Top Lessons Learned in Business

[Likwid24]

I created this thread for everyone to post the their top lessons learned in business. Something that came from your failures, or something great that you did to help take your business to the next level.

Lesson #1 - If you are going to go into business with a partner (It has it's pros and cons. More pros if you are careful who you choose.) ABSOLUTELY make sure that you have the SAME VISION. Make sure you see eye to eye on everything, most importantly, The Company Culture, How to Treat Employees, Customer Service, How to Handle Disagreements, and Who Plays What Role.

Please feel free to add your lesson.

 

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[SteveO]

I agree with your partnership assessment. I would also add that you should be ready for the fact that your partner may not work as hard as you do. Out of multiple partnerships, I have never been satisfied with the contributions from the other side.

 

[throttleforward]

Nothing is a straight line. You always end up taking 2 steps forward, one step to the side, one step back, a leap forward...the path is rarely linear, and everything always takes 3 times longer than you think it should or planned for.

And as the saying goes, no plan survives first contact with the enemy...meaning, your plan and strategy, while important, will change as soon as it hits real world execution. The trick is to adjust the tactics while continuing to move toward your strategic objective (which shouldn't change very often).

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Nothing is a straight line. You always end up taking 2 steps forward, one step to the side, one step back, a leap forward...the path is rarely linear, and everything always takes 3 times longer than you think it should or planned for.

And as the saying goes, no plan survives first contact with the enemy...meaning, your plan and strategy, while important, will change as soon as it hits real world execution. The trick is to adjust the tactics while continuing to move toward your strategic objective (which shouldn't change very often).

You beat me to it.

Lesson #2 - Embrace chaos: Don't get caught up in planning every detail, it will never work out exactly as planned.
Have a clear vision where you want to be and a general outline how you get there, be flexible and adaptive along the way.

 

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[OperationMyWay]

Don't lie to yourself if you are not a fit for a particular job, business, partnership, etc. You may think you can force yourself to fit the expectations of the role, but you are guaranteed not to be the best version of YOU if you do that. I'm not talking about tasks you don't enjoy doing, but have to be done. If the job, business, etc fits with your overall vision you will find a way to get those tasks done. I'm speaking about the role in general and how if it conflicts with your inner strengths and beliefs that you will not succeed at a level that is acceptable to yourself. Everyone loses in that situation.

What you pursue MUST be in line with your abilities and connect with how you best add value to others. If you don't get that right it doesn't matter what you are able to force yourself to do, because even if you aren't a failure on the outside you still won't be able to reconcile it with yourself.

Cheers

 

[Olavi]

Lesson #3: Dont be scared to started, just go ahead and do it, then everything just seems to get in order afterwards. Starting in your head or overthinking messes stuff up.

 

[jason91]

Lesson #1: When you need something from others, make sure you offer them something, and the worst they can say is no.

Lesson #2: Great Marketing + Copy = Sales | Great product = Repeat & Referral sales | No marketing = no sales | Bad product = no repeat & referral sales

Lesson #3: It's difficult at the start, but over time you will build the resilience and strength to surpass your challenges. I guess this is more of a life lesson, not only applies in business

 

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[ZCP]

Focus on sales.

When do you fire someone? The FIRST time you think about firing them......

Follow up. No one else does. You will move to the front.

 

[The Wall]

This might sound strange but try to find pleasure in the pain.

 

[Johnny_Hopkins]

Stop focusing so much on gathering information (podcasts, books, seminars, articles, etc) that you procrastinate actually starting. As they say, experiences and failures are the best teachers.

 

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[ddall]

1: Never stop innovating and improving your product or service (that is, always be improving the provided value)

2: Never stop learning new skills and furthering education. This leads to new insights and breakthroughs as your brain makes new connections between ideas.

3: Focus and execute on your best talents, delegate the rest to pro's in their respective fields.

4: Take care of your health, eat right and exercise.

 

[CPisHere]

Research the results others are getting in your industry before pursuing it.

Are people making good money? Or are they having to reinvest all of their profits and never taking money out?
Do people enjoy working in this industry or are they glad to leave?

