This is where we'll add advice from things we've learned along the way. We've met a lot of interesting characters over the years (well, what do you expect when one of the sites you own is called School Sucks!?) Thousands of hours spent chatting about the Internet and enterpreneurial stuff. We learned from these experiences and hope our friends did too. There's no getting around using examples of things we saw to illustrate a point.
Don't become a business plan junkie! We've seen too many of our friends spend months on end working on business plans instead of actually doing something and gaining experience! Business is for enterpreneurs, not philosophers. We knew someone who came up with an idea for a new business every day of the week. It would hit him in the morning. By lunchtime, he'd have an outline and by dinner he'd have a 2-5 page Word document ready to go. At night, he'd solicit advice online and from friends. While sleeping, he'd dream of a new idea and the cycle began again in the morning.
Of course that doesn't mean you shouldn't be thinking of new ideas! If you're past 30 years old and really going through the above cycle without finding one idea to focus on, something's wrong. Learn to filter your new business ideas. You shouldn't be writing a business plan for every single new thought that crosses your mind. Some people love the process of thinking of and starting a business so much that they never get to the hard part -- making your business succeed for decades!
Don't become a Word document junkie either! If you're spending more time on your brochures and Word documents than you are on business development and sales, you're doing something wrong. We've seen friends spend weeks at home in front of the computer working on marketing and public relations text files. We knew a guy who gave computer classes in his city and spent months on an 80 page lesson plan. Wonderful. By the time he was done, he realized he didn't have many students and he was back to working at the bagel place! He should have spent much more of his time marketing himself - showing up at Internet and non-Internet events. When sales didn't pick up, he should have tried marketing himself in nearby neighborhoods and towns.
Perfectionists make awful business owners but excellent employees. Your first 1-3 years in business are the most important! There's no getting around making at least a few mid-sized mistakes. The faster you make them and learn your lesson, the better. It's a day-to-day roller coaster. Our friend in the above story was a perfectionist. His lesson plan had to cover all the bases and use nice fonts and colors. Spend your days doing business development and sales and your nights doing your text files and graphics.
Everyone loves to be a consultant, but few actually build something of their own. When you start a new business, you'll see that everyone around you has advice for you. Know who to listen to. We knew a guy who called himself an Internet business consultant as he had a small Ecommerce deal that kept him afloat for a few months. He and partners approached us and offered to help take our business to the next level. We didn't take it too seriously, but gave it a few hours of our time. The main partner in the group would sometimes visit us and spew advice but nothing got done.
A few months later, this same person came back to us and told us he was moving to a city where his wife (a young lawyer with a resume) could make them enough money to live. "I haven't done anything too solid for the past few years," he explained. We were floored. "If you haven't done anything solid in the past few years, what made you think you can be our consultants? We HAVE done something solid over the past few years!"
Since then, we check the resumes of those offering to help us. We shied away from this at first as many of these offers come from friends and "friends of friends". Especially in your 20's and early 30's, you don't want to put your peers on the spot by asking about their qualifications. But if you're lucky enough to be young and own a profitable business getting media attention, you better be asking tough questions when you need to!
Owning a small business changes your perspective of things. You know what it took to get your little idea off the ground. When you finally have a chance to take a deep breath and see the view, you see a world with so many people who excel at criticizing and giving advice and so few who are creating, building and leading.
