If you had one piece of advice for someone about to start a new business, what would it be? 🗣

[isabelle]

Hiiiiii Seller Community! 

Hope you're all having a wonderful Wednesday ☀️ 

Today, we'd love to hear about what piece of advice you would offer someone who is about to start a new business? This can be related to your industry, or just general business advice! 

We look forward to your replies ✨🤓

[jjgard]

When it comes to technology and a point of sale system, my advice would be to go with something that will scale with your business as things grow.  In that sense, Square is perfect for a new business startup since you can start with an iPad and a chip reader and eventually grow to a fleet of Square Registers. 🙂

[JenTom1709]

Agree 100%, that's how we started for first year or two.   Then we expanded to the Square register as able to as after our business grew.   

[homeprogreen]

Think about how you would want to be treated if you were the customer. In smaller more rural areas like I live in word of mouth advertising is always the best way to attract new customers. Word of mouth is also the cheapest most cost effective form of advertising. Other then a social media page for the shop I haven’t spent a dime on advertising in 5 years and have enjoyed an average of 20% growth every year since I opened. My customers are happy so they send all their family and friends simply because they like the customer service and quality products I carry

[Minion]

If you are already in the mind set of owning your own business, the simplest advice I would ever give would be "Don't give up".

You will ultimately at some point face tough times, long days, longer nights, struggles, up and downs and so on.   If starting your own business is truly what you want to do, then simply don't give up. 

[Herenowandthen]

Pay down your high interest ASAP. I carried some office furniture start up debt at like 26% and I still owed it 20 years later. Really weighs on my mind. And always no matter what put something into an IRA every time you get a bit of money. It is the dollar cost averaging over the years and the consistency of it that will pay off. I mean do not be afraid of like even $10 bucks at a time. Trust me, if you do not, there may be little to show for all your hard work after 20 years. And get back to messages right away. Become good at one or two things, be the best, not a jack of all trades. Eventually people will pour over to you cause no one else will want to do what you are good at or if they do you have 20 years on them. Do not under cut your competition too long. This will drive the people that can't pay your way and the spiral down may keep you down. Have someone to reach out to for questions and answers, take them to lunch! But eventually you will be the one sharing the info. Do not let the system own you, and compel you to break ethics rules. Do more listening than talking. Take responsibility for your choices, and keep the complaints to yourself, do not disparage others in the business. My experience is that a lot of businesses say they have great customer experiences but is rarely true once they get their money and will run and hide when things are tough. If you hear the customer talk about always complaining and suing other businesses, stay away.

[MaeJS]

Do not listen to those who are giving you all kinds of negative feedback and their opinions on why you should not open a business.  Stay focused and do your homework.  Most of all keep God on your side and the rest will fall into place. 

[Gg1]

Confirmation thank you!!

[Donnie-M]

An old quote:  "Begin with the end in mind."  Before you start, sit down and plan what you want and what that ideal end would be in a year or five.  Have an idea of where you are headed so you can plan and work towards something.  Hope is a strategy, but not a very good one.  We all have hope and sometimes take that leap of faith, but it is better to have a plan and work that plan.  So don't be deterred, but have a target to aim at.  Another motivational speaker used to say, if you aim at nothing you will hit it everytime...so aim at what you want to be and you will at least start out in the right direction.

[AmyB1]

Do your research, i.e. the viability of your business in the area that you intend to do business. Join your local business association and or the Chamber of Commerce. These are helpful if you don't have a lot capital for advertising. Join local community groups on Facebook is helpful too. 

Square is very helpful in that it grows with your business in the products and features that it offers. 

Marketing has been the most challenging for me since I knew little to nothing about it and how to make it work across the different platforms. It is a constant learning process. 

I have recently started to do videos on my business' Facebook page and local community groups. They are starting to get noticed since I found BigVu. It allows you to create a script that scrolls like a teleprompter as you record your video. My first video took SEVERAL takes and my first video got so-so reviews. My next one got enough attention that I have had people coming up to me asking if I was the craft lady they saw in the video.

And lastly you will make mistakes and maybe even fail, the key is to learn from all of it and keep pushing forward! And good luck.

[SmLBizOwNr]

Be extremely frugal in the startup and focus on sales. Always focus on sales. 

I recommend starting slowly when it comes to small business growth. I often try to help my friends by offering to build their simple website for free, especially while they are still working a regular job. I offer to help market it as well.  Totally free, just trying to help people. I recommend Google Small Business and will show some easy steps to organically cultivate the listing (pictures, posts, marketing tricks & more.

