World's Best Business Tips For Startups & First Time Entrepreneurs

From the Desk of Loy Machedo: 121 World’s Best Business Tips For Startups & First Time Entrepreneurs

I love great questions from great minds.
I love great advice from great minds.
And I love interacting, studying and learning from great minds.

My client, student and buddy Jacob Philip – One of the brightest, most reliable and trusted professionals I have ever had the honor of crossing paths with gave me a brilliant topic to write about.

He is one of the best Engineers I know in the United Arab Emirates. And what I love about him is the fact that personally – he is not only a committed family man, on a professionally – a passionate team player, individually he is a very deep person with tremendous insights and observations about life.

He asked me “Could you compile the list of the world’s best Business Tips for startups & first time Entrepreneurs? And with them mix your insights as well?”

Great question from someone I truly respect.

So here is my answer to Jacob’s amazing question.

Loy Machedo
The World’s #1 Personal Branding Coach
www.LoyMachedo.com
www.whoisLoyMachedo.com
www.ThinkPersonalBranding.Com

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121 World’s Best Business Tips For Startups & First Time Entrepreneurs

1. Do a honest self-inventory: Are you really cut out for business? 99% assume them are. And they are wrong. Horribly wrong.
2. Your idea is not original. Whatever idea you have, someone has already thought about it. Find out who is doing well doing what you are doing, and copy the exact same recipe.
3. Do not try to reinvent the wheel.
4. Sixty percent of new businesses fail within the first three years, according to Victor Green, a serial entrepreneur and author of How to Succeed in Business by Really Trying. Invest with an intention to lose everything. Whatever money you are planning to invest – be prepared to lose it all
5. Never open a business taking a business loan.
6. Whatever business plan you have, be prepared to throw it out of the window
7. Ensure you have the budget to employ the best talent & retain them.
8. Just because you know a process, does not mean you are going to succeed in business
9. Figure out a way to rapidly test and redefine your model at a reasonable cost
10. Ensure you can keep your costs to zero – How? Avoid having fixed costs and ensure wherever you can subcontract or employ freelancers – go ahead

121 World’s Best Business Tips For Startups & First Time Entrepreneurs (Contd….)
11. Too many people focus on designing a world class logo, website, logo, vision, mission and goal statement. Don’t waste your time on this. Its going to change anyways
12. Whatever budget your business is – have exactly the same amount as a backup.
13. Test your idea: Whatever business you are planning to do or run, run it in a small way and see how it performs. For instance, if you are going to run a trading business, buy and sell 5 units and see if you can make a profit out of them. See how long does it take to sell those 5 units. See what problems you encounter. See how much effort it takes to sell the units. And then increase the headache and the stress with the amount of profit you plan to make.
14. Talk to your potential customers. And find out what they want. Once you can give them what they want, ask them if they are willing to pay you money immediately for what your promised you could deliver. If they are not ready to pay you immediately – chances are – they will no later
15. Business follows a simple principle – Buy for less, sell for more.
16. Understand the various components of business – everything from employees, customers, suppliers, distributors, competitors and yes, the government
17. With everyone and everything else being normal – Creativity, Customization is the key. If you can add your signature touch to something – and which no one else can – you have a winning product.
18. Expect the unexpected in business – everything from stress, betrayal, sudden emergency costs, penalties and even major losses.
19. Ensure cash flow at all times – without this – you are good as dead.
20. Use legal and smart loopholes while running your business. If there is an option to use a software on a personal level rather enterprise level (assuming using on a personal level is much more cheaper than buy an enterprise level software) so ahead and do so. Every penny counts.

121 World’s Best Business Tips For Startups & First Time Entrepreneurs (Contd….)
21. Do not take anything on a longterm lease or loan
22. Make sure you have a really strong legal team / lawyer to let you know what you need to do, keep an eye on, the do’s and the don’ts
23. Don’t start aiming for perfection. You will never achieve it.
24. Start small always
25. If you cannot write you idea on a business card, it is not a good ideas
26. Have the answer to the question – why should someone buy from you?
27. You should have a clear cut idea – your company description, (what makes the company unique), a market analysis (the competition and target demographics), the company’s structure, a description of the service or product line, the marketing and sales strategy, financial projections
28. Have a clear idea of what resources you need or require with its approximate costs
29. Have a clear cut idea how you will make it known about your business to the world – Your Marketing & Brand Awareness Strategy
30. Learn to use social media – that is a must have strategy

