23 Things Every Entrepreneur Must Know
PAGE 2 OF 2
15. As much as you are going to fight it you need a (really smart) advisory board. You want a board to: give you new perspectives and ideas; to give you people to talk to and to provide honest feedback.
16. If you want to get more done faster and better…create checklists. Checklists are a wonderful way to make sure you don't overlook anything, and that it is true whether we are talking about the best way to treat someone in the emergency room or if you are about to make a big presentation to a client you really want to land.
17. How to motivate yourself and stay motivated. Starting anything new is hard and the number of obstacles you are going to encounter can easily get overwhelming. Click on the link here for proven ideas that can keep you going.
18. If the dogs don't like the dog food it's bad dog food. You don't determine what a good product is. Only your customer does. And if they don't like your product, it's a bad product. Period. In others words, the customer is always right. Darn it.
19. If the customer doesn't like the product, there isn't much you can do about it with pricing or promotion or positioning. Unpopular products are going to remain so. It is better to come up with a different version, than to keep trying to sell–at a discounted price–the one people don't like.
20. If you are going to fail, and sometimes you will, fail quickly and cheaply. Always take small steps toward your goal and pause after each one to make sure you are staying on the right track.
21. (Really) Learn from your mistakes. You are going to make mistakes. That's a) a given and b) okay, providing you truly understand what went wrong.
22. Creativity and innovation must be linked to a business objective. Creativity is wonderful. But creativity that isn't tied to making money is just a hobby. It isn't a viable business concept.
23. Get out while you still have your marbles.You never want to stay too long at the fair, even if you own the fair.
###
Paul B. Brown is co-author of Just Start published by Harvard Business Review Press.
Please note his blog appears every Sunday and Wednesday.
Click on the "Following" button to get every new blog post as soon as its goes live.
