40 Things I Learned in my First 1,000 Days in Business
I opened my first official business on January 9, 2016. Here we are 1000 days later on October 5th, 2018 and I figured I would share a list of some of the things that I have learned that stick out to me.
These are centered around business but many can be applied to life in general.
1. Provide value to people.
Help solve their problem and don't be in it just for you. If you actually truly care about people, you will get much further in your business & life. If you don't and its all about you, you will fail. Guaranteed.
2. Hindsight is 20/20.
You're going to make mistakes. Deal with it, don't dwell on them & move on.
3. Expensive mistakes...
Unfortunately for me, have been some of the best lessons I have learned.
4. It will not always be fun & you will not always enjoy what you're doing.
Even if you "follow your passion". It's going to be work.
5. Two very important words: CASH FLOW.
Build your plan to include working capital & cash flow or you will be doomed. Cash is oxygen for a business - hard to breathe without it.
6. Business is cyclical.
Busy times of year, slow times of year.
Busy times of the day, slow times of the day.
Busy times of the week, slow times of the week. Plan for the slow times.
7. Business plans are a MUST.
Click here to learn more.
8. Monthly P&Ls on your business.
You have to know where you're at.
9. You can learn a LOT of what NOT to do from others.
Learn from their mistakes. It's much cheaper in terms of your time & money.
10. No discounts.
Sell a GREAT product/service, deliver value to your customer & don't go into the discount game. It's a race to the bottom. (Learned this from watching others do it.)
11. Employees are an investment - not an expense.
And to be honest, your employees are more important than your customers because your customers need to be taken care of perfectly. So treat them right.
12. Frequent team meetings are important. They're important for culture, performance, communication, etc. Have frequent meetings if you have a team.
Click here to learn more.
13. Attention to detail matters.
Whenever sales are down, I can almost always point to details (basics are missing: not having frequent meetings, store is not clean, etc.) Reign it in, learn from it and get going again.
14. Business time | Friendship time
Lay down the line early in business relationships: I call it a light switch... there is a time for dicking around & there is a time to get shit done. Make it clear to everyone and flip the switch when necessary.
You (as a person) can care about someone's problems with their partner and why they were late... HOWEVER, the business doesn't care and you can't be late. That’s how the light switch works, make sense?
15. You never know when you will cross paths with someone again.
Don't burn bridges. (just be a good person)
16. Keep your emotions out of business.
An emotional response will cost you a lot more than temporary satisfaction.
17. Sleep on it... 😴
See the one above this? It's easy to react to things in frustration or excitement & think you need to do something RIGHT NOW! But you don't. It isn't as urgent as it feels in the moment. Sleep on it.
18. Not everyone plays fair.
The world isn't fair. Sucks, but there is a lot of dirt balls out there. See the next couple steps on how to handle the dirt balls.
19. Always do the right thing.
Don't stoop to others level. Stay in your lane. Treat people right.
20. Hone in on your goals.
Focus on what you're trying to accomplish and don't get sidetracked trying to mimic competition or anyone else. In my experience so far, all the competition has closed down. Copying them wouldn't have been too smart.
21. Don't beat around the bush when talking to people no matter what it is about.
Direct communication is key. Saves both parties time & emotion.
Also, pick up the phone or have an in person conversation if you have an issue or something serious to discuss.
22. You will make LOTS of mistakes & cannot avoid them.
The quicker you start, the quicker you can get past them and learn more.
Click here to learn more.
23. Being scared is normal.
24. Questioning yourself if what you are doing is "the right thing to do" is normal.
Even when you're super confident in a venture or decision you made, there will still be at least a speck of "what if it is the wrong decision" deep down. Chances are you will never feel 100% positive just because you're a realist and you know nothing is guaranteed.
25. Feeling alone is normal.
You will change & lose many people... You will also gain new people that are better influences.
Most of the people from your past (high school, etc) will not be a part of your future. So if you're in school reading this, think of all your closest friends right now... I can guarantee you 90% or more of them will be non-existent in your life in 5 years. So quit stressing about impressing them.
26. Re-invest into your company!
My first year in business rather than taking home a normal paycheck, I hired a videographer to produce video ads. Best money I've ever spent. (Questioned myself at the time)
27. 12 hour work days are normal for a business owner.
Hell, 15 hour work days are normal.
28. Paying your employees more than you make is normal.
I am in year 3 and am still one of the lowest paid people in my companies. Don't go into business because you think you're going to be making bank in a year.
29. You can live off of a lot less money than you think.
30. You'll never please everyone.
I could set a Facebook status that I found the cure for cancer and I would get comments about how I think I'm better than people because of it or they don't like the way I worded the status. 🖕(More on this, please)
31. Everyone will have ideas for you and "just want to give you my 2 cents"
Listen to them because you definitely don't know everything & every once in a while, it will be something clever... but don't get too caught up with all these "ideas". Everyone has ideas.
32. Don't kid yourself with your business.
I see so many terrible ads by companies and want to ask them, "Be real with yourself here, would you stop and look at your own ads if you were a consumer?"... Most of them would NOT. I have always asked myself that question about things I do, "No bias, how would I respond to this?"
33. Change is a good thing.
People don't like it because it isn't comfortable & people like comfortable (duh...). Get comfortable being uncomfortable and you will be better off. Change is good!
34. You do not and will not ever know everything (about anything).
Every time I have ever gotten too confident about something in my head, reality slaps me in the face. It has happened a few times. It's a stupid mistake that young people make. Once reality slaps you a few times, you figure it out. You'll never know it all so absorb every little thing you can to keep learning.
35. Audiobooks and Podcasts FTW (For the Win)
This is my favorite form of learning. I listen to them on 1.25x speed for faster consumption. It will sound funny for the first 5 mins and then you will get used to it. I have learned an invaluable amount of information from podcasts.
36. Everyone is human... even your "idols".
A few years ago, I can honestly say I would "idolize" people. There is no reason for it. All of us are human. Treat the janitor like you treat the CEO. Respect people. You're no lesser than or greater than anybody.
37. Think like a dealership with multiple streams of revenue.
(Elaborating on this with a blog post soon)
38. Everybody is going to think you're rich because you own a business.
They can't even fathom the debt and responsibilities you have. Don't bother explaining to them. They won't get it. (Even if you show them this.)
39. Treat your energy like money.
Be careful of where you spend it & how you spend it. Don't waste energy on dumb shit. And before you do anything, ask yourself if it is the best use of your time & energy?
40. Nothing will go as planned for you. Everything will take longer than you think it will.
When I am "ready" to open a store, it ends up taking a minimum of 6 months - this is just how it goes and that is with the pedal-to-the-metal and knowing all the steps to take.
Speaking of the above point, I got the idea for this blog post and started writing the ideas and framework of what you're reading right now on July 13, 2018. Right now it is October 4, 2018 (My 999th day in business) and I'm touching it up to publish tomorrow.
I could've gone on with this list forever.
As I wrote this, some of the points seemed so small that they weren't worth mentioning but I decided they ultimately were important enough to make the cut. I also had so many that I wanted to put "This is the most important one!!" but it would've looked pretty fickle if I put that on 15 of them.
I hope you got some value from this post! Ultimately, you will learn so much more than I could ever tell you by just starting & going through shit yourself (See #22 again).
I truly believe the saying about how in the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take.
"I failed" is ten times better than "what if" because "what if" never went to the arena.