121 World’s Best Business Tips For Startups & First Time Entrepreneurs (Contd….)
31. Have a business coach / mentor
32. Ensure smart & proper business communication both written and verbal
33. Ensure every penny is accounted for i.e. your accounts & book-keepings are perfect
34. Ensure you have a routine always
35. Ensure you have a maintenance list where that day you maintain everything.
36. Be amazing at hustling
37. Keep this much in mind – running your own business doesn’t make you a ‘business owner’ – its makes you a slave to your business
38. Your time is money – use it wisely
39. You have to work harder than anyone and more than anytime ever before
40. Wake up super early and start your day before anyone: Apple CEO Tim Cook is known for getting up early and sending out company emails at 4:30 in the morning. The youngest CEO in the NBA, Brett Yormark, gets up at 3:30 in the morning in order to get to the office by 4:30.

121 World’s Best Business Tips For Startups & First Time Entrepreneurs (Contd….)
41. Make sure your business and you are always noticed
42. Networking is the key
43. Ask yourself how can you contribute more through the gift economy?
44. Have plenty of patience
45. Have a great support system
46. Take advantage of any free resources (My friend picked up furniture from the garbage when he started his business)
47. Don’t bother about showing off
48. Make 100% you collect payments asap
49. Say goodbye to a balanced life
50. Understand what is Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

121 World’s Best Business Tips For Startups & First Time Entrepreneurs (Contd….)
51. Learn from your competitors
52. Have emergency back up plans for cash injection
53. Know this – everything original you do – will be copied within a few days by everyone
54. Don’t get into the game if you cannot survive imitation
55. Bill Gates was famously quoted saying, “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”
56. Running a business is running a marathon – it is long. Don’t assume it is a sprint.
57. Shocking fact: 96% of ALL business fail by the 10th year – i.e. only 4% succeed.
58. One simple question separates the contenders from the pretenders: “Are you generating revenue?”
59. Partnerships can be the worst decisions ever. The possibility and probability of them working after 10 years – is more like hoping to win a lottery ticket.
60. On a monthly basis, start meeting with a millionaire for coffee. You will learn a lot.

121 World’s Best Business Tips For Startups & First Time Entrepreneurs (Contd….)
61. Become an SEO and paid advertising expert.
62. Post amazing content online – Google will promote you easily
63. Offer 10 time more value – you will never lose a customer
64. Be frugal with your spending
65. Every dollar saved through purchasing, every penny saved through cost cutting and every dollar gained through services sold will account to profits
66. Location, Location, Location is the key.
67. Never Give Up However, Know when to give up
68. Have a backup plan B, C, D all the way to Z
69. Always pay bills in advance (I have paid my fixed expenses in advance for 2 years)
70. Upsell your customers always

121 World’s Best Business Tips For Startups & First Time Entrepreneurs (Contd….)
71. Give more value to the customer and then a super bonus and then Ask each and every customer for a reference
72. Confidence is the key – Fake it till you make it
73. Follow the 80-20 rule – 80% of your revenue will come from 20% customers or 20% work
74. If you do not know the processes of how your business works – you will never succeed. Know the stuff you are getting into
75. Don’t try doing everything by yourself
76. Don’t fall for Optimism Bias
77. Find out which rules can be broken (Richard Branson)
78. Fall down 8, get up 9. But keep moving forward and trying out new things
79. “People will only change the way they do everyday tasks if it’s overwhelmingly clear how it makes their lives better.” (David Marcus, president of PayPal)
80. Change starts right now (Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief at the Huffington Post Media Group)

