Lesson 1 of 12: Don’t Go Into Debt to Start Your Business
I'm almost 34 years old. My birthday is just a few days away. So, it seems appropriate that I look back over the last few years of my life and reflect on some of the lessons I've learned.
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A few years ago, while reading The Millionaire Messenger by Brendon Burchard, I came up with a list of things I've learned from my journey of entrepreneurship. As you may know, I didn't go to business school before I started my businesses, and I didn't choose entrepreneurship – I was thrown into it when I was fired from my job in 2014.
And, in the years since starting my business, I've tried to surround myself with the right people, apply my talents and skills to my business, and do something every day to get better.
But those are the easy things to talk about. Everybody who's anybody will tell you to do those things. So, I decided to dig a little deeper and come up with a list of things I've learned, so that, perhaps, you can apply them to your business and do better than me, faster than me.
12 Lessons I've Learned from My Journey
1: Don't Go Into Debt to Start Your Business
In the Bible, it says “The borrower is slave to the lender,” and that's true. Whenever you owe someone money, they own you until it's paid back.
Debt also puts a pinch on your business. If you're in debt and you have a slow month, you might not be able to pay your bills, and you might get things shut down. Or, if a client requests a refund, or an unexpected expense pops up, you can get yourself in a lot of trouble.
My business has been debt-free since day one, and I'm pretty proud of that. Not having debt, when combined with keeping a pile of cash in reserve, allows you to spend and invest with minimal headache and without worrying if your new gadget or new piece of software will put you out of business.
