we wanted to create an article addressing some of the problems start-up companies and young entrepreneurs have. So we asked!
“What do you wish you knew before you started a business?”
1. I wish I would have known how unpredictable things can be at ALL
times. I read a lot before starting my business and realized unexpected
things happen, but never did I realize the frequency in which they do.
You really need to learn how to adapt everyday to things you may not
have forseen waking up that morning.
– Scott Fineout, http://www.607magazine.com
2. Before going into business I wish I knew the importance of having
an established “Advisory Board”. Having a mentor is one thing but
having a counsel of people who are not only experts in various business
related functions but are also cheerleaders and coaches for your success is another. –
Kellie L. Posey www.keleventsllc.com
3. I
wish I knew about the value of keeping it simple. Starting out young
with plenty of energy and great ideas led me down many paths of
distraction. Instead, by focusing first on what sells, why and at what
price and then staying true to that over time, I would have saved a lot
of headaches, time and supported profitability a lot sooner. The saying
KISS is popular for a reason and particularly applicable when you’re an
entrepreneur.
– Deborah Osgood www.bdki.com
4. The one thing that I wish I knew before starting a business was
how much time you spend learning – it is constant – from self
development, to business basics, to social media, – talk about wearing
many hats! Oh my and thought motherhood was challenging. I love to learn
new things but had no idea it was going to be like this. You have to
learn how to act, how to present, how to close, how to keep in contact,
how to prospect, and how to keep customers! –
Michelle Morton http://www.sochomebusiness.com/
5. Focus on yourself as much as your product/service. The recipe is only as good as the Chef preparing the dish. –
Mujteba H. Naqvi http://www.bonvoy.com
6. That whatever my start-up budget is… I should have multiplied it by three –
Aliya Jiwa http://spunkystork.com
7. The most important, and costly, lesson I had to learn is that in
order to grow in a good economy, and in order to survive in a bad one,
it’s necessary to understand that one person can’t do it all. It
requires the efforts of a team (sales, accounting, production-service
delivery, management, etc.) to be effective. Too many young
entrepreneurs, myself included, feel they can do it all. That’s a huge
mistake. –
Tom Coalson http://www.tomcoalsonconsulting.com/
8. Financially, I learned that you should get incorporated and need
to have a great accountant that specializes in small business taxes.I
also discovered that success is easier to achieve if you learn from
people that know more than you instead of going it alone. –
Eddy Salomon www.WorkAtHomeNoScams.com
9. I wish I would have known that the hardest part of owning and
operating my own business would NOT have been how to create revenue on a
monthly basis. I wish I would have hired a full time IT guy and a
shrink to manage with my sales force! –
Bradley W. Smith http://www.debtfreeassociates.com/
10. I really wished I developed more social skills early on to spend
more time developing relationships. Networking has been key to bringing
in more business and I had practice this social ability more, then
business may have come sooner rather than later. –
Ali Allage www.boostlabs.com
11. The best thing i did is to outsource all my administrative tasks.
Now i have enough time to focus on other important tasks. –
Gagan http://www.fortepromo.com
12. Never pay full price for anything online (office supplies, stock photography, services, etc.)–always Google for coupons. –
Bill Even www.TheComingWave.com
13. Location, location, location. It really is true! –
Tanya Peila www.tanyapeila.com
14.
Finding the right Accounting / Financial
Manager right up front was our biggest learning and biggest mistake.
