17 Tips I Would Give to a Beginning Entrepreneur
28 January 2013
Read by 1823 persons
When you create a business, it is very difficult to take a step back from your project, your management, your strategy...
That is why we have gathered in this article 17 tips especially for beginning entrepreneurs.
1. Don't consider your business as your own thing, over which you have all the rights.
You are certainly at the origin of the project, you define the strategy, you give the impetus... but your employees must also participate in the project and make it evolve autonomously.
If employees feel that they are part of the project, that they can bring a little of themselves to it, then they will be more motivated and they will work tirelessly for you.
2. Your business must have a "little something extra."
This could be original premises, a monthly get-together between company colleagues, publishing an internal mini-newspaper, letting someone present a project every month... In short, a little something that makes your company unique, and that makes your employees want to stay in your company.
3. Celebrate events!
Every time a big contract is signed, a new employee arrives... celebrate it!
This could be, for example, a bell when an important contract is signed, a small breakfast for birthdays...
This will strengthen team cohesion, motivate employees... and create a true company spirit.
4. Don't have your eyes fixed on your competitors thinking they're doing better than you.
Generally, we overestimate our competitors and underestimate ourselves... So yes, you have to monitor your competition, but with perspective, trying not to imitate but to do better or differently.
5. The lack of competitors is almost always a bad thing.
If you don't have any competitors, it means that your market is not yet mature, and therefore that you will have to do a lot of educational work (and therefore have high prices and focus on a niche offering).
6. Your first collaborators are essential to your success.
Your founding team must be intelligent, energetic and committed. You cannot afford to have people who are below average. Always prefer to wait until you have the right person rather than recruiting in a hurry.
7. Don't recruit people like you.
You must hire people who complement your skills and character so that you can acquire new skills and delegate to these people the strategic subjects they master (accounting, HR, Marketing...).
8. Get paid for your products as soon as possible.
If your prospects don't want to pay for a first version (a minimum viable product, of course), then you have little chance that they will be willing to pay for your "real" product afterwards. By confronting yourself with the market as quickly as possible, you will learn what has value in the eyes of your prospects (and therefore what they are willing to pay for).
9. Have confidence in your ideas...
It is not necessary to have an extraordinary product or service, you must meet a need with people ready to pay for it.
There will always be people who will tell you that this product already exists, that others have tried and that it didn't work, that you are taking a risk... but in the end it is the customers who decide!
There is no better test than launching a product (even not totally finalized) on a small target of "volunteer guinea pig" customers.
10. Making mistakes is not serious, provided you correct them and learn the lesson.
Sometimes mistakes happen, and generally it's not that serious, provided you take them into account and put in place procedures to prevent them from happening again (at least!).
11. Don't think that your products will sell themselves because they are good...
It is sometimes tragic to see the failures of some very good products because the company never knew how to value it or do good marketing...
Empirically, 50% of your time and budget should be devoted to promotion and sales.
12. Don't be a tyrant...
Listen to your employees, and don't be a tyrant with courtiers who dare not speak their minds...
If you are too assertive for that, find a mentor outside the company to submit your ideas to.
The role of the CEO of the company is both to lead, but also to serve others in order to achieve the company's objectives.
13. Think about building customer loyalty.
You shouldn't only think about a single sale, you should think about your customers' feelings after the purchase (for word-of-mouth), about recurring sales (so you don't have to constantly hunt for new customers)...
Don't be obsessed with money: no money-making opportunity should be strong enough to destroy a relationship with a customer.
14. No one is irreplaceable...
Life always goes on... If one of your best employees leaves, you can't do anything about it.
However, you must make sure that another person can take over in the best possible conditions.
To do this, ask for a handover of files, or at least to write a book with procedures (or using CRM software to keep the company's memory).
15. After the rain comes the sunshine...
Keep doing what you do best even if at the start you don't achieve the expected results... Success often comes when you least expect it.
However, you must not sail by sight, you must anticipate the evolution of the company and put in place indicators to make the right decisions before it is too late.
16. A difficult decision is often a decision that will change things.
Strategic decisions are those that allow you to make a leap forward (or backward), take your time to think and analyze the risks, but above all decide! It's always better than to suffer and do nothing.
17. Think about the interests of your distributors.
Distributors don't want to sell products, they want to take orders and make money with the least effort and risk...
All your work will therefore be to meet their expectations and remove all obstacles to the marketing of your products.
