I’m hesitant to call myself an entrepreneur. I’m building a business for the first time, but so are millions of other people. That’s why I consider myself an entrepre-learner, someone who is learning how to be an entrepreneur and is willing to share their experiences to help others.
I can’t offer business advice, but since I’m building a business and documenting what I’ve learned along the way, maybe we can learn something together.
Below are 6 lessons I’ve learned after my first 4 months (in no particular order).
There’s no way you can grow your business and touch every aspect of it
Recently, I spent two precious hours troubleshooting the forums section of my membership site, myshrpa.com. Two hours I could have invested back into doing what I do best: creating content to grow my brand.
But since I am a one man show, I spent two hours playing around with every WordPress setting known to man until I got it right.
Did I learn something new? You bet. Will it help me grow my business. Nope.
For me to grow my business I cannot be dabbling in WordPress settings. To be successful I have to build a business that relies solely on me but rather systems and processes. I now realize this is what entrepreneurs call scaling.
I’ve added tech support to my ever growing list of “Things I need to get after I have positive cash flow.” Speaking of which…
I’m probably not going to get paid, for a long time
I’m not in this for the money, but my goal next year is to leave my full-time job. However, to keep my business going I’m probably not going to be able to pay myself for awhile. I’m okay with that. I don’t need nice things and would rather keep investing in my business to help it manifest into my vision sooner rather than later.
And when it comes time to finally pay myself, I’m taking the bare minimum. (It also helps that my wife will be the majority bread winner starting next year. Screw gender roles, I’m 100% okay with that.)
Not everyone is going to get it
I tried for the longest time to find a universal explanation for what my business offers. I ended up with some vague, arbitrary value proposition (more like a proposition, there wasn’t a whole lot of value being conveyed). It felt cheesy and fake.
A friend of mine suggested I create an ideal customer, someone who could represent my target market (now I know what that means). Instead, I tried conveying a message I knew would appeal to him and him alone.
Turns out there are a lot more of hims out there.
Being more specific about my business and trying to reach my ideal customer has left a lot of people in the dark and/or confused. But I don’t care about them. They won’t understand no matter how hard I try. So why waste my energy?
Build, solicit feedback, iterate, repeat
I’ve never read a business book but I’m sure someone developed this concept before. It might even have a fancy name like Rostislav’s Golden Circle of Growth.
I’m not stuck in my ways yet. It’s easier to quickly build a feature or product, ask for feedback and then quickly iterate until I get it right. What’s the point of getting it right from the beginning?
The only advantage I have over my competitors is that I am relatively unknown and new. Meaning I can quickly adapt without it costing me anything.
Sometimes being the underdog has its advantages.
You probably aren’t the best
One day I opened up Canva and created this amazing logo for my business in about 15 minutes:
Who needs a graphic designer? This logo is sick.
I thought I was the best person to design my business’s logo, because well, it was my idea in the first place. Luckily, I have good friends who are real friends and aren’t afraid to tell me when something sucks. They convinced me to give Fiverr a try which lead to something better.:
This was a big reality check for me. Even though this business is my baby, I’m not capable of raising it on my own (I have a baby in real life and the previous statement still holds true). In order to be successful I need to find talented people who can help bring my vision to life.
Lesson learned, I’m not the best person for every job.
Get a professional to take care of your finances
And get on this early. I’m using Bookscaping to handle my accounting. They helped me to set everything up correctly the first time around, that way I’m not in the dark if the IRS comes knocking.
But in all seriousness, having a professional look over your finances not only gives you peace of mind, it ensures you aren’t doing anything wrong (or illegal) that might cost you your business.
You might also enjoy reading:
It took me 116 days to go from 0 to 1 customers_But it took only 105 minutes to go from 1 to 2_hackernoon.com
I’m building a community of goal-getters, you in?_I don’t believe everyone is capable of reaching their dreams. Many try, few succeed._blog.myshrpa.com
Hi, I’m Declan and I’m building a business for the first time. If you found this story helpful, please consider giving the ❤ a tap. If not, I’m open to advice and feedback. Lay it on me.