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May 18, 2015

Lessons Learned as a First-Time Business Owner

Smart Entrepreneurs Don’t Gamble

In some respect, every decision you make is a gamble, but don’t throw all caution to the wind or place your trust somewhere that it hasn’t been earned. Make calm, strategic moves forward, assessing your past mistakes and researching how best to improve your business in the future. Owning a business is a risky venture, but that doesn’t mean that you have to be reckless (which doesn’t seem to be a popular viewpoint in today’s culture of optimistic entrepreneurism).



Find A Niche And Make A Home There

If you’re a jack-of-all-trades company, you’re going to get lost in the market. Find a niche as soon as you know what your business does best. Become a specialist and research who your customers are. Develop your brand around this premise.

Protect Your Business In Any Way You Can

Getting caught up in the entrepreneurial buzz is easy to do, but take a moment to consider the safety of your business. Wherever possible, protect yourself from any outside attacks. An obvious example of this is making sure that you don’t fall foul of cybercrime, as it’s a serious problem in the U.K. Forking out money on a respectable and powerful internet protection package is one of the best ways you can guard your company from harm. Dell’s (News - Alert) internet security is a great option for businesses, but shop around for something that will give you the cover that you need.

Find Mentors In Your Network

As they say, “it’s who you know”, but you will be surprised at how family members and friends have excellent hidden skills that you can tap into. Whether that’s advice for running your first business or a run-down of how to approach search engine optimization, friendly mentors can support you through the early stages of your growing company.

Learn As Much As You Can, As Quickly As You Can

In the beginning, you will fill multiple roles, as a business owner. You are going to have to learn as much as possible, in order to make your company successful. On the bright side, this can be fun, if you like to pick up new things. It also gives you a sense of accomplishment and self-development.

Hone Your Discipline

It’s up to you to force yourself to work. There is no looming threat of being fired hanging over your head, and you only answer to yourself. Survival should give you all the inspiration you need to work your fingers to the bone, but procrastination can take hold easily, so finding the discipline to get your head down is up to you.

Find Structure

When you work for yourself, people suddenly think that you have this flexible schedule that they can take advantage of. For your own sake, make sure that you have set hours that you work during the day, and make sure that this is clear to family and friends. If you need to do a bit of overtime, that’s fine, but it’s important that you also have time where you can switch off and relax. Without structure, you’ll find yourself missing meals or not being able to enjoy things that you’d usually do, such as exercising. After a certain time, turn your emails off. 




Edited by Dominick Sorrentino
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