7 ''NOTs'' to consider when starting a business
So I got a great question for one of my YouTube viewers emil
Love you guys wrote in to say Evan I've been watching your videos for a while now
I hope you enjoyed your trip to Asia. [I] did it was awesome
You can watch the videos. I've searched on Youtube on google, and I always get videos articles about what to do
I believe knowing what not to do is equally important usually all I get is generic tips which is don't grow too fast
But there are no concrete case studies, but when it comes to successful stories there are specific examples
I was thinking if maybe you can have videos or articles analyzing explaining
How businesses failed especially startups it would be great if you can use your influence to encourage
Entrepreneurs who have failed to share their stories with you. That way the mistake will only be made once, because we all will have learned from it.
Hopefully you consider my suggestion. Emil
This is for you [here] are the top 7 things not to do when starting the business?
Number one is pick the wrong business. A lot of companies fail, right?
80% + of companies fail in five years, a lot of it's because you picked the wrong business.
Your business just trying to make money, and if money is your only goal, you're not going to be successful.
You look at any entrepreneur who starts off and just trying to make money,
they rarely do, or if you look at the most successful
entrepreneurs of all time the big names of people who you would recognize: Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs
whoever it is. Look at why they got started look at the early days of the reason for starting their business the number one is
never to make money okay, they want to have a positive impact they want to change the way something is done.
They want to mean something, but it's not just to make money now making money is important, okay?
I'm not saying start a charity you got to make money you got to be able to support [yourself] your family your community live the
Lifestyle you want money is going to be important. We're not throwing it away
But it's not the number [one] reason for starting this business you have to be [passionate] about what you're doing [and] too many entrepreneurs
Pick the wrong business number two is make the perfect plan so many entrepreneurs
Before they get started they want to have the perfect plan you gotta have it all lined out
It's got to be a hundred percent
Quick know exactly what you're going to do before you launch and and that holds you back, and this was me, okay?
My in my first real business retta saab the the biotech software company
I had I spent a whole summer making my plan right here's how we're going to grow here's exactly what we're going to do and
as soon as we launched
Everything changed because my plan was wrong my assumptions were wrong and so
To many entrepreneurs get focused on making the perfect plan
That they don't start that they hold themselves back the best thing you can do is
plan a little and start
Right when you get feedback and reaction and customers telling you what they like and don't like you'll have to adapt anyway
So get that feedback as soon as possible don't worry about making the perfect plan and don't wait
Until you have that perfect plan because so many people wait so long that they don't actually take any action at all they give up
On it because they can't figure out the perfect plan you will never have the perfect plan [at] the start so start
Number three is spend money so many entrepreneurs have
Great ways on [how] to spend money right if I gave you a million dollars you can find a million different ways to spend it
Not many entrepreneurs are great at making money, and so stop trying to think about how [to] spend money, okay?
You do not need a website you do not need an office you. Do not need a car
You [don't] need business cards
[you] don't need anything you need you and your hustle to get out there and start talking to customers
[stop] trying to figure out ways to spend money you do not need money to make money
You need to work you need the hustle you got to get out there and start talking to people
[it] takes your time, you got to invest your time, but don't start investing your money stop spending money
Until you're making some money number four is try to do it alone. [you] can't do this alone
You cannot do this just on your own you need people to [help] you and whether that's having
Volunteers or interns that I have when I started my first business whether it's having people who are working for you?
Part-time the first guy hired was for one hour a day to relieve some of the work off [of] me
Right [whether] that's having a mastermind group of people that you connect with I have one
I run here in Toronto where we meet every month to talk about our businesses and help each other out
[you] can't do this alone
you need to be able to talk to people how [people] help you and we're not spending money at the start right back to the
last point
We're not spending money on these people to start, but you can attract people to you
You can meet up with [the] mastermind group once a month. You can have volunteers or student interns helping you out
Hey, if you're saving for something important, you're going to have people coming to you
I can't tell you how many people want to volunteer
At my business because I'm trying to do something big and important you could start that way
But don't don't try to do everything yourself
Because running the business is a lot harder than one person can manage [and] if you want to do something big [you] want to have
a big impact
[you] want to change the world you want to have a huge you know meaning and also make a lot of money in the process
You need to be able to reach out and not do everything yourself
Number five is jump into the wrong partnership so many entrepreneurs
Jump in the partnership. Maybe you met somebody at a hackathon over the weekend you have this great business idea
And there's six of you starting up
Don't jump in the bed with the wrong partner and I get why you do it right you want to surround yourself with like-Minded
People who have complementary skill sets you're on board here's our big vision. Here's where we're going rah Rah, Rah here
We go and then when things get tough
That's when the partnership starts to crumble that's when a lot of fights start to happen being in the business partnership is
Just as important as being in a marriage right you got to think about these people as I'm [gonna] get married to this person
Can I live with that right you're you're seeing them?
