A Weblog entry posted on Thursday, August 09 2007

I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger by Stephen

I wasn’t born until 6 years after Ronnie Lane penned the song “Ooh La La” aka “I wish that I knew what I know now...when I was younger”. This means that I’m probably too young to be writing about business and life lessons that were learned over a long and arduous journey of entrepreneurship. However, the following is a bit of knowledge that I wish that I had focused on when I first got started.

Hire the right people

Finding the right people can be very difficult. Be very careful with who becomes a member of your team. Not growing is better than adding someone to your team that is not a good fit. This is same rule can be applied when hiring clients too.

Be steadfast with your goals

Make goals. Make realistic plans to get to your goals. Take action on the plans that you have made. If something gets in your way, get it out of the way. If you can’t get it out of the way then look at altering your goals. The most important thing is to always have goals and be focused on doing the things necessary to meet them.

Not every dollar is created equal

In the web business there is a lot of opportunity. Just because money is offered in return for your services doesn’t mean you should jump right in. Some projects have a lot of hidden time, trouble and cost involved. This is okay if you are set up to handle these projects and they fit within your goals. Otherwise you would be more wise to focus on other projects that are more profitable for your business.

Understand all of your constraints

A constraint is a factor that limits or holds back success. Constraints can come in all forms. There is only so much time in a day and money in your wallet — these two are simple. Other constraints could arise from the misunderstanding your market or sales cycle or could also be social, political or procedural issues.

If something isn’t working — move on

We all have good ideas and we are all very smart, but we are not always smart enough to move on when we’ve somehow gotten ourselves into a dumb situation. These situations can come from bad ideas, bad employees or even bad clients. If something isn’t working, the best thing to do is make a plan and move on.

Happiness is important

A lot of investment is needed when you are starting up and growing a new business. It is important to understand the value of your happiness. I have decided that this is a commodity that I do not trade.