10 Lessons Learned Starting a Small Business

Starting a small business is a potentially very rewarding endeavor yet is also one that can cause a great deal of problems in one´s life. Having never taken a single business course, I learned my lessons the "hard way" and I wish someone had given me these tips before we started our business. They may not be applicable to all businesses but I hope you find them useful in making your small business a success.

Be careful who you listen to. If everyone listened to their parents or their neighbors or friends about what will work and what won´t then no new business would ever get off of the ground. Believe in your ideas and surround yourself with others who have similar beliefs. Look who you are listening to and realize that listening to them will likely get you the life that they are living, which may or my not be the life you want.

Have a second income, and a third income is even better. A small business is rarely a get rich quick enterprise. Rather it is a ´survive as best you can for a long time´ enterprise followed by a ´just getting by´ enterprise and then, if you are lucky enough you can count on it being your primary source of income. Making sure you can get by even if your business makes zero or even lost revenue is a key to not letting your dreams rapidly become a nightmare.

Leverage. Finding businesses and people who can partner with you and your business for mutual benefit is a key part to creating revenue. Affiliates are like unpaid (or commission based) employees, much cheaper than hiring people. One example is by swapping offers to use each other´s companies. For example if you buy a sub from Sam´s Subs you get $2 off Carrie´s Carwash and vice versa.

Be very careful with advertising budgeting. Mainstream advertising is hugely expensive. These costs can easily drive you into heavy debt and very often drive little to no profits in your direction. There are no guarantees for advertising money spent and typically they want contracts for a year or more. Start with advertising methods which are cheap or free before putting ads in newspapers and the like. Research "guerilla marketing" techniques.

Get Online. Get a website and work on getting an online presence as soon as possible.

Be Different. You can´t compete (at least not right away) by doing the same things the same way as others. Carve your own niche.

Use Credit Wisely. It is far too easy to get into ridiculous amounts of debt with a new business. Treat credit as if its your hard earned money as otherwise you will find that you have to work even harder to pay it back. If you need to use large sums of credit expense then probably you need to cut down your overhead or make other drastic changes.

Focus Hard on Your Reputation. Reputation is crucial in business. Every client that walks away unhappy costs you future sales. Make sure everyone is satisfied. If not, give them their money back. Guarantee your results. Go above and beyond expectations. Ask for referrals. Get into the BBB. Become a pillar of good customer relations.

Become an Expert. Whatever your industry is, become a well-known expert. Enter contests. Write articles. Do anything you can to become recognized as an expert in your field. Be "the (insert your industry) guy".

Find Social Outlets. Most likely your business will be just you or maybe you and one other person to start with. You will probably work long hours alone. Do yourself a big favor and find activities outside of work and people who can at least partially understand your plight to spend quality time with. Don´t let the business consume your existence altogether. Have extracurricular activities.

Following the above won´t guarantee you riches but is likely to at least make an entrepreneur more likely to survive the difficult early days of starting a business.