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The Best Startup Advice Ever. We asked Canadas fastest-Growing Companies what advice they would offer a friend starting a business. Their insights offer a crash course in Entrepreneurship 100 1. Go for it. I started when I was 50 years old and wish I'd started earlier. 2. Surround yourself with strong people. Don't be afraid to admit that you're not great at everything. 3. It's serious stuff, but you have to make it look like fun. 4. Have lots of money. 5. Make lots of mistakes and learn from them. 6. Stay lean. 7. Be ready for the commitment. 8. Many people fail because they just feel they're overwhelmed. Don't give up. Some problems will go away; some you have to solve; some will aggravate you for the rest of your life. But just keep going. You've got to really want this. 9. Plan it through thoroughly. Have a business plan and constantly update it. And find yourself a board of advisors. 10. Hire good people. Don't hire people just for the sake of hiring them. They are a reflection of you and your organization. 11. Go for it. The hardest thing is to get started. 12. Make sure you have funding, and watch your cash flow. 13. Take your cash-flow projections, and double them. 14. Focus. Be single-minded about where you want to go, and don't be distracted by outside and inside forces. 15. Remember that no matter how stressed out your customer is, it's your responsibility to relieve their stress without overstressing your employees. 16. Know what you are good at and what you aren't good at. Ask questions. There are lots of people happy to help with advice. Find a mentor who can help steer you around some of the more obvious potholes. Get a board of directors. 17. Don't be afraid to take risks but invest a lot of energy in planning. 18. Stay flexible and watch your cash flow. 19. The biggest thing that I would say is that you really have to dedicate your all. Even when you think everything is a waste of time if you don't keep going until you can't possibly go any further, you'll never know. 20. Being in the right place at the right time is worth a lot, but you must persevere. I had a lot of rough, very stressful times starting out. If I hadn't persevered, I wouldn't be here today. 21. Have a good knowledge of finance. 22. Get to know your clients. Go where they are. Try to meet with them as many times as you can without making a pest of yourself. Shake their hands and look them in the eye, then follow through with what you say. 23. Smell the roses along the way. I didn't do this as much as I should have. There's a real temptation to constantly leverage every penny against some future payoff. But you've got to live a life in this process, too. 24. Be prepared to give up all fun for the first seven or eight years. 25. Start small, work smart, work long. Make all of your mistakes when you're a tiny operation. Once you can operate a business as well as the best competitor (or even better), then it's time to look at whether you want to pay the price by expanding. By doing that, you're going to give up a lot of your free time and face more pressures. 26. Do what you love. But don't get into my business. 27. Find a U.S. bank. They are co-operative and aren't risk-averse. They actually lend money, and their account managers get more than two weeks of training. 28. Find a partner who is your opposite. 29. Think twice. Think about the sacrifices, because it'll take over your life. People just think about the glory of it, but they don't realize what's on the other side. 30. Have a business plan and be able to explain it. Your bank is your partner, not your adversary. 31. If you don't have a good marketing angle, a good marketing idea, a way of differentiating yourself very clearly, don't bother. It's going to be too hard. 32. In the end, the real secret is that if you can get a whole team of people to believe in your concept then it's got a life of its own, beyond you. I see a lot of companies driven by one tireless entrepreneur. Those companies are doomed. 33. It will take at least twice as long as you expect it to take, and it will cost at least three times as much as you would expect. So plan accordingly. 34. Have a dream, focus, plan, control unfortunately, it's as simple as that. 35. You don't have to be on the bleeding edge, but you need to take risks every once in a while. 36. Set your goals high. Think like a public company from Day 1. Learn from other business leaders and apply their lessons. 37. Don't underestimate what it will cost. And remember that things will take twice as long as you think they will. 38. Pick a sunrise, not a sunset, market and then focus on your people. 39. As Chief Dan George said, "We must endeavor to persevere." Many times during the '80s, I thought, "This company is going nowhere," but I stuck it out and it's gone beyond what I thought it would ever do. 40. Determination and commitment are really important; we wouldn't have made it this far if we had ever given up. At one point, when we really needed financing and it didn't look like we were going to get it, we had to face facts. But once we came to the realization that the core team was prepared to keep going, no matter what, life got a lot easier. 41. You've got to be an absolute expert in your category. Know everything about everything, including your competition. It's far beyond what most people think understanding their category is, but to me, that was one of the key components to becoming successful. 42. Find a great team who is going to have the same culture as you do. They don't have to have the same intelligence or the same qualities. But they need to have the same culture. 43. Have a good solid foundation, both financially and product-wise. Develop products that are needed. 44. Remain flexible. Do different things until you find the area where you can make a difference. 45. There are no substitutes for quality service or hard work. If you forget those, there will be no business. 46. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. 47. Opportunities happen to those who can write a cheque, so make sure you're well capitalized. 48. First, make a study before going into a business. Know what the future is, what the market is. After you start, you have to be very focused. And you need to have the right people with you. 49. You have to have a vision, and you can't deviate from that. 50. Don't define worth and happiness only by business success, but by family, fun, interests and friends as well. 51. You've got to love what you're doing. 