Question: What's the best advice you received prior to starting your business?
Outsource Weakness and Focus on Your Strengths
"It's perfectly okay to not know everything and you'll soon realize that you can't personally handle every single thing that has to be done to grow a profitable business. With that in mind, outsource your weaknesses and focus on your strengths. This approach will cut lead times, shorten learning curves and yield quicker results."
Vest Your Equity
"If you have business partners, make sure to have the equity that you will each earn in the business vest over a pre-determined time period. This way you don't have to worry about a partner "founding" a company and then leaving three months later with the same amount of equity that you have."
Make Your Business Your Own
"When I was in the process of earning my career coaching certification, I was preoccupied by how other coaches conducted their business. My instructor urged me to tap into my strengths and focus on how I could set my business apart from the others that already existed."
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Hire Exclusively
"Be discerning with who you bring on board. Don't waste time on people that will work for free but have no set vision or skills, and never waste money on people that you're on the fence about. You need to be absolutely certain a hire is worth your while, otherwise they'll just take up your space, your time and perhaps even your funds."
Don't Be a Perfectionist
"I always quote my first boss, Chris Johnson, when answering this one: 'Don't let perfection get in the way of better.' In other words, if you wait until everything is perfect and in place, you've already missed the boat. Just do it (using good common sense) and the pieces will fall into place on their own."
There Is No Such Thing as an Overnight Success
"Look at any great business and you'll see not a single one was an overnight success. Yes, there are flashes in the pan, but nothing great and sustainable came from 24 hours of work. It takes years to hone skills, build communities, find great customers. No one is an overnight success."
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Honesty Is the Best Policy
"My mother gave me the best advice I've ever gotten in business and in life. In the end truth always reveals itself, so it's best to start with the truth, rather than to hide it and risk unwanted consequences later. No transaction is worth ruining a relationship over, so be transparent. You'll be thankful."
Follow @louislautman
Turn Mistakes Into Gold
"Mistakes in business happens all the time. Those who can figure out a way to turn their mistakes into an opportunity will be successful. I learned that in business there is nothing more true. Don't be afraid of mistakes, it's in trying to solve problems where creativity happens and brings the magic into the business. "
Find Your Niche and Stand Out
"When you jump in the pool with other businesses doing the same thing as you, what makes you stand out from the crowd? Figure out how you can take the most simple or common idea and make it 10 times better than the next person. If you don't figure out how to stand out you will quickly fade into the background."
Follow @businessbeware
Know How to Make Money
"Many people who rush into owning their own business lack the fundamentals of how to make money. By definition, a business exists to make money. If you don't know how to do that you're jacked. Jason Fried of 37signals says it best, 'One thing I do know is that making money is not the same as starting a business.' Get good at making money, first."
Follow @MattGartland
The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC promotes entrepreneurship as a solution to unemployment and underemployment and provides entrepreneurs with access to tools, mentorship, and resources that support each stage of their business’s development and growth.
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