29 Things to Remember When Building a Successful Business

Do you have a desire to leave your job, start a business and live life on your terms?

Are you burnt out from the 9-5 grind?

While I was talking with my friend Emily the other day, we realized we'd both been “ssshhh-ing” our inner entrepreneur for far too long.

She and I had both been through recent job transitions, and both of us decided to build something instead of scrambling to hand over our fate to someone else again.

If you're in a similar situation, or you're thinking about starting something on the side, you're about to get some of my very best tips for building a successful business.

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With one of my mastermind groups I'm reading The Millionaire Messenger by Brendon Burchard. Together we're learning about building an “expert business.” By the way, I couldn't recommend Brendon's book more highly – it has changed my life!

What is an “expert business?”

An expert business is a business (like mine) where you share your expertise through speaking, blogging, writing books, creating online training, consulting, coaching, etc..

Popular expert businesses are those built by Tony Robbins, Dave Ramsey, Rush Limbaugh, Zig Zigler and Rick Warren. These experts share their knowledge with audiences around the world.

If you've ever bought a book online, attended a conference, bought an instructional video online, you've supported an expert business.

I've spent a great deal of time, literally hours, asking myself what I have to offer. I may have even asked you at some point in time.

One thing I've learned while reading The Millionaire Messenger is that I have a high level of expertise in a few very key areas.

One of those areas is building a successful business. It doesn't hurt that I've been trained by the best.

While building a business is hard, and it takes a lot of sacrifices, there are certain pieces of information that can make your journey easier.

29 Things to Remember When Building a Business

1. Profit margins can fluctuate, and that's ok.
2. Keeping a customer is easier and cheaper than acquiring a new one.
3. The customer is not always right, but their voice is louder than yours.
4. Stand behind your team and don't publicly criticize them, especially in front of customers.
5. Focus on solutions and don't go on witch hunts.
6. Treat your team better than you think you should, and realize they're there by choice.
7. With a little extra work, you can learn how to do things in ways that save both time and money later.
8. Overhead and inventory aren't necessarily good things.
9. Being tied to one place, one customer or one product is not good business, it's slavery.
10. Some customers are more trouble than they're worth. Literally.
11. Do the job right the first time and you won't have to fix it later.
12. Be so good it's hard for your customers to leave.
13. Don't focus just on price.
14. Honest advice is always good advice.
15. Don't talk bad about your competition.
16. Sell the solution that's right for your customer, not the one that's right for your wallet.
17. If you don't believe 100% in your product or service, you'll lose to someone who does.
18. We buy from who we know, like and trust.
19. If it feels like a scam, it probably is.
20. Customers probably won't research your new products/services. Tell them about what you have to offer and how you can meet their needs.
21. Treat all customers the same, but each of them different.
22. Not all customers are created equal.
23. Treat your employees the same, but each of them different.
24. Not all employees are created equal.
25. The amount of success you see is directly tied to the size of your network and how much value you provide.
26. Focus. Don't try to be a jack of all trades; you'll end up a master of none.
27. Good ideas and advice don't only come from the board room or the corner office.
28. If something is broken, fix it.
29. If you have no sales, you're not a business. Yet.
30. Not all business is good business – know when to say “no.”
31. Don't pay straight salary; everyone needs to have some skin in the game and be incentivized to always do their best.
32. Make it easy for your customers to buy from you.
33. Life is too short to put up with jerks.

If you're thinking about starting a business, let me help you. I will do everything I can to help you succeed!

Question: What would you add to this list? What have you learned about starting a successful business?