🎙 Inventive Journey | Real Stories From the Startup Survival Club

I have had those conversations with people who are in that same boat and they say what you are talking about sounds great, I know I need it but I don't have that money. What do you think I should do? And I say you know what keep doing what your doing. Keep working your job and keep trying to set aside a little bit of cash, keep working on your plan, and get yourself in a little bit better financial position to actually launch this business the right way. That is actually my best advice. I don't want to discourage anybody from starting a business, don't take me wrong there. I just want people to put themselves in the position to be successful as they possibly can and that requires a little bit of capital.

Be confident in yourself and be positive. You never know what will happen in the future. You will definitely have your ups and downs and you will never know where you will find your treasure. Have a plan but always be flexible and always be positive. Never think that something went wrong. Even if something went wrong it is a lesson and you need to study something.

Every entrepreneur needs to develop grit and practice gratitude. What I mean by that is with developing grit there is no easy business. If it was easy everybody would be doing it and nobody would be willing to pay you for it. You are doing something hard and so you are going to have days that are awful. You are going to have days where your partner is depressed and you are depressed and you don't feel like you can go forward. That's where I feel like you really have to take a step back and say ok I need to have the same Passion and excitement that I had on day one for this project right now in this moment. Because that is the only way we are going to get through this.

Failing is another story but definitely on your own path to your successes whatever it is. It will be rocky and you will have ups and downs and it's hard as hell. So definitely I think perseverance is the number one thing I could advice anyone. I tell that to myself every time it is hard. It was hard when it was Corona like two months ago. So you just wake up and say oh it's this time of life again. You just have to wake up in the morning and plow through the day.

If you have the chance to do research on an angel, which almost every single time you will. Whether raising money from a restaurateur, ok what type of restaurants do they like? what type of food do they like? Are there talk with them at conferences? Watch those talks, read their white papers, look at what they invested in on crunch space. See if you can learn anything about their family. Do their kids go to a private school or college or something like that? Do you have anything in common with any of them? If you can find that stuff and tailor your pitch to them and create and actually personal connection with them.

I truly believe that success in creative business comes down to the mindset and the skill set of the leader. And honestly 80% mindset. And so what I have really been focused on is not just tactically what does a business look like, and how you do sales, and marketing, and finances. What's the mindset that helps somebody be good at those things so that they have the desire to go learn how to improve and grow their business. So that they can get better at their craft or skill set.

You want to go after a key word that is a little bit more niche. There might not be as many people looking for it but it's hyper relevant and it's easy to rank for. You can be the big fish in the little pond an own whatever traffic there is going to those key words. For most small businesses that the direction you want to go.

You never know when your time is up, So spend every moment of your time with something you love. Just find what you love and do it. I have found so many kids that don't like school and I tell them dude find something that you can do after school that you love, even if it is a sport. Because you just never know. I could go to school tomorrow driving and boom a car hits me and I am gone. You just never know.

Grow their network and find a mentor or a coach who can really help guide you. There is no way I would be where I am today had I not worked super hard to find people who had the type of lifestyle, that had the type of businesses that I wanted. And I hunted them down and pursued them and I worked hard to build really great relationships with a handful of really successful entrepreneurs. And that has made all the difference for me in terms of opportunities that have opened up, having them give me advice, giving them space to call me on my blind spots and on areas that I need to work in.

I can't be in a conversation without talking about LinkedIn to the point where anyone thinking they want to be an entrepreneur at some point or even they are now to leverage LinkedIn. It's the one platform for professional business purposes. Leverage the platform is my biggest thing. Sometimes I get clients who wait until they are at the point of frustration where they may have to close their business and it's like no you should have connected with me a long time ago. Making sure they are leveraging the platform and then guarding their time.