Completely changed our financial performance and caused us to hit a wall
we should have avoided. –
Mike Cleary http://www.abcom-inc.com
15. I wish I knew how much general information I would need to know
and how long the process would take. Almost three years later Im still
in the “set-up” phase to my business and teaching myself all about
websites, graphic design, business law, bookkeeping, customer service,
etc. –
Leslie Boudreau http://www.inn-photo.com
16. It’s important to get customer validation early on. You can have
the greatest technology, or website, or service, or whatever, but it’s
ultimately meaningless if you haven’t verified that there are actually
customers willing to spend money on or around what you do. –
Adam Rodnitzky www.reteltechnologies.com
17. Business partnerships are like marriages and should be entered
with the same care. Like marriages, there are a lot of assumptions
about what the partnership is/is not and communication about those will
lead to better success. –
J. Kim Wright www.CuttingEdgeLaw.com
18. I wish I had known how few true entrepreneurs there are out
there. Every time I thought I had a kindred spirit with whom to share
experiences, lean on for support and provide support to them, it turned
out that they were looking for a paycheck. Find a partner and a kindred
spirit BEFORE you launch. –
Tom Reid www.certifiedKsolutions.com
19. Small business owners should carefully reflect on how they can
tastefully build referral sources through all contacts, and how to
utilize social networks, including the vast resources of the internet,
to build a referral base and, in turn, a client base. –
Jay Weinberg http://www.jayweinberg.com
20. I wish I knew how important it is to never rely on anyone else.
I wasted a number of years “networking” in hopes of people referring
business. It never worked. My career took off when I assumed
responsibility for every aspect, including marketing and sales. –
Rob Frankel http://www.RobFrankel.com
21. I did not realize the level of sacrifice that would be required
to become not only an entrepreneur, but a successful entrepreneur. Don’t
get me wrong, it is worth every single second, but I had no idea that
friends and family would not be able to relate. –
Amber Schaub http://www.rufflebutts.com/
22. I wish I had understood how little time I would have to do the
things that I need to do in order to “produce” and to make money. Make
sure that you spend your time and your energy on the revenue generating
matters. Spend the money necessary to get help. Pay someone else to take
care of all of the admin stuff. –
Francoise Gilbert http://www.ITLawGroup.com/
23. I wish I knew how hard it was to manage employees and have good,
competent help. I also wish I knew how to market, advertise, and work
these social media tools. –
Jamie Puntumkhul http://jlpeducationservices.vpweb.com
24. Have a serious exit strategy & plan prior to opening doors.
As an entrepreneur I was ready and willing to take the plunge to open my
own company, but didn’t realize I had to structure my company around
the exit strategy (i.e. make it sellable and transferable, and self
sustaining without my everyday presence). –
Christopher N. Okada www.okadaco.com
25. With my first companies I wished I had lined up a client and received a commitment to buy before I jumped in the water. –
Patrick J. Sweeny II http://www.odintechnologies.com/
26. I wish that I would have known that my MBA wasn’t necessary to be
an entrepreneur. I started business before and thought the MBA+ would
give me a better insight to prevent me from making mistakes but I
believe you either have it or you don’t. –
Janice Robinson-Celeste www.CelesteStudios.com
27. I wish I would have known how expensive running a business is –
mainly payroll taxes, medical insurance, etc. We researched all of our
fixed costs, however, the more we billed out, the less we keep. –
Marian H. Gordon www.yippeeprinting.com
28. Find the very best, most knowledgeable people you can afford and
hire them with not just salary, but incentives. The better the people,
the better the job done and advice given. –
Ric Morgan American Business Arts Corporation
29. Several years after starting my business I learned that the best
source of advice and peer support are fellow entrepreneurs, especially
those who have attained the level of business success to which I aspire.
–
Charles E. McCabe http://www.vaceos.org
30. I wish I had understood the value of investing in high-level
talent. As a start-up, it’s scary to think about hiring someone whose
experience demands a higher-level salary. So you tend to hire less
experienced individuals, but they typically don’t bring the intellectual
capital or business savvy that can help you grow faster. –
Susan Wilson Solovic www.SusanSolovicOnline.com
31. Starting a business is like getting married, you think you know
what youre getting into and that youll be better then the median, but
when it comes down to it you have no idea. –
Summer Bellessa http://elizamagazine.com
32. The biggest thing I’ve learned and wish I would have known before
I had started our company is the difference between sales and
marketing. Everyone says sales and marketing together like they’re the
same
thing. They’re not.
