Starting own business implies taking risks, and failure is a part of the learning process on the way to success.
Maybe you have already taken a leap of faith. Maybe you are just contemplating letting go of a deceptive security of a corporate job. Whatever is your situation, you can always benefit from the experience of fellow entrepreneurs who faced similar challenges.
This is not a conventional “starting own business” advice. Rather these are deeply personal lessons learned from trials and errors of start-up founders on their journey of becoming successful entrepreneurs.
As you start, remember that you can’t please everybody. At the beginning, we are eager to meet expectations of each potential customer. So it’s easy to get sidetracked. To avoid falling into this trap, focus on your talents and what you do best to help others. A customer who does not need your product or service, will not pay for it. And that’s OK.
When scaling up, make tough decisions fast. When it comes to hiring or firing decisions, none of us wants to be a bad guy. We want to stay positive and believe in a person in front of us. But people whom you keep for wrong reasons could ultimately destroy your business. Learn to say “no” so that better opportunities can come your way.
As soon as you start raising capital, choose your investors wisely.It actually is like a marriage, and you will build a common future together. Goodinvestors will support you through inevitable bumps, give you the access to their network and remain patient. Wrong investors will constantly question your decisions, press you for fast results and fire you if you do not meet their expectations. Mismatch of values between you and your investors is a recipe for disaster. So just trust your guts.
All in all, being an entrepreneur is about making trade-offs and accepting full responsibility.
With compliments to ex-change vlog guests John Zimmer, Benoit Ragot and Judit Petho.