52. Fully research your competition first and act accordingly. Figure out how to get an edge on them. 53. Think smart and work hard: those are the ingredients for success. 54. Do very diligent research before you start. Really know your market; try to foresee what the market will want. Figure out niches, stay focused and keep the money tight. 55. Don't look for handouts. 56. Capitalize yourself well; never go short on capital. 57. Focus on a niche and make as many friends as you can. Find as many partners as you can to work with. Two heads are better than one. 58. Managing people is the biggest challenge. You have to take care of their career aspirations. Just because you have goals doesn't mean everyone else shares them. 59. Be true to your dreams don't believe the people who say you will fail. But be smart and listen to what they have to say, because they may also have a good idea you can use. 60. Believe in what you want to do. There are enough people out there who will tell you it's been done before, it's wrong, it won't succeed. 61. Surround yourself with very smart people. 62. Really think twice about whether that's what you want to do. If you're not in it for the long term, don't bother, because the short-term stress and effort required is incredible. 63. The only way to build a company is to do it as a widespread team effort. No one person can build a company, even if you're Bill Gates. You need an infrastructure to build a company. 64. Have a good plan and remain humble. Once your business goes to your head, you're in trouble; when you think you've made it, you haven't. 65. Be prepared for long hours. You've got to be resilient. You've got to keep on pushing hard, all the time. 66. Create and maintain an outstanding people environment. If you can attract the best and brightest, make sure you keep them. 67. Don't give up. Take your dream and run with it. 68. Be passionate about what you do. 69. Build a reputation for integrity. 70. Decide whether you're going into business to make a living or to get rich. That may seem kind of a monetary way to look at it, but it gives you an idea of what you're trying to achieve. 71. Do your homework. Learn from other people, work hard and don't give up. If there is a will, there is a way. 72. Take things slowly. Most of my mistakes have been made when I rushed. It seems that, whenever I make a mistake, I look back and say, "Was I being driven by growth, and getting too over-excited? Should I have just sat back and thought this through?" 73. Focus on controlling the controllables. A lot of people tend to talk and think a lot about things over which they have absolutely no control that's a waste of time. 74. Take a long-term focus. Keep in mind that you'll never be a success tomorrow morning. Long term takes integrity, dedication and consistency. 75. Treat the client as honestly as you possibly can. At times that's going to be painful, because it's going to cost you. In the long term, it's well worth it. 76. Get good people to help you. 77. Really know what you're getting into, and keep in mind that no matter how organized you may or may not be, the business is going to require a lot of dedication and work. 78. Make sure you have a good banker, because you'll need money. 79. Go in with your eyes wide open. When you start a company, especially one as complex as ours, you need to know what you're in for: probably five to 10 years of hard work and not as much return as you could get elsewhere before it pays off. 80. Remain optimistic. You don't have to be an extroverted sales person to succeed in business. If you have a product that you believe in, that confidence will be communicated. 81. Gather as many talented and smart people around you as you possibly can and listen to them. 82. You have to believe in your business. 83. Just have the tenacity to keep going. When the obstacles come at you, work diligently to find ways around them. Don't let anything push you off your goal. 84. Shop around on banks. And have a good marketing plan. 85. Know your market, know your customers. The market always speaks. 86. Focus. Don't get swayed by customers throwing dollars at you to get you to do things that weren't part of the original plan. 87. Leverage off people who have done it. Get mentors who satisfy various stages that you go through, from startup to fast growth. 88. Make sure you have a good product and good service. But there's no easy way: you've got to put in the hours. 89. Just start. People are always saying, "If I just had this, if I just had that." They're always waiting to get their ducks in a row. But the ducks are here. Feed them. You don't have to jump into a business with both feet. I started my business part-time, when I still had another job, just on Saturdays. I kept building up my clientele, and then I quit my job. 90. I strongly suggest you have a good business plan. People see it as a waste of time, but it's a very important tool. You need to think of alternatives and contingencies. Just drifting day to day is not a good idea. 91. Find a good product, make the right associations, work hard. 92. Figure out what you do really well and focus on it. 93. Build a strong relationship with your lender. Interview your banker. 94. Don't take too much out of the company; take what you need to survive and support your family. Don't get delusions of grandeur early on: for years I drove a car that was barely roadworthy. Get by on what you can get by on. 95. Do the homework and go for it. 96. You have to believe in what you're doing. You need to stay focused and committed. Once you have committed yourself to your vision, don't let other people or small mistakes deter you. 97. Do it before you talk yourself out of it. If I knew what I know now about running this business, I wouldn't have started it. 98. Jump in with both feet and accept that challenges are a part of the process. You never reach a day where you can say, "I'm successful and I can stop." 99. Do what you love to do, and it never becomes work. 100. Much laughter. Indeed, gales of laughter. By Rick Spence Reprinted from PROFIT, Your Guide to Business Success; June 1999 © 1999 Rogers Media Inc |
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