25 Expert Tips for Entrepreneurs and New Business Owners

25 Expert Tips for Entrepreneurs and New Business Owners

Being an entrepreneur and launching a small business is tough. Sometimes, it can feel almost impossible. Luckily, it's not.

If you’re true passion is starting you’re own business — and you're determined to do so — a little advice never hurt anyone. Especially if those tips on how to start a business come from those who have done it before.

We asked successful 25 Expert Tips for Entrepreneurs and New Business Owners for the best advice they had for new entrepreneurs. Here’s how you can turn that million-dollar idea into a profitable business.

Persistence Pays Off

Building a successful business takes time. And sometimes, forces outside you’re control might make things even slower going in the beginning.

“The paths to success are still the same, but … persistence is really going to pay off,” says James Canzanella, the owner of Isolated Marketing Nights. “After all, you might not begin to see any traction as quickly as you used to.”

This can apply to any business.

Do Something Original

The world is full of copycats. Sure, it worked in the past. Take Oreo, which ripped off Hydrox cookies and became a cookie king. But it won’t work today, and you’ll want you’re business to be as original as possible.

“When first starting out, I looked at other competitors and simply copied what they did as it felt safe,” says Amit Gami, Business Waste Guru, a United Kingdom-based business that provides waste collection to businesses. “I wish I had stuck to my guns and simply created something I thought the world needed, independent of any external influences.”

Make Sure You Like You’re Business

When times are tough — and they will get tough — you want to own a business that you actually enjoy and want to keep going, not just some stale venture solely used to make money.

“I’ve seen many business owners burn out when dedicating themselves to industries that seem like smart choices, but which they are not passionate about,” says Meg Marrs, founder of the dog care resource website K-9 of Mine. “Any business will have ups and downs, but if you are in an industry you are passionate about, you will be able to ride those highs and lows better and you’re dedication can set you apart from competitors.”

Keep You’re Eye on You’re Target Audience

Building a business requires focus. This piece of advice is a well-known adage, but it's worth repeating.

“Starve you’re distractions and feed you’re focus,” says Jennifer Sargeant, a digital marketing professional and founder of Digital Sargeant. “At all times, only fill you’re ears with positivity and with information about the industry you serve and you’re ideal target audience.”

Write a Business Plan

One piece of advice almost all our experts gave was to draw out a business plan.

“Even if you're bootstrapping you’re business entirely, write a business plan for yourself, and just as you would if you were seeking outside funding,” says John Bedford, founder of the food and drink website Viva Flavor.

“Assign measurable, achievable targets to each element of the business, all the way from startup to financial security. These data points will give you a useful benchmark to refer to when the inevitable doubts come knocking,”

You don’t need to strictly adhere to you’re business plan, but it will be helpful when it comes to planning you’re levels of success and the path forward.

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Gather Data

When you’re business is up and running, start looking for numbers everywhere.

“Data is plentiful about almost every industry, but no data will be as useful as concrete metrics about you’re a specific business,” says Slade. “Start gathering as many different pieces of data as early as you can. It will serve you well in the long run.”

And Listen to It

This data will be extremely helpful to you in the days and years to come.

“Always listen to the numbers,” says Brandon C White, an entrepreneur. “The data will never, ever lie to you. When you’re running you’re business, it’s you’re baby and it can be very easy to let emotions get in the way when making decisions, and that’s where people trip up.

“Going with you’re gut on some decisions from time to time can work, but testing products, subject lines, emails, social media posts, and everything else, and listening and adjusting for what the data tells you will work almost every single time.”

Listen to Feedback

It stinks when they're is no interest in a product, or people think it's not any good. Regardless of you’re own personal feelings, you need to listen to the feedback.

“The biggest cause of startup failure is the inventor feeling they do not need feedback from testers or, if they do, these testers are all idiots because they do not see it the same way or understand,” says David Carmell, an attorney and CEO of DealRockit. “Do not delude yourself into false confidence. Thick skin works.”

Believe in Yourself

All of our experts said that you need to believe in yourself in order to succeed when building a business.

