Advice for Young Entrepreneurs

By Dr. Dani Babb
Faculty member at American Public University

As an author of many books on entrepreneurship, a CEO of a business helping professors find jobs, and a former guest anchor on a program that helped entrepreneurs with business problems, I have talked with hundreds of business owners about how to solve problems and get past obstacles that they face.

Here are the top 10 pieces of advice I offer young entrepreneurs.

1. Take care of your contractors, staff and team. They will become social media marketers if they believe in your mission and vision without ever having to ask them. Engage them in your social media forums.
2. Don’t underestimate–or overestimate–the power of social media. If you overestimate it, you will miss other marketing opportunities that may be a better fit for your audience. If you underestimate it, you could miss even more and catching up is never easy to do.
3. Don’t let setbacks keep you from moving forward. Often if a door slammed in your face, the answer isn’t to keep knocking at that same door waiting for an answer. It’s to get out the saw and create a new one in a side wall. You have to get creative. Go through the chimney if you must. Just be sure the spot you end up is where you really want to be.
4. Figure out what helps you get unstuck. For some people, it’s as simple as a run to clear the mind. Others need to take time away from their business and go travel or push their limits in another area to feel reinvigorated. Figure out what works for you so that when you need to figure out a solution to a problem, you know right where to go.
5. Have at least one person you can confide in–a friend, a significant other, or someone that you can share the burdens of business ownership with who understands you. People who you trust to be candid with you are priceless. Someone who understands your mind on top of it is priceless to the thirtieth power.
6. Sometimes it’s OK to burn a bridge. This is more difficult in small communities where an industry is tight, but there is such a thing as a bad client. It took me a couple of years to learn to fire a client. Once you do, not only will your company benefit but your employees will respect you a lot more. The right employees will bring in an even better client to replace the lost one.
7. Every once in a while, reassess your core team members and their core strengths. What you need for each job position can change over time. As your business evolves, you may not have the right people in the right spots. Give those who have stuck with you an opportunity to change into new roles, but you have to put the business survival and its ability to thrive ahead of friendships.
8. Sometimes the best answers come from analogies. Rather than presenting your actual problem to a group of people, ask a group of people how they would solve a problem analogous to yours. Then you can apply their solution to your problem if it makes sense. It will help you think outside the box.
9. There is such a thing as good debt. Just as there are good fats for the human body (not all fats are created equal), there is good debt, too. An example is when you earn more by investing the money than you pay in interest to the bank.
10. The most important I think … Life is full of risks. Entrepreneurs are risk takers by nature. Never be married to your money because it can evaporate quickly. If your sense of self-worth begins to build as your business becomes profitable, reassess where your priorities are and how you value yourself. You don’t want to be the proverbial 60-year-old model looking in the mirror wondering how she is going to make money without her good looks. Life changes. Be prepared for it.

About the Author: Dr. Dani Babb is the author of the book, Make Money Teaching Online, 1^st and 2^nd edition, speaker, and television commentator. She teaches Economics and Marketing at American Public University. She is the founder of The Babb Group, Inc., an educational solutions provider helping faculty secure jobs and institutions provide training to educators and services to students.