On your journey of creating and building a business, you will inevitably learn lessons along the way.  Below are some lessons learned:

Are you second guessing yourself or is your concern legitimate? An entrepreneur must often ask himself this question as he is making many decisions about the business for the first time. Questions may include:  what materials should I purchase, which vendor should I use, what software should I use etc.  Sometimes, we might make the wrong decision by trying to save money up front. Or, on the other side of the spectrum, we might pick the most expensive vendor and spend too much. An entrepreneur must gather and weigh all the data to make the best decisions possible.

Don’t put something important aside for too long, time passes fast.  Have you ever had the experience where you thought to yourself:  I don’t have time to work on this project now, so I’ll work on it in a couple of weeks.  Then months go by and you still have not gotten back to the project.  To prevent this from happening, instead of putting something off for a while, schedule some time in your calendar for it each week.

Don’t be a perfectionist.  Often, people will work for months on how their website looks and other parts of their business to try to make them perfect before the big launch day.  The problem with being a perfectionist is that it can become very time-consuming and the time that you are taking to try to make everything just right can be better spent on finding clients and customers.  So do things well, but don’t overanalyze.  Things such as your website will change over time anyway as your business develops.

Find the best customers or clients for what you sell.  Not everyone needs to be your client or customer or should be.  Create an avatar of your ideal customer and find them online or offline.  The more specific you are about who your customer is, the more specifically you will be able to promote to them and the more successful your marketing will be.  For example, what industry is your ideal customer in?, are they male or female?, what are their hobbies?, what do they spend on?, etc.  

Be specific when describing what you want – showing it is even better.  I once ordered some silicone cord from China and told the sales person that I wanted a stretchable cord.  They sent me a cord but it was not as stretchable as I wanted.  I thought about how I could show them what I wanted.  I created a video that showed the type of cord I wanted (which I had bought at a store in the U.S.) and showed in the video how very stretchable it was.  They wrote me back saying “Oh, you want HIGHLY stretchy”, which was their specific term for the type of cord I wanted.

Know when it’s time to move on.  Sometimes, things don’t work out perhaps because of wrong timing or because you are going in the wrong direction with something.  Sometimes it is a blessing in disguise when something doesn’t work out because it can make you realize that you were pursuing the wrong approach and you will be led to a better method or solution. This is one reason why it is not worth fearing failure.

Maintain a balanced life.  Being an entrepreneur can take a lot of time and effort so you may find yourself spending less time with friends and family, when ironically, many people become entrepreneurs so they can spend more time with friends and family and do the things they love. So, despite how busy you may be as a business owner, it is important to make time for a balanced life by scheduling activities in your calendar with friends and family and other things you enjoy.  Doing fun things will also help you to have more fun in your business and will help to keep your business positive and productive.
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