10 Tips For Entrepreneurs
1. Plan your business….with a business plan
What is your business about? Who currently offers similar services? What sets you apart? Do you have the required business experience or do you need to find partners/employees to get you off the ground? Is the business based on physical goods alone or is there a digital portion as well?
A fantastic book I highly recommend is How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg. It will help elucidate that business plans don’t have to be the boring docs we often assume they are, but instead a real blueprint on the company ethos you are looking to build.
2. Hire very carefully and intentionally
Your first hires can lead to a positive or negative snowball effect. These individuals might very well become leaders in your organization in the future. They usually will be the ones new hires look to for guidance on how best to maneuver your office walls. It’s important to share your vision and ensure that any potential employee has a plan that syncs in with what you are trying to achieve. Don’t just hire someone because they are cheap or because they were recommended, and be super careful when hiring family/friends. You aren’t trying to hire for fun or charity, but to get actual results. Talent is all over the place, but not all talent fits your vibe, so figure out what matters most to you and go in search of that.
3. Minimize your spending
It’s very easy to let the excitement and butterflies in your tummy lead you to buy brand new chairs, tables and all sorts of equipment and claim it’s a necessary business expense. Do NOT get lost in the sauce. What is the minimum spend you’ll need to be effective and make strides? How can you cut costs? Is there a space you can use that comes at little to no expense? Find out if you can trade services for renting a space. It’s no coincidence that a good number of successful companies started in a garage (3WP included, my garage is guilty as charged). The point is, there is a reason the most successful business owners till today, keep their spending to a minimum. We are trying to make an impact and grow bank accounts, and not focus on having the best office chair with lumbar support from Day 1.
4. Prepare for numerous rainy financial days
Budget, Budget Budget! Every quarter at least, you need to have a budget meeting where you plan the next few months and set your goals. Even if the process isn’t perfect at first, it will give you a good means to track your progress and see where you fell short or excelled. Note successful areas of your business, areas that are lacking behind and those that need to be re-strategized or scrapped completely. Plan to always have a reserve account with finances to cover 2+ months of salaries and costs. At least having this as a goal, will help you work towards it.
5. Master the Art of Negotiation
One thing clients love is “discounts”. While often not a good way to ensure you’re meeting your budgetary needs, there are ways to make both yourself and the client happy. Instead of just arbitrarily knocking an amount off the price (which I don’t recommend as it makes your price seem like a lie), offer deals like 5%–10% off the total price, if the entire amount is paid upfront. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT undersell yourself just to close a deal. Negotiations can involve non-monetary deals. If you are designing a flyer for someone and they cannot afford the full fee, consider asking that your logo is included in a prominent area and then reduce cost by 20% or so. Find out what value means to you and make sure that value is being met with each job.
6. Seek advice and mentorship
You are not the first person to start a business under your conditions, no matter what you are selling. Find people and seminars around you that can place you in the right network of individuals who can give you advice, ideas and possibly financial investments to take your business to the next level. If you would like to discuss an idea with us at 3WP for example, shoot us an email at hello@3wp.io and we’ll be glad to discuss further! Step out of your comfort zone (and out of your ego) and search for events and people that seem interesting and/or you admire and try to engage. Wisdom comes from all corners of life so do not only stick to people in your industry but also try venturing out to see what general advice you can garner from all walks of life.
7. Innovate
Really, don’t reinvent the wheel. Make a new variant of the wheel or a new way to install wheels. Wheels aside, innovation is the lifeblood of any successful business. Find ways that you can provide your customers with added benefits in your own way. One of the things we do here at 3WP is having hourly maintenance rates for website maintenance. What that means is, if you have a request, we will assess it on your site, then give you a strict range of how many billable hours it will be and thus how much it will cost.
This was a big difference to the standard monthly maintenance rates and contracts that are abundant in our industry. Our reasons were simple. Firstly, it allows clients to pay as they need. No need to get locked into a monthly contract when you have varying needs and requests per month and thus might be overpaying on average. On the flip side, it saves us from undercharging for work rendered as workload can vary monthly and it’s tricky to try and tell your client that a certain work falls outside of a previously agreed retainer. Secondly, it gives clients a sense of how long certain requests will take, so they can plan better on how to make necessary adjustments as time goes on. It was a hard sell to many clients at first, but now, 4 years on, it’s one thing that many of them appreciate the most from us.
8. Stand your ground
Now they say the client is always right, and they also say clients don’t really know what they want. “They” are right and wrong. The truth is, a client coming to you should mean that they need your expertise and guidance on certain things. If you’ve carefully structured your business to operate a certain way, then that is how you should function. If a client’s demands fall way out of your standard offerings and might appear to pull you in the wrong direction, do not be afraid to politely disagree. Explain why your decisions are what they are and also hear out their reasons for requesting what they did. If you can’t come to an agreement, don’t bend too far from your predefined structure just to get their business as your service may not truly reflect what you intended. Not all requests are meant to be met. A good number of our longest standing clients initially said no to our proposals and terms then returned after some time in the big bad world to agree to exactly what we had initially proposed. We stood our ground because we knew that is how we worked best and everything worked out for the better in the end.
9. Own up to your mistakes
Oh, mistakes will come, for many reasons and the most important thing I’ve found is to get ahead of the problem. Let the client know what went wrong and why. The earlier you share this info the better, and they will appreciate you being so candid. Never try and sweep a situation under the rug or hope that it won’t be noticed. If you can build your reputation for being trustworthy and reliable, that is worth its weight in gold. Always see any work you are doing as your own so that you feel how the client feels. How will you like to be spoken to by your service provider? If you can, offer something in return for an error that came from you. A big mishap can lead to you reducing the price by a certain amount or throw in a freebie to show the client that you value them. This is a more mature approach to know you were in the wrong. We are all human (my computer just laughed) so let’s be cordial and treat each other with human respect.
10. Go forth and conquer
Honestly, quoting Nike here, Just Do It. Nothing gets done without being done. Trial and error is part of the game so don’t let yourself be held back by fears. Plan for as much as you can and forge ahead from there. Readjust as you go, see what works and doesn’t, put your time and resources into the right things and always track your progress. Many businesses ended up as something far from what their initial business plan stated, but they could only get there by putting in real hours and opening themselves up to reality. So at the end of the day, take that leap of faith once you’ve gotten all the above points sorted and ingrained into your brain.
May the entrepreneurial force be with you.