The same applies to jobs. If you hate working nights and weekends, don't pursue a job as a chef. If you love interacting with people, don't become an Accountant. If you want to make $100k+, don't pursue a career that doesn't have lots of people making this amount. etc

 

[Weaponize]

Lesson #4: Be careful who you tell (friends, family) when starting something new.

People think that being negative is helpful. People think telling you you can't do it is helpful. People think calling you and idiot to even try is helpful. It's not. It hinders you. I've learned to keep my mouth shut until I generate some revenue, even very small revenue. "I made $200 while sleeping last night... you?" People tend to shut the F*ck up when they hear that.

 

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[John the Man]

Partnership is effective if you have different expertise with your partner. I'm also in partnership with my brother, my department is internet marketing and administration while my brother, being a programmer, is focused in purely programming, web design and maintenance. Each of us has a responsibility that may cause the collapse of our business should one of us under-performs.

 

[James Thornton]

Simplify your offerings.

I once had a shop that offered multiple services and products. Cut it down to one product type, and sales magically went up! It also allowed me to focus on making more products for that line, which led to big spikes.

Don't distract customers with so many choices that they fail to say yes.

And don't distract yourself with so many offerings that you fail to make great things.

That decision was inspired by the Steve Jobs bio that came out that year. There's a part where he cut several failing Apple products down to 4 focused products in a quadrant chart. It read Consumer/Professional up top, and Desktop/Portable on the side. Then he said "Make the best product you can for each one of those quadrants."

 

[Ma Co]

#1 Health > Money Chase Madness

#2 Find your starving crowd BEFORE buying your "hotdog stand"

#3 Marketing to existing customer > Marketing to 'not-yet' customers

 

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[Tobore]

1. Always keep things simple. 1+1, not 1x+1y.

2. Learn to adjust and be tough when things get tough...

3. If you go the extra mile, you become the "go-to guy."

4. Base your focus on people.

5. Competition isn't something to be feared...it is something to be loved.
Having tough competitors with huge market shares will...

a. Help you find their many flaws (they always have!)
b. Think and innovate in an extraordinary manner!
c. Push yourself to create extreme value
d. Might also set you up for liquidation (if you're rugged enough); and
e. Become Awesome

 

[Dami-B]

Keep the focus on the future, not just on innovation and the future of your products, but the future of your industry, how its evolving, the percentages of growth in the base years, the new players, the loopholes. Learn to be 3 steps ahead of everyone.

 

[VegasMan]

Get it in writing. When dealing with vendors, consultants, employees, etc... document everything possible. If something can possibly come back and bite you in the a$$ it probably will.

 

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[NVious]

Here are just a few of mine:

1.Most people stay where they're at because they flat out refuse to put ANY effort into ANY sort of self-improvement. Even if you are a persuasive person, care about them and explain EXACTLY why they should do something, the benefits and the minimal investment it truly is....even if you give them the EXACT instructions so as not to effect their schedule by taking advantage of idle time that nothing would be done with, not even talking about watching television, I literally mean driving, cooking, showering or other nothing activities....they STILL will not do it.

Remember:
You'll sooner be pulled off the cliff by the dangling man than save him

You cannot help anyone but yourself, those that want the help will come to you and even then.....

2.People are extremely risk averse and generally not open to opportunities, they have NO concept of opportunity cost, highest value action first or 10X value.

3.If you continually push yourself to learn more, improve your physical standing and network with people to pitch to/collab with, you WILL succeed. This is inevitable because your competition is INSANELY weak and eventually you'll harness the law of averages. However, the best way to harness the law of averages is to continue to improve your greatest product (yourself) and to always look for ways to leverage OPM, OPE and OPT.

Be open to opportunity
Be genuinely curious about others
Strive to get better DAILY (that includes your physique, harness that Halo effect as best you can)
NEVER give in because if you're doing the above, you WILL come into the right people who will either collab with you, help put you in contact with people to collab with or happily take you on as a student because they will see your burning desire, your passion and your never ending DEATHPACE attitude

Because when you have 10X ideas and you plant seeds all the time:

 

[MKHB]

I created this thread for everyone to post the their top lessons learned in business. Something that came from your failures, or something great that you did to help take your business to the next level.