– Scott D. Mashuda http://www.RiversEdgeAlliance.com
33. I wish I would have known how important a real business plan was,
a marketing strategy, and exit strategy were. You should really plan
your first two years and have a hit list of sales/marketing
opportunities that are interested before you take the leap. –
Ben Wallace www.innovative-memories.com
34. Probably the most important thing I wish I had realized earlier
was how little I knew about how consumers bought things on the Internet.
I have been a web developer for years and knew all about technology,
but little about marketing and getting inside the mind of the consumer. –
Sara Morgan http://www.custsolutions.net/
35. You can’t put your life on hold while waiting for your venture to
hit. I have tremendous regret around all of the family events,
vacations, and time with friends that I missed because I was working on
getting my film/company off the ground. –
Pamela Peacock http://www.shadowlightpictures.com
36. Admittedly, we went into GiveForward knowing we’d have to be
flexible and patient. All of the good books tell you this, but no one
really tells you how emotionally draining that wait can be. –
Desiree Vargas www.GiveForward.org
37. Hands down without a doubt no questions asked – effective
marketing. It truly does not matter how great your product or service is
unless someone knows about it you are still behind the start line. –
Leanne Hoagland-Smith http://www.processspecialist.com
38. I thought if I had a great product and an attractive, functioning
website customers would come. Boy, was I wrong! In the online world
its all about SEO! –
Semiha Manthei http://www.firststeporganic.com/
39. I wish I’d have known that the only thing important in business
is building a product that someone will buy. That’s it. It’s real easy
for first time founders to get caught up in visions of grandeur – but in
reality, the only things that matter are having a great product, and
having customers that will pay actual money for it. –
Brett Owens http://www.chrometa.com/
40. Business books and all the education in the world can give you
the foundation for starting a business, But they cannot show you the
cold hard truth about how difficult it can be to start a business. –
Michael Grosheim http://www.thesocialtweep.com
41. One
thing I wish I knew right off the bat is the benefit of networking. I
spent a lot of time trying to tackle everything on my own, but its
really important to reach out to fellow entrepreneurs, complimentary
businesses, family and friends for advice and support.
– Cailen Ascher Poles http://www.cailenascher.bravehost.com/
42. I wish I had known how important it is to outsource to other
professionals instead of trying to do everything myself, and ultimately
not always doing everything correctly. –
Jennifer Hill www.jhilldesign.com
43. I wish I knew exactly how important it is to prioritize tasks and
goals. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in the last few
months is to prioritize what is important, in order of its proportionate
worth. It is easy to do the little things that make you feel like you
are accomplishing something, but it is the big important things that
need your full attention – even if it is uncomfortable. –
Evan Urbania www.chatterBLAST.com
44. I was naive enough to think that if I had a great product that
helped people and at the same time had the lowest prices available for
the products we did sell that word would spread and people would be
excited to use our product. –
Chris Sorrells www.ErgonomicsSimplified.com
45. I wish I had known that you dont need to be right with your first
iteration of your business plan. Young businesses naturally deviate
from their roadmap as the founders ideas about what will work get tested
by reality. Smart entrepreneurs listen to the feedback they get and
adapt. –
Matt Lally http://imaneed.com
46. I wish I’d understood the incalculable value of having just the
right executive assistant, someone who can leverage your time and
actually be an extension of yourself. –
Barry Maher www.barrymaher.com
47. I wish I had more marketing skills to take my business to the
next level. At this point I have to hire someone as I am super limited
in this area. –
Deb Bailey http://www.powerwomenmagazine.com
48. I’ve learned that I can’t micromanage everything, no matter how
much I want to. Sometimes you have to delegate certain responsibilties
to others. Not only did this help keep me sane, but it was good for team
building amongst employees. –
Lev Ekster www.cupcakestop.com
49. I wish someone would have explained the difference between sales verses marketing. –
Tom Pryor WWW.SBDCEXCELLENCE.ORG
50. I wish I knew depth of the thought process needed in starting a
business, especially on a personal level. I wish I understood how my
thoughts would affect my business. –
Jennifer Ann Bowers http://rosebridgecreations.com
51. I wish I understand “cash flow”. I figured that as long as I
brought in lots of business, the business would be great. Cash is king
and always keep MORE of it than you forecast or expect to need. –
Ryan Kohnen www.ryankohnen.com
52. I wish I had taken a class, or gotten practical experience in,
using business accounting software. The investment would’ve been
minimal, and it would’ve saved me (and my accountant) hours of
frustration. Additionally, I wish I had spent a few bucks on an
accountant to set up my books properly. –
Shane Fischer www.fischer-law.com
53. What I didn’t know then was the value of networking. You never
know where business will come from. And having friends and acquaintances
from political, business and social circles may prove to be your best
new business referral! –
Melissa Stevens www.fkmagency.com
54. I wish I completely understood what “cash flow” meant and how
important it is to live within a budget and how important it is to hire
the correct people, rather than just able bodies. –
Kelly Delaney www.cakes4occasions.com
55. The one thing that I wish I would have known before going into
business more, was my own strengths and how I use them on a daily basis.
