Four Entrepreneurs Share Their Biggest Lesson in Business
Some of the best advice I’ve received has come not from business textbooks but from individuals or entrepreneurs who have experience under their belts. If you can learn from someone else’s journey, why not? I’ve asked a few entrepreneurs I know and respect for what is one lesson they’ve learned in business. Here’s what they said.
“Know your biggest strengths and weaknesses. Find someone whose strength is your weakness and ask them for help and guidance. For me, Strength: Visionary leadership and Weakness: Financial controls.
So I make a good CEO, but only if I have a good CFO.”
“I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned has been to be more kind and understanding to myself and my abilities. To listen to my body and know that I’m doing all I can.
This helps me stay positive. Meditating daily twice a day and slowly digesting my thoughts. It may not always be the most productive, but if I’m not ok, everything stops. ”
“My biggest lesson in starting my own business is to come in with clear intention, to be very focused on my goal on helping individuals, families, & businesses with my highest ability, for their highest good. I take each client in as if they were someone in my family. I concentrate on staying focused, no multitasking, and get it done with respect, love, & understanding. ”
“Aside from the obvious - understanding what your services are, pricing them correctly, and having a robust client roadmap with clear understanding of deadlines and deliverables on both sides - I’d say the most important thing I’ve learned is that business takes place outside of Instagram and even social media in general.
It’s crazy to say that in the 21st century, but it’s true. I believe I spent more time coming up with the perfect Instagram caption and grid pattern in my first year than I took making sure the few clients I was lucky enough to have in my first year on my own were taken care of.
Instagram and other social outlets are an awesome tool. But to build a business that has depth, meaning and a potential legacy? It has to live outside the digital realm. It has to have a functionality in the real world. It has to have a mission beyond gaining new followers and more eyeballs to your content.
Otherwise, you’re building a digital sandcastle. The bits and bytes of trends and new platforms will crash like a tidal wave over your kingdom. And I want to build something that has a deep purpose and meaning. That can withstand a trend. That can sustain.
In the next year of my business, I am going to work to make my digital presence as a business into the real world. Meaning, I won’t spend more time on Insta Stories than I do creating meaningful content that makes an impact. ”
My advice? Surround yourself with individuals in different industries and various seasons of life who can challenge you, encourage you, and maybe even help you to not make their same mistakes!
Cheers,
Emily