Best Business Advice For New Entrepreneurs

When you plan on starting a business, there are people in your life who out of care will give you advice and will try to stop you as well. But, most of the time that advice is here as they have never run a business in their life. While entrepreneurship sounds fancy and cool, we often forget that it comes with a lot of hard work and failure. 

Most businesses in today’s world begin with a simple idea followed by hours of research, changes in the products according to the market. Below are some of the best advice we have collected from industry experts and serial entrepreneurs to help you get through in your endeavours:

1. Solve A Problem Or Make Something Better

Most successful business owners know what problem they are solving or what they are making better and for most failed businesses, its exactly the opposite. They can almost never answer the question of what problem are you trying to solve. It doesn’t need to be something ultra complicated like curing Cancer but something as simple as curing boredom by providing things to watch at the convenience of your homes ( Netflix). Being aware of the problem you solve, you can use this in marketing to help people connect with your brand. Remember the problem should be burning and urgent.

2. Fail Faster, Fail Better

Perfectionists are often terrified of failure but the entrepreneurship life knocks that out of you. Failing faster and failing better every time using customer feedback is the backbone for a lot of successful brands nowadays. Infact most successful businesses have stories of improving after a misstep via customer feedback and responding to market changes in time. This does sound very self sabotaging but keep your eyes on the bigger picture, embrace it and let yourself fail. What’s the worst that could happen? 

3. Be Ready To Detour

At the time of conceptualization your start up / business idea might be one of the best and has potential success in it but the market is way too dynamic for a business that doesn’t want to pivot. Make sure to collect data from your first users or your test users and upgrade the product or service according to the needs of the market. To gain a better understanding and keep yourself in business, feedback with consistent innovation is key. We have examples like blackberry and nokia, one being an established brand couldn’t keep up and was forced into closure the other took a pause and then came back with newer and better products. 

4. Have A Financial Plan

It is very common among young entrepreneurs to just hurry into the business world and not have a single idea about how the finances are going to work. You need to have at least 6 months of day to day operations including the bills and salaries etc set aside to actually focus on running your business. If not, you will be occupied by making ends meet and won’t have time to innovate or experiment. Know your numbers and keep track of your finances.Keeping track of your finances will help you make better decisions and will save you any rash decisions. 

5. Customer Needs First

One of the biggest factors small businesses fail is unmet customer needs. This very factor has sent several businesses down the bankruptcy pipeline. If the customer isn’t getting what they were expecting, they will become frustrated. To help your customers feel heard and solve their problem in the best possible way, empathize with them. This way you wont take the insults hurled at you personally as well as solve the actual unmet need. Try to mirror the intent behind their words and solve the problem in the best possible way. This will open doors for future referrals and long term loyal customer relationships

Everything will fall into place eventually, if you are passionate and hard working towards your cause. Be it a product or a service. Think of it as going to the gym, it hurts at first and then after a while you start to develop the muscles and everything feel better. If you give after losing a few pounds, that is where your story ends but if you continue you never know how many lives you will touch.