–
Jason C. Raymer http://www.bluegrassautoglass.com
56. Trademark/ Copyright info – 3 months after we had started one of
the businesses we had to completely scrap all the branding and build a
totally new site, social media, EVERYTHING due to a legal issue
regarding trademark. –
Sarah Cook http://www.RaisingCEOKids.com
57. I wish I knew how to proficiently do marketing via the web,
newsletters and blogs. The other key thing is to get the right coach. I
eventually used www.onecoach.com, headed by John Assaraf of “The
Secret”, who finally helped me pull my business together. –
Nancey C. Savinelli www.naturalhealthctr.net
58. I really had to understand the “basics” of business and how to
capitalize on the small opportunities to given to me and turn them into
“larger than life” success stories. –
Darren Magarro www.thedsmgroup.com
59. I wish that early on I had sought out more business leaders in my
field. It wasn’t until I was a bit older that I realized the value of
the knowledge to be learned from veteran industry players and how it
could help me grow my business. –
Jim Janosik Aladanmediagroup.com
60. I wish I had seriously thought about branding and the longevity
of the brand. Looking back, I should have thought about what was going
to define my company, what would be a look that would last for years and
not go out with the trends, and what image I wanted my customers to see
when they first started researching my company. –
Katie Webb http://www.becomeintertwined.com
61. If you have taken the time to think through things (price,
service, contracts, delivery) don’t be so quick to change it up just
because a Client wants you to. –
Joni Daniels http://www.jonidaniels.com/
62. I wish I knew not to expect things to happen for us. Often times,
we were waiting to get lucky and not making our own luck. We learned
that nothing is going to get handed to us on a silver platter and if we
want it, we have to go out and get it. –
Ben Lerer http://www.thrillist.com/
63. At the time of founding it I was so focused on survival I didn’t think about the exit strategy. –
Laurence J. Stybel stybelpeabody.com
64. I wish I’d know how much easier it is to build a business around
an established market that’s already looking for a solution to its
problems rather than trying to build the market around the business I
wanted to start. –
John Crickett http://www.businessopportunitiesandideas.co.uk/
65. How challenging it is to get people who request our services to
pay. Since we are a nonprofit/community organization, everyone thinks
our services are free because of grants or corporate giving. –
Candi Meridith www.GoodForYourself.com
66. You have to have to have some sort of passion in order to be
successful. But no matter how much you want to believe it, doing what
you love because you love it and doing what you love as a business are
different. Don’t expect every day to be bliss. –
Andy Hayes www.travelonlinepartners.com
67. I wish I knew it didn’t take tons of money to get started, so I
would have started it sooner. I think that holds a lot of people back. –
Candy Keane http://www.ThreeMusesClothing.com
68. When I was opening my first business, I made the near lethal
error of leasing a business location without a plan. Once I got in the
location I had to do three times the amount of marketing necessary just
to contend with the competition. I spent more on marketing than I would
have spent on the extra rent of a better spot on the street I was on. –
S. Zargari www.assuranceadvertising.com
69. I would have spent more time selecting the most qualified
technical resource by interviewing more people more strenously to ensure
we got the most talented resource for our money…both short term and
long term –
Jennifer Myers Robb http://www.hergameface.com
70. Get a coach – someone who can walk you through the jungle to get
you to the gold. Why bother flying blind, when others have blazed the
trail before you? Starting a business without a coach is like getting in
the car and driving. Sure you can move–and fast–but using a map is so
much smarter than not. –
Richard J. Atkins HTTP://WWW.IMPROVINGCOMMUNICATIONS.COM/
71. I wish I’d known it would not be enough to know my stuff cold.