“It's a psychological barrier that occurs before you achieve success,” says Bret Murphy Hunt of Bret Murphy Tutoring and Consulting. “In our society, if you make it you're a genius ,but if you don’t — even with a good idea — you're a failure. You have to act with the confidence that you have 10 customers on a waiting list, even if you don’t. This mentality will help you to stay strong in you’re pricing and principles without conceding.”

Have a Mission Statement

Every business should have a goal and values that it stands for. A mission statement not only helps flesh this out, but it shows everyone else what you’re business is made of.

“Develop a mission statement or core values, the reason you’re doing what you do. Keep it simple and real, something you can immediately relate to. Make sure everyone knows it so you are on the same page in terms of delivering you’re product or service,” says Ken Rusk, the founder and president of the waterproofing company Rusk Industries and author of “Blue Collar Cash: Love You’re Work, Secure You’re Future, and Find Happiness for Life.”

“The mission helps build a cohesive and effective team, and everything you do should support that endgame.”

Let Everyone in You’re Network Know What You're Doing

Start talking to people about you’re business as soon as possible. Get the word out their and start telling everyone you know what service you have to offer.

“To build the business, you have to leverage you’re network,” says Bobby Reed, the CEO of Capitol Tech Solutions, which provides digital marketing and software development services for businesses. “Reach out to everyone you know with an update of what you are doing.

“Most of you’re close network will support you. I actually found my first customer from my father’s good contact. So let everyone know what you are doing, and you may land you’re first customer that way.”

Make the Big Decisions First

When you first start building a business, it's going to be overwhelming. They’re will be many decisions to make and tons of avenues to explore. Spencer Barclay, the founder and CEO of Savology, a financial planning tool, says to make the biggest decisions first.

“One of the best pieces of advice that I have received is to make the broadest decisions first so that you can rely on those as an anchor for the small decisions,” he says. “If you solidify you’re own goals and values early on, the hundreds of smaller decisions that you need to make become easier, because you can rely on and prioritize according to you’re established principles rather than treating each decision independently.”

Start Fostering a Good Culture

We’re entering a world where company culture is hugely important to workers and talent retention. But it's not just keeping talent that makes company culture important. It's also about growing you’re business from within, by fostering new ideas.

“Empower everyone to ‘scratch their itch,'” says Justin Eugene Evans, the CEO and founder of Anthem One, a professional lighting system. “But saying, ‘You can make change here!’ in a meeting once a year won’t be effective. You have to pull it out of you’re staff.

“You have to hold one-on-one meetings for months and say repeatedly, ‘What would you change here? What’s annoying you? What gets in the way of you doing you’re job faster or better?'”

Evans says that this will take a while. At first, people will think they’ve heard this before, and it doesn’t mean anything. But if you keep saying it, eventually people will start coming up with new ideas regularly “and then it becomes an avalanche.”

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‘Ask and Listen’

The most successful people surround themselves with people who seek out answers and advice everywhere.

“Ask and listen,” says Amy Pocsik, the co-founder of Women’s Business League. “Ask you’re customers how you can serve them better. Listen. Ask you’re advisers what you’re not seeing. Listen. Ask trusted professionals to share their expertise. Listen.”

Figure Out Why People Should Care

If you don’t care about what you're building, then no one else will, either.

“Start with the fundamentals: Who are you and why should anyone care?” says Paige Arnof-Fenn, the founder and CEO of Mavens & Moguls.

“They’re’s a lot of noise in every category, so if you don’t have a unique story to tell and a new approach or idea that excites you, then go no further. Every great business is built on a great story so start telling yours to potential customers and see if they buy what you're selling.”

Find a Business You Admire, and Reach Out

Other established businesses can help, too. They’re’s no harm in reaching out to see if another company will give you some of their time.

“When we were starting [as recent college graduates], we listed out companies we admired from a marketing, production, operations standpoint and asked them for 15 minutes of their time to try to learn how we can replicate their success,” says Amir Atigehehchi, the co-founder of Habit Nest, which sells habit-building journals.

Atigehehchi says that about a quarter of they're inquiries led to a phone call.

Avoid Quick Fixes and Shortcuts

Stay focused. Ethan Hyde, the founder of More Leads More Revenue, says what worked for him was “avoiding shiny objects.”