Lesson #1 - If you are going to go into business with a partner (It has it's pros and cons. More pros if you are careful who you choose.) ABSOLUTELY make sure that you have the SAME VISION. Make sure you see eye to eye on everything, most importantly, The Company Culture, How to Treat Employees, Customer Service, How to Handle Disagreements, and Who Plays What Role.

Please feel free to add your lesson.

Not being prepared for success and ultimately leading to failure.

Early on, I spent most of my energy preparing for that rainy day.

When success came I wasn't ready for it.

 

[Likwid24]

Another important lesson:

Learn EVERYTHING about your business. EVERYTHING.

Even if you hire other people to do work for you, learn what they do. You NEVER KNOW when something unexpected might happen, such as a fallout with a distributor, supplier, employee, etc.

What happens if suddenly, someone who was doing work for you, decides to disappear on you for whatever reason? Will you be ready to assume that position until you find a replacement?

This can make or break your business. I can't Stress it enough - LEARN EVERYTHING. At least have some knowledge so that you can temporarily get buy.

Of course, I learned the hard way. I had to learn EDI (Which is pretty complicated) on the fly. It crushed me for a little and caused some headaches, but now I'm getting very comfortable with it and feel confident I can handle everything myself.

I'm doing the same with every aspect of my biz. Shipping. Quickbooks. ShipStation. Manufacturing. EVERYTHING!

That is all....

 

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[jon.a]

Another important lesson:

Learn EVERYTHING about your business. EVERYTHING.

Even if you hire other people to do work for you, learn what they do. You NEVER KNOW when something unexpected might happen, such as a fallout with a distributor, supplier, employee, etc.

What happens if suddenly, someone who was doing work for you, decides to disappear on you for whatever reason? Will you be ready to assume that position until you find a replacement?

This can make or break your business. I can't Stress it enough - LEARN EVERYTHING. At least have some knowledge so that you can temporarily get buy.

Of course, I learned the hard way. I had to learn EDI (Which is pretty complicated) on the fly. It crushed me for a little and caused some headaches, but now I'm getting very comfortable with it and feel confident I can handle everything myself.

I'm doing the same with every aspect of my biz. Shipping. Quickbooks. ShipStation. Manufacturing. EVERYTHING!

That is all....

That can't possibly be all.
I'm anxiously waiting for the rest of the story.

 

[Guest3722A]

Save up enough to support an idea through the build and initial growth stage. Make sure its enough to get you to the point of the business being able to support itself.

Test the market to make sure you have an adequate amount of interest. Build a list and use it if you can when you're finally ready. You have to be able to find where mass amounts of your potential customers will be looking and you need a way to communicate with them quick, easy and to the point.

Then find the best possible setup/location for your client base making sure it's affordable for you. At the same time, constantly be working your numbers and configurations and everything that will maximize your profit while keeping your customer as happy as possible.

After these things are all taken care of, and you're satisfied and ready, go for it and do not be afraid if there are tons of things that you do not know how to do because you will be amazed at what you can accomplish by just thinking your way through it.

 

[Stevo1]

I love this thread some great insights here. My top 3 would be:

1) Trust your instinct. Sometimes you just know when things aren't right.... or that they are!
2) Keep going. Things (processes, people, pricing etc) will never work out as planned, but there is a way through.
3) Keep level headed. I think this one is really important. Don't get to high when you hit the highs and never dip to low when you hit the lows.

 

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[Dami-B]

I love this thread some great insights here. My top 3 would be:

1) Trust your instinct. Sometimes you just know when things aren't right.... or that they are!
2) Keep going. Things (processes, people, pricing etc) will never work out as planned, but there is a way through.
3) Keep level headed. I think this one is really important. Don't get to high when you hit the highs and never dip to low when you hit the lows.

Thanks @Stevo1 as someone who has experienced different dimensions of success, how did you overcome getting comfortable in one level of success, to push to the next level.

 

[Stevo1]

Thanks @Stevo1 as someone who has experienced different dimensions of success, how did you overcome getting comfortable in one level of success, to push to the next level.