Conseilsmarketing.com
Posted online January 21, 2013.
That is why we have gathered in this article 17 tips especially for beginning entrepreneurs.
1. Don't consider your business as your own thing, over which you have all the rights.
You are certainly at the origin of the project, you define the strategy, you give the impetus... but your employees must also participate in the project and make it evolve autonomously.
If employees feel that they are part of the project, that they can bring a little of themselves to it, then they will be more motivated and they will work tirelessly for you.
2. Your business must have a "little something extra."
This could be original premises, a monthly get-together between company colleagues, publishing an internal mini-newspaper, letting someone present a project every month... In short, a little something that makes your company unique, and that makes your employees want to stay in your company.
3. Celebrate events!
Every time a big contract is signed, a new employee arrives... celebrate it!
This could be, for example, a bell when an important contract is signed, a small breakfast for birthdays...
This will strengthen team cohesion, motivate employees... and create a true company spirit.
4. Don't have your eyes fixed on your competitors thinking they're doing better than you.
Generally, we overestimate our competitors and underestimate ourselves... So yes, you have to monitor your competition, but with perspective, trying not to imitate but to do better or differently.
5. The lack of competitors is almost always a bad thing.
If you don't have any competitors, it means that your market is not yet mature, and therefore that you will have to do a lot of educational work (and therefore have high prices and focus on a niche offering).
6. Your first collaborators are essential to your success.
Your founding team must be intelligent, energetic and committed. You cannot afford to have people who are below average. Always prefer to wait until you have the right person rather than recruiting in a hurry.
7. Don't recruit people like you.
You must hire people who complement your skills and character so that you can acquire new skills and delegate to these people the strategic subjects they master (accounting, HR, Marketing...).
8. Get paid for your products as soon as possible.
If your prospects don't want to pay for a first version (a minimum viable product, of course), then you have little chance that they will be willing to pay for your "real" product afterwards. By confronting yourself with the market as quickly as possible, you will learn what has value in the eyes of your prospects (and therefore what they are willing to pay for).
9. Have confidence in your ideas...
It is not necessary to have an extraordinary product or service, you must meet a need with people ready to pay for it.
There will always be people who will tell you that this product already exists, that others have tried and that it didn't work, that you are taking a risk... but in the end it is the customers who decide!
There is no better test than launching a product (even not totally finalized) on a small target of "volunteer guinea pig" customers.
10. Making mistakes is not serious, provided you correct them and learn the lesson.
Sometimes mistakes happen, and generally it's not that serious, provided you take them into account and put in place procedures to prevent them from happening again (at least!).
11. Don't think that your products will sell themselves because they are good...
It is sometimes tragic to see the failures of some very good products because the company never knew how to value it or do good marketing...
Empirically, 50% of your time and budget should be devoted to promotion and sales.
12. Don't be a tyrant...
Listen to your employees, and don't be a tyrant with courtiers who dare not speak their minds...
If you are too assertive for that, find a mentor outside the company to submit your ideas to.
The role of the CEO of the company is both to lead, but also to serve others in order to achieve the company's objectives.
13. Think about building customer loyalty.
You shouldn't only think about a single sale, you should think about your customers' feelings after the purchase (for word-of-mouth), about recurring sales (so you don't have to constantly hunt for new customers)...
Don't be obsessed with money: no money-making opportunity should be strong enough to destroy a relationship with a customer.
14. No one is irreplaceable...
Life always goes on... If one of your best employees leaves, you can't do anything about it.
However, you must make sure that another person can take over in the best possible conditions.
To do this, ask for a handover of files, or at least to write a book with procedures (or using CRM software to keep the company's memory).
15. After the rain comes the sunshine...
Keep doing what you do best even if at the start you don't achieve the expected results... Success often comes when you least expect it.
However, you must not sail by sight, you must anticipate the evolution of the company and put in place indicators to make the right decisions before it is too late.
16. A difficult decision is often a decision that will change things.
Strategic decisions are those that allow you to make a leap forward (or backward), take your time to think and analyze the risks, but above all decide! It's always better than to suffer and do nothing.
17. Think about the interests of your distributors.
Distributors don't want to sell products, they want to take orders and make money with the least effort and risk...
All your work will therefore be to meet their expectations and remove all obstacles to the marketing of your products.
Conseilsmarketing.com
Posted online January 21, 2013.
