Thinking of starting a business?
Whether you want to start a business online or a traditional brick and mortar business the basic principles stay the same.
If I look back on my own career in business there are 9 things that stand out as the most important lessons I have learned.
Today I am going to share those guidelines to give you an idea of what is important to remember when you first get started.
Making the decision to become an entrepreneur is a big decision to make.
It means you are ready to make some bold moves and create the freedom that you want in life.
With that in mind lets take a look at the guidelines that will be the most important when you start making your climb.
9 Online Business Lessons
(1)Extreme Ownership.
You are responsible for everything.
Your position in life right now is because of you and only you.
In business, this mindset has to be taken to an extreme level.
Its all you, nobody else is responsible even if the people you hire fuck up its still you and only you.
Pointing fingers will only make things worse.
You have to take this mindset of extreme ownership to the next level if you want to succeed.
(2)Cash Flow Is King.
When you start your business, cash flow should be your number 1 priority and goal.
You should focus on creative ways to start making money as soon as possible.
You need cash flow to grow and scale a business.
If you don't have cash flow you can't reinvest into your business and take it to the next level.
To find the cash,don't be flashy, just start getting your money right.
When you have cash flow start thinking about your long-term vision for your business.
Start thinking about where you want to take your business.
(3)Simplify and Stay Lean.
Stop buying things you don't need.
Simplify and streamline everything.
Stop thinking about being flashy.
When you start you should have the mindset of a King but don't start living like one.
First focus on cutting costs to a minimum.
You don't need a business card yet.
You don't need expensive marketing yet.
What you do need is yourself in the trenches with the bare minimum.
(4)Focus On Solving Problems.
Forget about coming up with ideas, instead, look for problems.
This is where the gold is.
The reason why many entrepreneurs fail is that they think they have this genius idea that the world is going to love.
Then they are shocked when nobody is interested.
They fail because they were too arrogant to ask the market what they wanted.
Always ask the market(your customers) what their biggest challenges and problems are.
Then find solutions to those problems with your product or service.
(5)Serving Your Customers.
When things get hard start focusing on ways to serve and help your customers.
If you help your customers and sever them with excellent product and services everything else will fall in place and you will be rewarded for it.
(6)Think About Letting Go Of Your 9-5 Job As Soon As Possible.
I'm not one of those entrepreneurs that tell others to just quit their jobs and everything will be fine.
Everyone is different and have a different situation.
I started my business working a full-time job.
I worked on my business after hours and weekends.
Many people start this way and it's a practical way to get things going.
However, growing your business to the next level is very hard with a full-time job.
So one of your first priorities should be to work towards walking away from your current job.
There will come a time where you will have to choose between going all in or getting all out.
(7)You Don't Need To Go To University.
If you want to start a business you don’t need to go to university.
I wish I knew this when I went to university.
I wasted a lot of money and time getting a degree that didn't give me much in return.
Sure I had a piece of paper but in term of business, it had zero value.
University is not necessary for business.
However, education is very important.
Self-education is key in terms of books and courses.
Your self-education should be a lifelong process of learning and improving.
Most highly successful entrepreneurs read a lot of books.
(8)Focus
You need to build a super focus on the most important thing in your business.
Whatever that is you need to focus like a laser beam on that thing and make it an absolute priority.
Keep the main thing the main thing.
If you don’t sacrifice for your goal it will disappear into thin air.
Dreams are fragile and can be destroyed if you don't give it the attention it needs.
And as Anthony Robbins famously said:
“Energy flows where focus goes”
(9)Lions Don’t Care About The Opinions of Sheep.
Something I mention a lot in my books and blog articles is that sheep will always comment on the actions of lions.
You will notice this as soon as you start talking about starting a business.
When you do nothing and procrastinate sheep will not say anything, they will encourage it.
But start making your move and the flocks of sheep will be there to give their opinions.
This is the world we live in.
The sheep will question you and criticize you.
Remember the more successful you become the more the sheep will be there to talk.
But like I mentioned before you have to treat the opinions of sheep with absolute disdain.
Ignore their negative world and keep on walking into the light.
Think independently and go to win.