How many hours of the day right you're seeing them probably more than you're going to see your husband or wife during the week?
So [you] have to be someone who has the same?
Values as you and the best way to try that [out] is to [start] working together on small projects before jumping together into the partnership
Work on one small project together
See if you guys get along [see] if you work well together see if you share that same vision see if you share the same
Values, it's so much more than just having complementary skill sets right if you're the business guy you need a coder
You don't just bring on any coder who can who can program what you need right?
then give them shares in your business has to be somebody who you [can] get married to and
Work with for the [rest] of your life potentially, right?
It's got to be that important so don't just jump into the wrong partnerships number six is operate in a bubble
so many [entrepreneurs] and myself included
We try to figure everything out ourselves
And I wasn't investing in [myself]. I wasn't learning to try to get better. [I] remember with my first business
[I] was earning [300] dollars a month and and surviving on Beans and
Struggling and and trying to put up a good face for my friends because I was supposed to be the guy
Making it big and doing well, but meanwhile I tried everything I knew I was failing [I] couldn't afford anything
I couldn't afford a night out to have beer with my friends and
The strategy that saved me was was [modeling] success and and looking from the strategies of bill [gates]
And how we started Microsoft applying that to my company?
And that helped me start to grow and if I never look at what made bill gates successful
I
call it wouldn't have been able to make my company be successful because I actually told my partner that I quit like I was so
Stressed out. I was so tired of not making any money
That that [I] wanted to quit and do something that I felt that would would be meaningful and and I would feel valued in
So I was operating the bubble
And you can't operate in the bubble you have to bust through right?
Whatever your comfort zone is you got to be able to bust through that to become the entrepreneur that you can truly become?
So that's model success learning from others watching videos reading books stretching your comfort zone stretching your knowledge Zone
Stretching the the safe environment [that] you have for yourself
to become a better entrepreneur
and every single big break up having my business career has been because I've taken my limiting beliefs and smashed it and
expanded them a little bit more and expand them and
Expand them [and] believe [that] I could do more and learn from others to to accomplish those things and model strategies and mall success
So stop operating in a bubble and number seven is startup product. This is a bit of a controversial one, but
Big fan of product startups the main reason comes back to the money issue, right?
I want you to get profitable as soon as possible
I want cash in your hand as soon as possible and the problem with product companies
Are you spend a lot of money at the start right you have to invest into product into inventory and so many
companies entrepreneurs
[start] [up] invest a lot you know they put a lot on the line
They [may] you know take out another mortgage on their on their house
They may pull out money from their retirement savings
To launch into this product and then they end up with all of this inventory sitting in their garage
In their basement that they can't sell and so many product companies fail
Because they picked the wrong product and it's so much easier to start in a [service-based] business
Because you're not investing anything except your time
You don't need to invest any money into a service based business except your time
And what that does is allows you to get close to [your] customers?
Allows you to refine [your] message allows you to find your service because the service you go in thinking
You're going to do is not the service that you end up actually
Doing it will change right go back to the point about planning it will change and it's so much easier to be
flexible in a service based business to figure out what your offer is going to be and
Then launch into [a] product right get some cocktail coming in get that
Mortgage bill and that electricity bill paid off from your service based business. [it's] harder the scale of service
It's much easier to scale Park
That's why it's so attractive right you want to trade time for money you want to build a huge empire?
That's why building a product but start with the service to get the cash
She'll coming in to get you close to the customers to get you understanding what it is that [people] want?
You have a base of people that sell your product to you. Have an income stream coming and support you then launch your product
dominate the world
So I'm not a fan of starting with a product so in summary the top seven things not to do when start in the business
Number one pick the wrong business number two make the perfect plan number three spend money number four try to do it alone
number five jump into the wrong partner number six operating the bubble number seven start a product and
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