Whether you like it or not, you’re going to get a ton of advice and feedback from people as an entrepreneur. People somehow feel more inclined to voice their opinions when they see a new business on the rise.
I received a lot of advice. When I first started out, I was arrogant and stupid. As you can imagine, I ignored all the advice I got for a short period of time. After that, I began taking everyone’s advice and putting them into action.
Turns out, both approaches were horrible ones. Instead, I decided to take all the advice I got with a grain of salt. I get advice, break it down and see how much of it really makes sense to me before applying it.
From receiving so much advice, I quickly learned a lot about which things work and don’t work. In this article, I share a list of popular advice entrepreneurs should ignore:
Perfect Your Business Plan
I know some people in the startup world that have spent YEARS perfecting their business plan. Luckily, I’m extremely impatient. When I received this advice, I tried perfecting it but eventually got frustrated and decided to take action.
You don’t want to spend a long period of time on a set of documents that are going to change every few weeks. Don’t worry about even making a business plan when you’re first starting out with your idea. Just focus on putting your ideas into action and a business plan will automatically form soon enough.
Quit Your Job
I do a fair share of coaching and consulting with entrepreneurs from all over the world. The first thing people ask me is, “Do you think I can quit my job and go full time on this to make millions of dollars?”
My answer is always, “HELL NO!” I believe in you as an entrepreneur, but dropping everything without any sign of success is just plain foolish. You need to balance your job and your business as a side gig. Once your side gig begins growing and getting bigger than your job, you can think of quitting and going full-time.
The Customer Is Always Right
There is a funny thing about this. The customer is always right when they are in the same room with you, but usually wrong when they leave that wrong. Let me explain what I mean.
Customers often times don’t understand their own problems, pains and needs. They think they know, but they really don’t. Thus, they may decline an offering or offer some sort of feedback that may be completely useless to your business. As an entrepreneur, you have to be careful with how you let your customers affect your decisions.
Fix The Design & It’ll Work
Design is what makes things look pretty and appealing to others. However, design cannot make someone find value in your products or ideas. You can design beautiful landing pages to convert better, but those users still have to like what you’re doing.
Many entrepreneurs blame their downfalls on a lack of good design. However, if you have users that are signing up or using your product/service, you may want to focus more on the product. Don’t use a lack of design as an excuse for something that may be a bigger issue.
Never Give Up
I once met a guy who had a business that he was running for 12 years. I don’t know if you could even call it a business as he was still trying get this business of the ground. After 12 years, he told me he had just done over $5,000 in sales for that WHOLE time period.
I’m not trying to be an asshole, but at some point you have to make tough decisions. If you’re business isn’t working, pivot or fold the cards. As an entrepreneur, you’re only a quitter if you give up on the journey. Giving up on a business that isn’t working is just prudent and gives you the opportunity to start something new that can work.
Conclusion
As an entrepreneur, you’re going to receive a lot of advice. It’s going to be up to you to take all that advice with a grain of salt. In this article, I shared some popular advice entrepreneurs should ignore.
photo credit: Images_of_Money via photopin cc
