What are some business lessons you wish you knew sooner? Some investments you
wish you did or didn't make wouldn't it be
amazing if us entrepreneurs had a crystal ball
and we could predict or redo our next step
according to the bureau of labor 20 of small businesses fail within the
first year 50 percent make it to five years and
only one third of businesses make it to 10
years the truth is more businesses fail than
succeed in the long run that's a sad but true fact about
entrepreneurship and running your own business it is hard
i have been tested so many times in my journey
whether it was trusting the wrong person and having thousands of dollars stolen
out from under me to experiencing the sudden loss of a
team member and having to pull a hundred hour work week
and so much more i've almost given up probably more than a dozen times
in the 10 years i've ran my businesses my oldest business turns 10 this may
express writers my writing agency i am incredibly proud of that fact
but the truth is it was not easy you should be proud to if you've made it
past the one year five year or 10-year mark
running your own business is not for the faint of heart
it takes incredible amounts of persistence
will and strength to keep going in today's video i want to share with
you my top five business lessons i wish i knew
sooner in retrospect
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so without further ado these are the five business lessons i wish
i knew sooner and i hope this inspires and helps those of you especially
early in your journey hopefully you can avoid some of the mistakes
i made at the beginning number one one of the first and best business lessons i
would share with you after 10 years and all the ups and downs
of running an agency is that money should never be the end
goal it seems today like the business dream
is to achieve that seven figure per year mark
and while that's great if that's your goal you could actually lose more
momentum and be sidetracked more than if you make
something like greatness amazing customer service
customer happiness a great team your number one goal
instead of money i've seen this in my business time and
time again that whenever i put that seven figure mark or that six figure
monthly mark ahead of all my other goals things
actually crumbled a little bit it was when i put things
like a great team internal happiness in our team client
success rate client retention rates getting our
traffic to convert better focusing on how we did inbound outreach
having a great sales person that wasn't pushy or too salesy with our
inbound leads whenever we made those things our focus
instead of the money the money really followed
and that's what i want you to take away from this lesson especially when you're
walking in your purpose and your passion which are things that
you obviously have to love doing and you be great there the money will
follow now i'm not saying not to have clear
goals to a seven figure year i believe you can do both
just be careful of making money your number one goal
it can actually lead you down the wrong road number two
thinking you have to have it figured out before you go and do something
thankfully i'm a person that acts on gut instinct
even when some people judge it as stupid ridiculous
i will still go and do it because i'm just that crazy and every time i have
done something that i didn't know how to do
by the end of doing it i knew how to do it whenever you get hands-on with
something you want to do you want to create you want to put out
when you get hands-on and in the process that's one of the best ways to learn
for example you might not learn how to write and self-publish a book in college
you can hire a great coach a great ghost writer but you also have to walk in
those waters and learn about the process yourself in
order to do it well so never think you have to have it
figured out instead treat every day as if it's a new opportunity to learn
and you will succeed number three this one is the hardest
lesson trusting the wrong people if you trust
the wrong people for advice providing a service for you partnering
up that list goes on and on if you trust the wrong person
things can crash and burn really really bad early on in my journey about three
years into running my agency i trusted two managers who were
dishonest and unethical we had to fire them when we
found out that they were completely dishonest
and stealing quite a bit of money and then they tried to use our internal
processes clone those and recreate their own
agency it was pretty wild i learned so many lessons from going
through that lessons that have helped me build an
amazing team today and go and find the right people and not
give up until i do it can be a long journey finding the
right partners but don't settle you will thank yourself
later number four thinking in terms of overnight success
or a quick cheap hack guys success just doesn't
work like that i hate to break it to you it's not going to come overnight and if
it does it'll probably go away overnight as well
building a legacy being successful is not done in a week
you must maintain build create a position of authority in your industry
and it's harder than ever to fake that with trust in institutions and
publications now at an all-time low our consumers would rather trust the
small business that's good for us but it means that we
have to be very authentic and vulnerable and real when it comes to
building our authority online so it should go without saying
but let's say it anyway success isn't a quick hack it isn't
something you're going to get overnight stay with it be consistent at the
formats you're creating content with don't give up too early you will be
successful finally number five and this one
is arguably one of the most important ones
ignoring your instincts or listening too much
to other people so this one is a tough one because
if you shut out the voices of people in your industry well-meaning friends
family you name it you could be looked at as egotistical
but after the lessons i've learned i don't care and you shouldn't either
if you don't listen to your gut your intuition and you listen too much to
other people you could be led down the wrong path i
have found my highest roi when i am my most original self whether
that's a campaign an email a blog post a video you name it
it's when i took a risk and i did something that was
way outside the norm and some people may have even advised me against it
that was when i saw success in what i was doing
so this may not fit the typical advice you hear but i really believe in going
internal tapping into your own creativity
for what you put out into the world shut out those voices
don't listen to too many people go for what is
true to you you don't really have anything to lose you can test it and if
it doesn't work you can stop doing it but i really encourage you to follow
your intuition stop listening to everyone go for your
own inner wisdom tune out the noise and go internal okay
those are my five business lessons i wish
i learned sooner in my journey all of them are so important i tried to give
you the top five i could think of and those
really are my most important ones if you liked or
enjoyed this video or got any good from it tell me in the comments tell me what
you learned tell me what you're going to apply
perhaps in your own business and some lessons that you took away hit
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i hope to inspire motivate you and help you find more success
in life thanks for watching and i look forward to seeing you back here