To be honest it's a constant challenge. I really think it's a mind set thing. It's sometimes only when you look back at what you have done that you can see the success you have achieved.

For example when I first started my vinyl record buying business it was really just about getting some extra money to literally get food on the table and that was the reality of what it was for a while. Then I pushed it a bit harder and wanted it cover my rent payment as well and sure enough that's what it became. It's almost as if you can convince yourself what your business should be achieving and once it gets there it becomes normal.

The hard part as you rightly ask is getting it from one level to the next. I'm by no means a fastlane entrepreneur I have had some limited successes which to me personally have been quite something. I'm perhaps at a point where financially I can afford the things I need, but taking it up a gear to get the things I want requires something else.

I'm wondering from reading the forum that the to get to the next level of success it's switching the focus not on financial gain which my above example really is and focusing purely on helping others this may well be when your business becomes your purpose and success whether that be financial gain or something else is purely a bi product of that.

Not sure if this makes an awful lot of sense!!!, but it would be good to get the view of some other fastlane experts on what really takes a business to the next level.

 

[Stevo1]

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...by-profit-or-are-you-driven-by-purpose.63850/

This is how to get to the next level.

 

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[LouieLouie]

#1 Run.... Exercise..... Daily

Yes literally, every day!

I knew the single weakest link in my starting a business "again" was my personal level of endurance "Mentally". I have been through some tuff patches recently

I knew the going would get tuff, starting a business. It always does. "I've done it often enough to know."

"How can I break through the brick walls," I ask?

Simple

Strong Body= Strong Mind
I have direct control over building endurance physically.
Much more indirect is the control over building mental endurance.

Has it worked?
I feel better then ever.
I run 4 mi most every day.
I lost 30+lbs

And

I see a MASSIVE Brick wall straight ahead just ready for me to break through. "Launching my SaaS product and seeing how the market responds"

If that sounded a little arrogant it's maybe because I am shaking a little.

However, I am as prepared as I could possibly be.

Bring on 2016

 

[lovecharm]

Well, this last year its been a long year for me. Setting up new clothing brand in USA, distributing, marketing, getting in to disputes with partners, selling some of my loved possession's to fund the business, being taken advantage of and yet couldn't do anything etc.

So here are some of the lessons that I have learned:-

1:- Due diligence. If you open a fairly large establishment then people will be coming up all the ideas or concepts etc. Most of them are just theories and if you do careful due diligence then you will find out that there is nothing in it for you, he/she has all the benefit. Been burned several times when I trusted people, so do your due diligence carefully, at the end of the day, 2+2 should be 4, if some one is trying to convey 6 then you will need to put your foot down and say NO.

2:- Don't give up on your dreams. Things can get hard, mentally and emotionally, initially there will be no sales, cash flow will be dry, bills and other expenses will be piling up. There will be times when you won't see any lights at the tunnel. Don't give up, its hard and heart breaking, but carry on grinding, you might have to sell some of your prized possession's, you will have to make lot of hard choices, but don't kill that dream. Don't think too far ahead, just take it one day at a time. All it takes is 5 min, 1 big deal, 1 big break through and all the months of pain and suffering will just disappear. So carry on, we all have been there (or are there right now).

3:- Learn to calm down and control your emotions. When things starts to get rough you get scared, angry, frustrated etc. You must learn to control those emotions and be positive and up beat. If people starts to sense that you are angry, frustrated etc then guess what, they wouldn't want to deal with you. Its like digging your own grave, the more you dig the deeper you get in the hole. So find a way to take those emotions off you, so that when you are in meetings with clients then you don't come across or desperate, angry etc. Some of the things that worked for me were, acupuncture, herbal supplements like 5-htp, st johns wort, lavender etc, working out etc.

4:- You are never alone. You will start to feel that you are in this battle by yourself, no one cares. It's not correct, people care for other people, if I look back, I have had people look out for me and helped me out, I didn't expect that, but they just did, they saw I was being treated unfairly and I was struggling, they came on board helped me out, gave me new ideas, motivated me etc. I will always be grateful for that and will try to return those favours to them when I am in stronger positions, but it was really surprising to see how people cared for me, most of them didn't even know me that much as I just moved to US.

LC