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10
Essential Tips for
Starting Entrepreneurs
(Part 2)--
Ignore These at Your Peril!
In Part
1 <link to last month’s article> of this series,
we highlighted five essential
tips for those starting a small or solo business,
including tips on picking your market niche, why
a business plan is essential, ensuring you have
enough money to cover your startup costs, and
how to design your marketing. Here are five
more tips from successful business owners.
6.
Remember the Most Important Ingredient in Your Business--YOU:
Business-owner: know thyself. Spend some time learning
about who you are and how you are unique. Then
let that uniqueness shine through in your marketing, in
how you run your business, in everything you do.
Don't
hide your quirks--celebrate them!
Customers
go to small and solo businesses primarily because they are
looking for a personalized experience. They
want a relationship with you as the owner
of your business. If you try to come off as who you think
they want, they'll smell right through that and not come
back. Be who you are, and
trust that who YOU are is going to be attractive to the
right people.
7.
Build Your Business by Building Relationships:
Being a small or solo business owner isn't about sitting
in the corner alone. Actually it can be--and that isolation
is what drives many out of business and back into a "job."
Build relationships to survive! Start with
your colleagues--others you know who are at the same stage
of business as you, or are farther along and willing to
mentor you.
Next, build
relationships with potential customers.
Ask them what they want! Then
create products and services based on their input and come
back and show them what you have done. Get
feedback, tweak, and maybe make your first sale. Stay
in touch with your customers even after they leave you.
 Last
but not least, build relationships
with your competitors. You might be able
to do this right at the beginning, simply by asking them
for their advice. Surprisingly, many ARE willing to share
their secrets if you just ask. Later on, build
cross-referral relationships, co-marketing alliances,
and other relationships that are win-win for you, your competitors,
and your customers.
8.
Don't Accept a Customer Just For the Money:
This is probably the hardest advice for new business owners
to apply. Especially when there is a job, a project, a potential
client, just outside your niche, that could keep your business
solvent for the next six months. Don't do it! Taking
on a client outside your niche inevitably results in frustration
for you, dissatisfaction on the part of the client,
and in the end, usually costs you more than you make. Ask
any successful business owner and they'll tell you this
is true!
9.
Don't Do Everything Yourself: It's so tempting
to fall into the self-deception that "it's
cheaper for me to do it myself." IT"S NOT!
If you aren't good at something, for instance bookkeeping,
it will probably take you 2-3 times as long--time you could
be spending doing things that are essential for you to be
doing personally, like writing your business plan or deciding
your marketing strategy. Put sufficient capital
into your business upfront so you CAN hire help right from
the start. Your business will get
off to a quicker start because you aren't distracted by
time-consuming tasks that drain your energy.
 10.
Assemble Your Support Team: Start with the
people who will help you do the things you aren't good at.
Some examples: bookkeeper, marketing writer, web designer.
Then add the people who give
you professional business advice: a lawyer, an accountant,
a business coach. Finally, include the people
who support you personally: your family, friends,
and colleagues.
Don't forget to be
part of other's support teams, too. Share
your expertise with others, start a networking group where
business owners support each other, share
a referral with a colleague. Supporting
each other is what will make us all successful!
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Terri
Zwierzynski