(I’m a subject matter expert, but the same would apply to someone with a
product.) You have to really know (or be willing to learn FAST) how
to market yourself and have a plan to do it. –
Judy Hoffman www.judyhoffman.com
72. I just wish I knew how much free goods I would have to give out in order to promote my products. –
Jacqui Rosshandler www.eat-whatever.com
73. I wish I knew that there was a fine line between self-employment
and un-employment. Second, I wish that I knew more about the
competitiveness of my type of business and had spent some time
interviewing people who were successfully doing what I wanted to do. –
Cyndi A. Laurin www.guidetogreatness.com
74. I wish I had known that starting a business would give me so much
happiness, and worry. I knew that it would be hard, but I had no ideas
of the hills and valleys that would come with being a business owner. –
Shay Olivarria www.BiggerThanYourBlock.com
75. I knew that starting a business was going to be a lot of work,
but I didnt know much work and that it was going to go slower than I had
expected. I wish I had known that there was going to be a lot that I
didnt know, but that its ok because Ive figured it out (and am still
figuring it out!) along with way. –
Grace Bateman http://www.perupaper.com
76. Everyone
will not be happy or supportive of you starting a business or
succeeding in it, and that’s okay, as you do not need their nod, their
vote of confidence or their praise… you have your own.
– Anahid Derbabian www.integritycommunicationsco.com
77. Don’t work with your spouse. If you want to wreck a marriage, be
together 24/7 with one person exerting power over the other. –
Susan Schell http://www.citadeladvisory.com
78. Relationship Marketing – I wish I had understood the importance
of staying connected with past clients and nurturing relationships with
current clients. Your personal life, your spiritual life and your
professional life is all about the relationship. –
Sandie Glass http://www.sandstormideas.com/
79. I wish I would have realized earlier the importance of having a
core group of target customers. Find a handful of people and build a
trust with them. Test various products and services on them and
eventually use their passion and your business to fuel evangelism to
grow as you refine your business model. –
Dayne Shuda http://huntingbusinessmarketing.com
80. If you’re young, and especially if you’re a woman, you may be
tempted to undersell your product or service – or worse, give them away –
in order to get into the game. Don’t. Set up a pricing structure that’s
in line with your business plan and allows you to grow your business. –
Ruth Danielson http://www.msmarketintel.com
81. I wished I had learned about the need for business systems and
process documentation and why they are important. I have found they are a
life saver to developing a work environment that thrives since everyone
in the company knows what they are supposed to be doing and can easily
reference the steps. –
Adam Sayler http://arthurwinn.com
82. What I wish I knew before I started a business was a really great
business advisor! Most of us go into a business with a big heart for
the product and lots of excitement. Few of us really know how to run a
business. –
Kelley Small www.smolakfarms.com
83. I wish I knew how long it would take to build a steady stream of
clients and establish strong relationships with customers and vendors. –
Alexis Avila www.preppedandpolished.com
84. I didn’t take into account what being a home business owner would mean I mean I’m in my house a
lot! I have to eat 3 times a day and there are very few delivery places
where I live – so making a mess in the kitchen 3 times a day, and
cleaning the office myself. –
Maria Marsala http://www.ElevatingYourBusiness.com
85. I wish I had known how demanding entrepreneurship is on the
entire family. It took me months to realize that they were giving as
much or more than me by picking up the slack around home and giving me
space to pursue a dream. –
Carrie Rocha http://www.pocketyourdollars.com/
86. To be patient. When I first started, I expected results
instantly. I’d get frustrated when things didn’t work the way I planned.
