¶ Building a Successful Small Business
Welcome to how I Built my Small Business . I'm Anne McGinty , host of the show . While full-length guest episodes are on hold for the holidays , I've prepared a collection of short , impactful episodes to keep you inspired until season two . Let's dive in .
If I'm going to die , I'm definitely not dying in this cubicle .
I had so many people just questioning what I was doing and saying that I couldn't do it . Like uncles , friends , really , yeah for sure . Not directly , like you shouldn't do this , you can't do it , but just insinuating , like , so what are you going to do when you need to get a real job ?
Or likeuating , like so what are you going to do when you need to get a real job ? Or like , okay , so what are you going to do ? You know , when you finish this hobby , when you finish with your surfing , like chasing waves around the world , like everyone just thought I was doing it to make a few thousand dollars so I could go on my next surf trip .
And honestly , everyone doubted me , everyone . And even when I , four years in , I'd go to say you know Auckland and run like a course , and some dad would come in to pick his daughter after who's an architect , and he'd look at you in his suit and go so what do you do for a real job , mate ?
You know , and it was just like people looked at you like you weren't doing something that was sort of validated , to see the transition and to now walk into those beaches and people come up to you and be like how is the Olympics now versus ?
so what do you do for a real job ? You know , be more intentional about building community outside with other small business owners . There is a sort of kismet connection . When you're talking to small business owners and entrepreneurs , where you speak the same language , you understand the challenges .
I think it always energizes you , gives you new ideas , new perspective .
Your relationships really matter Really . Treating every relationship like gold is really important . So what I mean by that is really be proactive . Show up , follow up , do the work , go the extra mile . You know the sort of colleague that everyone just likes to work with . People move on right .
They go to their next company and their next company and their next venture , and what they take with them are their relationships .
It'll go by in a blink . Work your ass off , Take advantage of the opportunity if you have it and do not allow apathy to creep in for very long . You just learn a lot . So it's just sponge , sponge , sponge , and don't have a huge ego . Don't have a bad attitude and be a valuable , hardworking , thoughtful team players and just open to learning .
If you're looking to build a sustainable , long-term business , think less about market share and think more about mind share , which means my goal is to create as many positive associations for my brand in people's minds period .
You have enough funding to get through that first year , because that first year is tough . You've got to have some pockets to carry you through that first year . It costs more than you think it's going to cost .
If your mind is not going to be settled and calm , you're going to make mistakes because you're going to do things out of desperation and you don't want to put yourself in that position . If you don't have a year worth of expenses saved , I'd say the first thing , the most important thing you could do , is to start early .
While you're working at a corporate , make sure that you start ahead of time . There's so much that you can learn by starting a year early . If you put in an extra three hours a day and doing this while you're making an income from your corporate world , you're not going to be nervous .
You're not going to have that anxiety that , oh my gosh , I need to generate revenue today because I need that money this month to pay for my expenses .
Ultimately , I do love it and I think that's the key to running a successful business is you really do have to have passion for it and love it . I would tell myself not to get too ahead of myself and not to worry so much about growing so big and just take it one day at a time .
I think one of the most important things early on is to validate the idea before you jump all the way in . So of course you believe that your idea is awesome , but really you should start by validating it in any way possible .
Join groups . I'm part of a couple different groups , a couple different mentoring programs that I just think , talking to other people who are willing to share their advice and go back and forth , like even other designers , I think it can be such a collaborative environment . It doesn't have to be competitive , it can be community over competition .
I just think there's so much to learn from each other . There's enough space in the market for a lot of people . So I just think if everyone kind of shares a little bit , it can really better everyone's experience a little bit , it can really better everyone's experience .
I just would be real honest with yourself about your risk tolerance and what your end goal is . I keep going back to like the why I mean there's so many people that think it's cool to buy a company and they're just totally unsuited for it , which is kind of hard to admit to .
But like , if you kind of like the free snacks and the fancy offices and you know the 40 hour work week and you're four weeks off , none of those are bad . You should just work at Microsoft . Like you shouldn't go buy a business because it is not like that . It is gnarly and scary and way more fulfilling in a lot of ways .
But you're going from working at Google or McKinsey to trying to work at , you know , like a plumbing company . They're real different . So like it's good to talk to other people about it .
You know I've had some bad managers , but I I thank them at the same time because it shows you what you don't want to do and you can really learn a lot from a bad experience .
That is so true .
Follow your curiosities . They'll lead to your passions . Your passions can lead to your dreams . I think that that's something that I've become very aware of . The reality is is that I love what I do . I still love what I do , and that is incredibly important .
Whatever your passion is , whatever your dream is , there's an audience for that . You know you don't need millions of people or hundreds of thousands of people or even tens of thousands of people to make a living . So I think it also depends on like what your goals are right . Do you want to build a unicorn $1 billion company Like ?
That's not my vision or dream and it never has been so . It depends on what your dream is . But I always say to like anyone I work with , you know there's enough to go around for everyone and there's an audience for everyone and there's a living to be made from anything that you want to do .
It's just a matter of finding that fit right With your audience or product market fit , and one of the key aspects is to really have mission , aligned vision , aligned partnerships and people .
Reach out to people for help , looking for business advice from anywhere If you don't have anybody in your network of friends . There's a lot of opportunities out there , so just keep your mind open .
I learned not to look at the competition next door , because then , if you're always looking there , you're never moving forward . So I actually stopped following a lot of the places around me and focused on what was going on overseas .
My advice is to say yes more than you say no . That is how you end up figuring out what works , and it will also teach you how to be a better risk taker , especially when you're saying yes to something that you don't feel prepared for .
¶ Embracing Failure and Taking Risks
Failing is truly the best way to build up that risk-taking muscle , because when you fail , you come out of the other side and you're like okay , I'm still here , I'm okay , I am still here . So you're able to have the confidence to take risk again , because you know it's not the end of the world .
So don't be scared of being wrong , of failing , of doing something before you're ready . Just do it scared .
Thanks for listening to this bite-sized episode of how I Built my Small Business . If you enjoyed it , share it with someone who might find it helpful , and don't forget to subscribe so you're ready when season two drops . As always , have a great day .