5 Lessons I Learned From 4 Startups

 This  Post was First Published on https://goodmenproject.com . See the Original Post here: https://goodmenproject.com/business-ethics-2/5-lessons-i-learned-from-4-startups-kt/ 

So, you want to become an entrepreneur? Really? Great! It’s a pretty solid path. But…entrepreneurship is not exactly as sexy as it seems from the outside. In fact, its work. A LOT of work.

The rewards? May not be any…. At least until you hit it off big. Still, the rewards are great enough that it’s not a bad path to go down if you know what you are doing. I mean, I am no successful millionaire giving you the holy grail to successful entrepreneurship, but…I learned a lot along the way and maybe they are lessons that can help you, too. As the saying goes: learn from other’s mistakes. Why?

Because you won’t live long enough to make them all on your own…

Lesson 1: Have a Front-up Plan

Continue down the normal path of earning a formal education and getting a real and regular job UNTIL you have established yourself to a certain degree. So, yes, plan to go to college. Because it’s still the only thing that seems to work for most people. Now, I can hear some of you saying “Oh, but Robert Kiyosaki said you need to have financial security and not job security. So, I need to focus on passive income and entrepreneurship.”

But we are not all gonna be Robert Kiyosaki. He is an exception among exceptions. Yes, he did not go down the traditional path of college education, yet he still succeeded. He found his own way, and just as I have done, and as you will do, carving your own signature place in the working world is a necessity. Because no one else is like you. No other person has your unique combination of gifts.

Make entrepreneurship your back-up plan until it becomes your main hustle.

If you are figuring out what career path to choose, always start with the one that has the highest chance of working out. Only after you have something really solid going for yourself can you afford to go down the risky path of being a full-time entrepreneur. I struggled to scale my chess coaching program even though I was in a niche market and was very good at it. The demand simply wasn’t there, and I had to shut down the business. When your side hustle becomes bigger than your main hustle (which is bound to happen at some point if you keep at it), that’s when you should make the switch.

Lesson 2: Network. Network. Network 

It doesn’t matter how cool your product is, if you don’t know the right people, you will have a really hard time scaling your business.

Go out there, and constantly try to meet and get to know the experts and the influencers within your particular industry.

They are the ones who have the power to fast-forward your business light-years ahead of schedule.

If you are trying to become a writer for a large-scale platform, for example, network in writer groups. Attend events in your area and meet people with similar goals. Make it a practice to reach out to people and talk to them about what you have in common.

Some good ways to network:

• Business mixers
• LinkedIn
• Public speaking
• Finding a mentor
• Blogging
• Media opportunities

Once you get to a point where you have established personal connections with people within your industry, opportunities will open up from every direction. I have found many clients simply because I got to know the right person. I have picked up clients because I regularly publish articles on LinkedIn, which are read by some influencers who then refer potential customers to me. In fact, the majority of my clients now come through referrals from other big people in the industry.

Lesson 3: Build a Strong Personal Brand and Increase Your Following.

Your personal brand defines you. It sticks with you no matter your business type. Just look at people like Pat Flynn, Tim Sykes, and Neil Patel! Everyone knows them. Knows about them…. Knows of them….

Why??

Because they worked really hard over the years and built a powerful personal brand and a huge following. It does not matter if tomorrow Neil Patel starts selling cars or Pat Flynn starts a trash-collecting company… They will still have their brand names, which will follow them right on to the next business! These followers are also likely to be the first customers of the new business, meaning they will refer new clients to the newly-launched business.

I started my freelance marketing company by reaching out to small businesses and trying to get them to work with me. Wasn’t a bad model. But the problem was that I had no online following to show for it! You can build a really good personal brand by being open with your audience and sharing lots of life stories. People gravitate toward stories. It makes us relatable, approachable. As long as you personalize your brand and you share value, you will engage your readers a lot more. Ultimately, if you are to convince people to buy something from you, you have to get them to trust you.

Every single business is built off the need people feel to connect. According to psychologist, Daniel Kahneman‘s book, Thinking Fast and Slow,  people tend to associate familiar things with positiveness and unfamiliarity with negativeness. So, get people very used to your personal life. Openly share your life on Facebook and other social media. Blog about it. The more people learn about you, the more likely they are to follow you. The more likely they are to buy from you…

Lesson 4: Focus on Creating Value for Your Audience.

You might be able to make money by being a really good salesman, but let me tell you something… You won’t have any component of the Lifetime Value of a Customer (LVC) in your business… Unless you provide value also. The easiest path to success comes from helping your customer build their own business. As long as you are yielding your clients a positive ROI, they will come back to you repeatedly. LVC increases tremendously if you are able to somehow help people succeed in their own business or provide them a service they can actually sincerely benefit from.

A few lines ago we talked about personal branding. Now, imagine what a bad rep or inability to provide value would mean for your personal brand… Can’t be good.

No matter what it is you want to do, figure out exactly what your customers are looking for. Exactly what can you do to solve one of their problems. Businesses that resolve challenges and constantly provide value to their customers also spend a lot less bucks on marketing than those businesses not so proficient at proving value and problem solving.

Always, keep your audience in mind and try to help them as much as you can.

Lesson 5: Read and Study. NEVER Stop LEARNING.

Once you stop learning, you kinda die as an entrepreneur. Successful people have one thing in common: they constantly learn new ways to get ahead of their competition.

 The reason they are successful is because they are better than their competition. It makes them more likely to get clients. They know more. They are able to invest their time and money more effectively to get better results. Read and study all the time about things which are relevant to your industry.

I constantly follow the top people in my industry. I read their books, listen to their lectures, follow them on social media, read their blog and sometimes, directly ask them questions just to build a personal relationship with them.

Learning does not need to happen in a formal education system. I have learned more from self-education. Audio books are one of the best ways to gain a large wealth of information rather quickly. I don’t like to waste time, so I listen to YouTube lectures and audio books at 1.25 or 1.5X speed. This way, I can get through content a lot faster.

I have not been an entrepreneur that long.

But…I have started a few things.

Some of those did well, some did not.

I kept trying until I succeeded and this is what I encourage you to do, too. Because you will find something that does work.

Good luck!!
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Original article appeared at Rafi Chowdhury. Reprinted with permission.