a podcast or write a book or anything like that? I guarantee you your network is going to have huge power in helping you get there. Networking and asking direct questions and just reaching out and asking questions to people you look up to that would be number one.

Constantly believe in yourself and your product. If you feel like your product has value, you will have a lot of people who will dismiss it or say that's really cool, but that's as far as it goes. And you will have a lot of days where you are thinking, maybe this was a mistake and maybe I shouldn't be doing this. Then you will have a lot of times where your doubtful but, I would say just continue to keep the faith. Keep holding on to your belief that you have come up with something valuable. Keep pushing forward and having faith it will work out.

The biggest piece of advice is just get started and don't get crippled in revision mode and, oh, I have got to have a business plan and, it's got to be perfect. Just right the business plan and get it out there. Get started working so that you can figure out all the answers to your questions. I guess the saying is, fail fast.