I suggest letting the calls just go to voicemail while you are at your main job. Becoming an entrepreneur is not meant to stress you out in the beginning. I have had so many "failures to launch" myself, but I do speak from the experience of success now.

Just let the phones ring, continuously assessing when it will be time to switch over when your small business is in a position to realistically replace your job with confidence. So, we just call them all back and either try and schedule them to work in your off-hours, or work a deal with someone in your industry who will pay you a nice percentage for the lead.  Different finder's fees can be made depending if you close the appointment, the sale, or kick it to them pre-qualified for them to close - -

Growing slowly but steadily can help you safely scale so you are not overwhelmed. You can get your feet wet before just quitting your job and/or jumping in the deep with no experience. Anyone can do it. Make extra money and have a great time building your new brand.  Just be ready for the long hours, joys of entrepreneurship, growing pains (growing too quickly included), hard work, blood sweat, and tears that you will experience from the love you put in.

[JenTom1709]

perfectly said for my past few years as well 

[EileenB]

1. Get a good bookkeeper. If you don't understand finances yourself, this is crucial. Make sure they really know what they're doing and can keep you current at all times. You can learn & do the data entry tasks yourself, but knowing your numbers is important.

2. Decide who your customer is. What do they want? How much are they willing to spend for it? If you can target your ideal customer, you can focus your sales directly to that person who is willing to pay you well for what you offer. 

3. Be relentless. Answer messages, respond to questions, get on social media, look at trends, eat drink and sleep your business as it grows. Spread your enthusiasm for your business every day in every interaction.

4. Tell your story. Who are you, how did you get here, what makes you want to share what you're doing? This can be the hardest, but people are more likely to respond if you're not just a product or service - they want to know why they should choose you over another company. Connection is an intangible asset.

[Gg1]

Good info thanks

[ProsperityPools]

1) Don't start a business by using debt. 

2) Choose a business model that gives you steady, constant cash flow, rather than sporadic payments. 

3) Work incessantly on your business at the beginning, even if it means cutting into your normal routine. You can ease into a more relaxed schedule after you've put in the hard part of launching and building.

4) Find creative and free ways to advertise your business. For example, for our pool business, we offered one free week of service for each new referral that our existing customers gave us. We built it up quickly and organically, without having to spend anything.

5) Start offering SQUARE credit card payment immediately and check out the beneficial tools they have to make it easy for people to pay!   🙂 

[Chris2012]

It’s not easy. But if that’s your dream you got to work hard at it. It’s going to be many rainy days. But you got to keep fighting. 

[edriverz]

My advice is to try to finance your new business with cash if you can or at least have great credit. Reason is, it is getting a ton harder to get business loans for anything that is attached to your personal credit. Just applying will ruin you before you get started. Also try to avoid the use of credit cards. Now the use of anything over 30% of your limit will kill your score and you will qualify for nothing but bottom of the barrel high interest credit cards and even those will be hard to get after a major ding to your credit score.

[JedThompson]

1. It's going to cost more than you think. Always. 

2. Ask. Ask professionals who do the jobs you don't or can't. Not a professional accountant? Find one. Need help with zoning? Go to the zoning official in your town/city. Get a second or third opinion on your business plan from a local business 

3. Write a business plan. Doesn't have to be War and Peace, but write one out so you have an idea of your market. If you need capital, banks and lenders want to see that you've accounted for those little things, too. 

4. Your time = money. Don't undersell yourself (at least, not too much, in the beginning).

5. The library and the Internet are free resources for all things knowledge. Use them if you don't have the money. 

6. Give yourself a break. Literally. You need to budget time off for yourself. Keep in mind that your pay is a business expense.

7. Set your hours and keep them. No one likes a business that is open irregular hours.

8. Most importantly: You must be OK with the notion of failure. You are going to take a leap here, and that involves risk (unless you have a trust fund...in which case, good for you...). Don't be afraid or too proud to fail. You'll learn so much along the way.

[rstepien1204]

do NOT compare your business with other like businesses. you do you. 

[slaterockbrew]

The Term "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than approval" does NOT apply to business, especially those involving the sale and manufacture of alcohol.

Be responsible, reach out, ask "stupid" questions, and don't be afraid to ask for help if you are unsure of something. A lawyer now is a whole lot cheaper than a lawyer later!

[CarolinaJ]

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