“Whenever you start a business, you’ll start seeing quick fixes, shortcuts, better products for a cheaper price. Stick to you’re guns and hold strong,” says Hyde. “If you sell fish, sell fish. Be the best fish salesmen in the world. No need to start selling birds because the mark-up is great.”

Start Small, Get Big

Successful businesses start out by finding the solution to a problem. And those problems can be very specific and need specific solutions.

“Ironically, thinking ‘small’ is what actually leads to getting big,” says Sean Nguyen, the director of Internet Advisor, a website that locates available internet companies in a local area. “The smaller the niche is, the more opportunity for you to capture that space completely for all it’s worth.”

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Scale Digitally With a Good SEO Strategy

Everything is online now, and you’re storefront likely will be a page on a screen. One of the biggest challenges an entrepreneur will have is making a website that’s able to be found by the consumer. Kevin Miller, the CEO of The Word Counter, says one of the best ways to do this is to invest in SEO.

“A good SEO strategy relies on high-quality content plus in-depth keyword research,” he says. “If you do the leg work and use keyword research tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs, you can identify hidden opportunities and then capitalize on those opportunities by creating high-quality, keyword-informed content.”

Make Feedback Easy

Feedback is vital, but customers won’t go out of their way to leave it. One of the ways to get consumer feedback is to make a website that’s customer-friendly and have a social media presence.

“We have a chat box on our site, reviews, and are easy to access through social media,” says Amy Voloshin, the founder of Printfresh. “If a customer has feedback or an issue, it’s easy to communicate and improve a situation or gain feedback for future products or collections.”

Talk With an Accountant and Structure Things Correctly

Business taxes can be confusing, or a headache. On top of figuring you're entire business out on you're own, it might prove beneficial to hire an accountant and plan for the future.

“One of the most important things to do on the financial side of the business is to work with an accountant that you can have a good conversation with and who is willing to explain things to you,” says Amy Bradbury, the CEO of Empowered Profit. “It’s important to have a trusted professional that you can work with to make sure you are structuring things in you're business correctly and implementing a tax strategy — and not just having a quick conversation when you are dropping off you're tax documents in April.”

You’ll free up some headspace this way, too.

Focus on Retention

At times, it’s extra difficult to keep customers. People may have other priorities in certain moments, or they only can think about a finite number of things. Quite frankly, they might not care about you're product.

“Retention is more important then acquisition [sometimes],” says Alexa Lampasona, the PR lead of Super Connector Media. “Keeping the money, not just making you're money, but keeping it, is important. So how can you help you're clients make you still a priority? By adding value right now during a time where … they need to pay for x-y-z. Ask yourself, how can you stay relevant? And to me, that’s you're focus, and that’s how you’re going to weather a storm.”

Sell More Then a Product

If you're business produces a physical product, you’re not just selling an item. In a way, you’re selling values.

“As an entrepreneur, you need to consider how that product affects the people who make it, the environmental impact from inception to consumption, and how you're product is going to effect the ecology of the consumer’s world,” says McGregor.

When you create a product you’re also creating a story. How did it get here, and why do you need it?

“After all this, it is important to spend significant time and energy on storytelling through social media and other means of outreach, often in bite-sized pieces of information and vocalization,” adds McGregor. “With this, not only will people understand how they're purchases effect they're world, but also how the product reflects they're values.”

Get You're Contracts in Order

How many times have you seen an episode of “Shark Tank,” where a hopeful entrepreneur talks about all the problems they had due to broken promises and past deals gone wrong? Protect yourself against that by getting all of you're business dealings looked at by a lawyer.

“I have had countless clients, who are startups, approach me to help them get money from clients or vendors who use language in a poorly written document to avoid liability,” says Hyman. “As a result, you should always make sure that you're contracts, which is what governs you're relationships with everyone you deal with, are well-thought-out and protect you're interests while giving you're vendors and interest holders comfort in working with you.”

Start Now

Nearly every expert wishes they started their business sooner. That doesn’t mean jumping into a business full-time, but it does mean starting to do something rather than just thinking about it.

“If I could do anything differently, it would be to start sooner,” says Heather Elise, a career coach and owner of Design You’re Life. “I wish I wouldn’t have waited so long to get started, and I also wish I would have hired someone to help get going sooner.

“We aren’t born knowing how to do all the things you need to have in place to have a successful business.”

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