Most people learn from doing, a few learn from listening and observing others. Please share your most valuable lessons learned so we can learn from others before making the same mistakes ourselves. Thanks in advance.
You must log in or register to comment.
Tenant Improvement allowances are surprisingly hugely negotiable in many cases. they might not budge an inch on rent and give you some surprising credits to finsih/refinish the space.
a good idea isn’t worth anything (nobody buys ideas)
SCORE is an absolutely amazing resource
The most valuable lesson I learned when I owned my small business was this:
There are people in this world, who intentionally NOT pay as many people as possible, choosing instead to use lawyers to bully people.
There are people in this world, that will read through every scrap of your contract, find the ‘value’ in it, and once they determine a path to fuck you, they will 100% fuck you over.
There are people in this world, who never planned on paying you ever.
There are people in this world who will pay with a major credit card, run up a $5k bill, and 90 days later do a charge back at the time you desperately need that money most.
Chase® will automatically close your account if you deposit a check from a known (to chase) fraudster. This means, if you take a check from [X Industries], deposit into your account, they will immediately freeze your account and kick you out of Chase® because they now see you as a liability for being associated with a fraudster. But get this, YOU won’t EVER know who is/isn’t accepted by Chase®. One day you will get a client, who will write you a check, go deposit it at Chase, and poof, your account will be closed. Nothing you can do either.
Business will peak and valley. Don’t buy a new Benz when its up, don’t contemplate self harm when it is down.
Not all customers are worth it. Learn the threshold for “pass”. No matter what your business, there will be a few who will not be worth serving.
Build in public
Giving up equity to partners without proper expectation on what they bring to the table, setting milestones, KPIs and quarterly goals. This has bite me in the ass since im a people pleaser and thought that would incentivize them enough to work extra hard. Learned the hard way that regardless of equity splits, no one will care about the business as much as you did.
Do not go into business with anyone without seeing a full picture of their finances. While people may have the best intentions, it might not be a good fit and you’ll be left carrying the load