Luckily, I didn’t have any hang-ups about failing, so I kept trying new
things
and slowly built upon those things that worked. –
Naveed Usman http://www.theusmangroup.com
87. How much money would I make in the first couple years of
operation. Obviously, this answer would of told me to find a steady job
and do this on the side until I really got it going 3-4 years later. –
Marc Anderson TalktoCanada.com
88. I wish I knew that cash flow wasn’t the same as profits, that
employees are not paid friends and that you should always trust but
never let anyone open your bank statements. –
Anne-Marie www.brambleberry.com
89. The one thing I wish I had done differently is not spent money on
advertising offers that don’t pay off. This is business people don’t
often do things out of the goodness of their heart. I’ve learned to be a
lot more skeptical of “opportunities” I get offered. –
Adrien TheNakedHippie
90. One piece advice I would give to people just starting up that I
wish knew is that success is less about the idea and more execution.
Don’t wait until you have the great idea or have refined all the plans,
just get something up and start iterating. –
Ben Hatten www.legalriver.com
91. How important it is to network, instead of attempting to fly
solo. Fortunately, my belated learning didn’t negatively impact my
company for too long but the soaring would definitely have occurred
sooner had I considered the value of self-promotion. –
Marlene Caroselli www.caroselli.biz
92. I wish I knew how much my time was really worth and the best way
to set my rates. I made an early mistake by charging too little and
booking myself so tightly that I didn’t have enough time to work on some
projects the way I wanted to and I couldn’t hire anyone to help me
because I didn’t allow for the added cost. –
Susan Bender Phelps www.OdysseyMentoring.com
93. I wish I knew the importance of networking when I first started
my web design company. It took me a few months to realize that referrals
and networking are the best types of leads. People want to do business
with people they like! –
Becky McKinnell www.iBecCreative.com
94. First, that being successful causes growing pains that are a
major headache. A good headache to have, but difficult challenges
nevertheless. Second, it would have been nice to know it can take a year
or so for things to take off. Starting a business can be frustrating in
the beginning and you really have to be determined to succeed. –
Nick Veneris Xomba.com
95. Dont listen too closely your friends who might be good business
people but who have never started a business. They mean well, but their
assumptions are way different as an employee of a company than they
could ever be as a principal shareholder in a business. –
Elizabeth Pitt CaregiverNeeded.com
96. I wish that someone had told me that managing a business isn’t
about numbers, but rather all about people skills. During my first
management foray I fell face first in the dirt. People called me a
micro-manager because I got too much into the nitty gritty of how to do
the job rather than allowing them to find their own way. –
Steve Richard www.vorsight.com
97. I wish I had known that starting a business requires you to ride
an emotional roller coaster. You can go from the highest highs to the
lowest lows in a matter of hours because a startup company always seems
be on the verge of either collapsing or taking off like a rocket. Now
making my business grow is all the more exhilarating because I survived
demoralizing low points to get it off the ground. –
Alex Andon http://www.jellyfishart.com
98. That it is OK to trust your instincts — even when they are not
necessarily backed up by years of finance/accounting or business school
credentials –
Jenn Benz www.benzcommunications.com
99. Less time spent on paid marketing/advertising efforts and more
time screening and building strong partnerships with influential
journalists, writers, editors and television producers. –
Philip Farina http://www.farina-associates.com
100. I now know that businesses are extremely organic & have a
way of taking on a life of their own – now I know that though things
don’t always work out as planned, there is always another opportunity
around the corner…understanding this from the beginning would’ve saved
me a lot of stress! –
Rina Jakubowicz http://www.rinayoga.com
Now that’s a lot to take in before you start! There are a lot of
hardships, problems and things to consider but to sum it up I think Kat
Gordon of
www.maternalinstinct.net says it best
“In short, I manage my own destiny. And I’d have it no other way.”
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