121 World’s Best Business Tips For Startups & First Time Entrepreneurs (Contd….)
81. The fastest route to revenue – Wins – Rick Alden, founder, Skullcandy
82. People do business with whom they like (Barbara Corcoran – Shark Investor)
83. Fail often, fail fast and fail cheap. (Jim Estill, CEO of Danby)
84. From Steve Martin, in his amazing book Born Standing Up: “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”
85. You will end up spending 90% of your life and time doing it – so might as well do something you love
86. You will fail. Be ready to fail often
87. Do it fast.
88. President and CEO—AmerisourceBergen: The best advice I have ever received came from my father: “It’s not how you start the race, it’s how you finish it.”
89. Embrace tough assignments. Conventional wisdom suggests that it’s easier to take the path of least resistance by signing up for an easy job, doing it well, and moving on to something bigger. The problem with that theory is that nobody notices when you do an easy job well. It’s far better to challenge yourself by raising your hand for the toughest assignments and work to solve problems that no one else has been able to solve. That’s how you truly become a trusted leader inside an organization – Chairman and CEO—PepsiCo – Indra Nooyi
90. Never stop learning. Whether you’re an entry level employee fresh out of college or a CEO, you don’t know it all. Admitting this is not a sign of weakness. The strongest leaders are those who are lifelong students – – Chairman and CEO—PepsiCo – Indra Nooyi

121 World’s Best Business Tips For Startups & First Time Entrepreneurs (Contd….)
91. Never make an important decision while you are feeling emotional; either too happy, surprised, or angry. Similarly, never make a big decision until you have talked it over with people you trust who are knowledgeable about the matter. Then, be decisive once you have heard them out. – President and CEO—The AES Corporation – Andrés Gluski
92. CEO—Assurant – Robert B. Pollock: “You learn the most when your mouth is closed and your ears are open.”
93. Back in the day when I was unhappily married and unhappily working, I heard a brilliant man by the name of Dr. Phil say the only difference between you and someone you envy is you settle for less. And it just spoke to me. It just spoke to me like, “Yes. That’s exactly right.” So, settle for more. That was me. I just started to change my life, little by little. And success breeds success. Megyn Kelly: Anchor, The Kelly File—Fox News
94. Walt Bettinger President and CEO—Charles Schwab – On my desk sits a stone plaque facing every visitor that reads, “Riches are what money cannot purchase and death cannot take away.” It is a constant reminder to genuinely know and live our priorities. Technology advances and a 24-hour business cycle can place demands on us that overwhelm our lives. Remember, work-life balance is a myth. All we have is our priorities. Watch where someone spends their time and sets their priorities and you will know what is truly important to them. My best advice is not simply for others, it also applies to me.
95. See the world without bias, like a child. Be curious. Keep learning.
96. Think. But don’t over think. The only way to really know is to try.
97. You can learn from everyone and anyone, but be yourself. ‎
98. Passionately dedicate yourself to your craft. It will give your life meaning.
99. Don’t be afraid to sell. Don’t be afraid to ask for money.
100. Hire slow, Fire Fast

121 World’s Best Business Tips For Startups & First Time Entrepreneurs (Contd….)
101. Ideas are worthless, Application is everything
102. “Don’t invent something new. Copy what works and make tweaks to push over the top.” @nathanlatka
103. “Don’t fall in love with your idea, fall in love with the problem you’re solving.” Steli, CEO of Close.io
104. “Don’t let perfectionism cripple you. Launch as soon as possible and adapt.” Lewis Howes, New York Times best-selling author of The School of Greatness, and host of the top-ranked podcast bearing the same name
105. Everyone will play games with you. So know the game and the rules of the game
106. Learn to ask intelligent questions
107. Learn to observe, study and forecast
108. Learn to sharpen the axe and skills by trying new things always
109. Keep personal feelings out of the equation
110. There will be days where you will cry, break down, get depressed or feel defeated. Be ready for those days

121 World’s Best Business Tips For Startups & First Time Entrepreneurs (Contd….)
111. The chances of you getting bankrupt, cheated or end up penniless is super high.
112. Once you open your business – that becomes your greatest priority
113. Learn to tell stories and make interesting conversations
114. Confidence & Business Savvy Sense works wonders
115. Learn to be amazing at giving presentations
116. Master the art of selling
117. Master the art of the pitch
118. Do the unexpected in business
119. Be aware of your flaws & weaknesses
120. Constantly market & sell your system. So keep your budgets strong for it.
121. Once you start your business – everyday is a business expense, everyday you will bleed cash – figure out a way to make money FAST

Loy Machedo
The World’s #1 Personal Branding Coach
www.LoyMachedo.com
www.whoisLoyMachedo.com
www.ThinkPersonalBranding.Com

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