What 10 Years of Small Business Taught Us

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Becoming an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. Running and growing a business can be challenging – that’s why about 90 percent of all new businesses fail.

Since the odds are stacked against you, it takes hard work and perseverance to achieve success.

Whether you have a business or looking to start a one, it’s important to listen to your peers and mentors. Some lessons you will have to learn on your own but some small business tips you can learn from others.

Collectively, Thomas and Andrew have ten years of experience under their belt running small businesses. Today they will share their most valuable lessons and small business tips.

Don’t quit your day job.

When you are just starting out, bringing in a consistent profit month after month can be challenging and stressful. You don’t want to be the position where you’ll do anything for a quick buck.

You want to focus on building something that will make you $2000 passively everything month down the road and not worry about making $100 to survive the week.

“A successful business is a marathon, not a sprint.”

Keeping your day job until your business is financially stable will reduce pressure so you can focus on what matters. Remember – it’s not how you start the race, it’s how you finish it.

For Andrew, constraint breeds creativity. Having limited hours to get work done forces him to do the things that matter and make the most out of his hours.

Study the pros.

You can read all the books on what you need to do to grow a successful business but what will push the needle is to study what the pros do. Find people inside and outside of your industry that you admire and dig into what they are doing with their businesses.

For example, let us say you are super inspired by Pat Flynn and looking to run a successful online business. He has some great content online outlining what to do but go beyond that.

Study what the pros do more than what they teach. Analyze their code, writing styles, videos, etc. Of course, don’t blatantly rip people off but take influence and make it your own. You will eventually develop your own style. First, get inspired.

Improve 1% every month.

Give yourself realistic growth goals. Growing 1% every month doesn’t sound like much, however, after a year you will have increased 12.68% and 26.97% in the second year. Just a little bit of growth consistently will start an exponential growth cycle.

Just because you are improving 1% every month doesn’t me that every single thing you make will grow that one percent. That’s why you need to follow The Equal-Odds Rule. Thomas has an excellent video on it. Watch it.

He believes if you want to make things that are amazing, things that become fruitful and well-known then you have to make a lot of things. The more you do, the more you will fail, and the more you succeed. Throw things at the wall. You never know.

Don’t put yourself in the box.

Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do or what people expect you to do. Don’t ever feel you need to fit into a box. Put your weirdness into your work” that weirdness sets you apart.

There are not a limited amount of opportunities.

There are an unlimited number, but if you chase every opportunity, you will never make meaningful progress on the ones that matter. Only pursue opportunities that help you achieve your key goals. Say no to everything else.

Also, stop thinking all the good ideas are taken. It will just paralyze your creativity. Your idea most likely has already been done. There are very few “new” ideas out there but who cares!

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