To avoid all
the mistakes, heartbreaks and dozens of sleepless nights, learn from the
lessons that cause scars that will last a lifetime.
1.
Doesn’t mean cause your competitors
fail at something that it’s your job to improve it.
Competitive advantages are very hard to find and it’s so tempting to
think that any one of your competitor’s weaknesses is something that your
company can exploit. Sometimes, what seems to be a well-hidden advantage for
you, could turn out to be a warning. So instead of saying “We can fix that”,
take a step back and ask yourself “why is that a defect? What is keeping them
from fixing it themselves?” Most of the time, you’ll discover a good reason as
to why there’s a flaw in their product/service. That knowledge can be valuable
competitive intelligence.
2.
The ideas your customers have for
your business are probably wrong.
It can in fact be worse! Your customers can often lead you astray. But,
catering to your customers have become a legendary goal for most companies,
setting new standards for bending-over-backward service. They try to anticipate
the customer’s every desire and respond to their every whim. But that doesn’t
mean it’s always the best business practice.
Think of what your customers say they want, but that you know in your gut
isn’t good for business. In this situation, stand up for yourself and make your
case if you have to. Never let the cutl of what the customer wants crowd out
your own strong instincts for what you know is best.
3.
Know when to pay full price!
It’s the basic of all iron-clad laws in any business: You will never ever have enough money when
you start. Thus, you’ll have to cut a few corners. There’s no crime in doing
so and everyone who started a business has done their own version of it. But,
there’s a huge difference between being cheap and seeming cheap. You can still
save money without looking like the cheapest joint on the block and in
business, appearance is reality. That’s why it’s very important to know when to
shell out a few extra bucks.
Think about how this applies to your business. Where should you be
ruthlessly frugal and where should you be extravagant? What’s the core part of
your business that affects perception and in a reality where you can’t control
what everyone thinks of your product and you, how do you shape a few pieces you
can control.
4.
Stop “playing business”
“Playing business” is the easiest way to fall into a trap when scrambling
to do any and everything you can think of to “help” your business. For most
“playing business” means setting up profiles on sites, trying to get local
bloggers to blog about your business, reaching out to other local business
owners, researching complicated legal structures for when it was time to grow,
trying to gain social media followers, spending weeks on a logo and plenty of
other premature things that didn’t impact your customers.
The reality of the matter is; these tiny details doesn’t really matter if
nobody likes your product/service. When you drop the bull-dust and focus on
your customers, your reputation will grow and all of the little details will
start taking care of itself. Then bloggers will reach out to you to write about
you, people will follow you organically on social media and other business
owners will want to talk to you.
If what you’re doing each and every hour doesn’t directly and immediately
benefit your customer’s experience, you should most probably be doing something
else. Be honest with yourself; Are you setting up profiles on these sites for
the dopamine hit of satisfaction they give or because they’ll actually improve
your business? Are you ignoring or avoiding some more difficult tasks that’s
actually tied to your success, in favor of idling on social media websites,
gaining “followers” who will never become customers and planning for realities
way off in the distance rather than focusing on the here-and-now?
5.
Hire faster
Every small business owner has a control freak living inside them, be
honest, you know what I’m talking about. Especially when you’re starting out,
every single part of your business no matter how small, can seem like something
you must have your personal stamp on. In almost every case this means,
scrutinizing everything from website design to email templates to branding your
product/services, all the way down to tucking the sheets of your business to
make sure everything is just right. Plus, it’s saving you the expense of paying
someone else right? Just like Steve Jobs that obsessed about every detail of
Apple Products. Of course you should do everything yourself right?
You can see where this is going. While it’s great to know a business inside
out, you have to acknowledge the difference between working in the business and
working on the business. If your business is going to grow, you’ll have to work
on growing it. Otherwise you’re doing almost everything all day, because you’re
teaching your personal just enough to keep them busy but not enough to actually
help you grow your business, all while the core business languishes.
The solution is to hire fast. It’s in vogue these days to say things like
“hire slow, fire fast.” That’s a fine rule of thumb in certain businesses and
companies at a certain stage in growth. Even Steve Jobs admitted, it was in his
experience that he was made reluctant to hire and train because he was
unwilling to cede control. He assumed he knew best and that anyone he hired
wouldn’t do the same high-quality job he could, right down to how perfect every
product had to be. He’s delay in hiring was a kind of arrogance and at first it
badly impaired his business.
When you wait too long to hire and train, your company can’t capitalize
on your competitive advantages. In my case, my competitive advantage is in
marketing, branding, messaging and learning to do better and work smarter so I
can grow and thus, help others to do the same. The short story is, as soon as
you get out of your own way, trust and train others so they’ll know what to do,
your business will start growing.
6.
Boredom is your new normal
Here’s a scary truth to everyone about to start a brand new
adventure: If you don’t like doing the
mundane parts of your business, you probably shouldn’t be in that business.
Many businesses fall when the owners fall in love with the “lifestyle
accessories” they believe come along with owning a business, example of the
hotel industry: love adding “owners” to
the LinkedIn profile, hooking up friends with free stays, flirting with
attractive people who came through the door. But, hate changing beds, cleaning
bathrooms, dealing with questions from guests, running software required to
keep track of stays, fixing small problems around the property and so on. You
know everything that goes into running a hotel and making the guests feel at
home.
The trappings of owning a business aren’t going to get you through all
the tough times. You have to enjoy every part of your business if you’re going
to survive. It’s a fact of doing business that people aren’t talking enough
about. Mundanities are the business; boredom is the norm. The sooner you accept
it, the sooner you’ll know if your idea is something you’re going to want to
pursue on the lowest of the low days.
7.
The beginning isn’t the end.
Here’s the daydream most people know when launching a new product: The
larger-than-life grand opening. In your imagination, you’d invite friends,
family and the press and they’ll be blown away by your perfect product. You’d
pop champagne, celebrate and laugh with all the customers buying your product.
There’s no perfect time to launch a product, a “grand” opening or a
“lunch party”, these are just overhyped events that doesn’t deliver any kind of
sustained firepower, revenue or sales.
So in short, start now. Figure the rest out as you go along.
8.
Just being human can get the
extraordinarily far.
Here’s a secret formula that works wonders: When in doubt, be a human.
What does this actually mean? Treat people like actual human beings, not
like customers. Take the time to see what they say and don’t say. You’d be
surprised how far simple humanity can get you in your business.
When you’re starting out, you won’t have many unlimited resources at your
disposal. But you do have a limitless capacity for work, endless opportunities
to provide a great experience and the proximity to your customers that reminds
you they are a person, not just a profit centre. Given you’ll be starting with
a minimum viable product-not a finely tuned machine-it’s important for you to
understand how much extraordinary customer service can make up for. In the
beginning, you won’t be able to match your competitors in all areas of
business, but outshining their sales customer service can be a way to make up
the gap.
This advice
you can start applying right away, no matter what type of business you have or
how long you’ve had your business. Take it from the pro’s out there who made
these mistakes so we won’t have to. Any questions or advice you’d like to ad,
go right ahead. We’d love to hear from you.
