What advice would you give someone just starting out in business?

April Group Discussion Question

Each month, I’ll pose a question for us to discuss in the comments. The goal is to crowdsource the best resources, advice, and recs. Everyone can see the question of the month and my personal answer, but only paid subscribers can join in the comments to share their answers.

Question: What advice would you give someone just starting out in business?

My answer: Many of us who start businesses are creative with tons of ideas. It is only natural we’d enter entrepreneurship as an outlet to see these ideas become reality. But when it comes to deciding which ideas to execute, my best advice would be: Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

I’ve learned this the hard way. In the beginning, I quickly realized there were so many different products I could be creating. As soon as I got an idea, I’d open up InDesign and start designing. It was fun and felt productive. I’d spend hours designing a greeting card, purchasing cardstock and envelopes, plastic sleeves, buying ink for my printer and practicing printing and folding the cards. All this to make… 50 cents (maybe) per card sold. Then I’d move on to my next great idea… and so on. I’m not telling you to not make greeting cards. Many shops are quite succesful at this, but they do it right. They factor in their time, streamline their processes, and go all in on the stationery business. They don’t dabble here and there and then move on.

My best advice would be to get real clear on what it is you are doing and how that will translate to profit. Where is your time best spent? Is the idea you are currently working on really going to propel your business or is it a shiny object distracting you from something else?

Now it’s your turn. What advice would you give someone just starting out in business? Paid subscribers, leave your answers in the comments section.