Success Tips You Never Learn in School

Small Business Trends has a great synopsis of some of the most important success skills for an entrepreneur. Call it learning “life skills for entrepreneurs, ” something you probably wish you’d learned in college:

• 1. Stop Being a Control Freak - “Learning the fine line between giving direction and delegating is one of the toughest things for me. My natural tendency is to want to do it all myself. Of course, I can’t. I have to keep checking myself. I’m far from perfect. But I’ve found that it helps to visualize the power of leverage. Getting 5 sets of hands working on your business means greater success than one set of hands — even if those hands are part-time or just a few hours a month from a service provider (…).”
• 2. Build Incrementally - “There are different schools of thought about growth. Some are of the “go big or go home” approach. Been there, done that. The approach that I feel most comfortable with is one of developing products and services gradually, making incremental enhancements. Start small, spend as little as you can, and build on early successes. Quickly dump the stuff that doesn’t work out (…).”
• 3. Think About a Business Problem the Last Thing at Night - “Often you hear advice that suggests you should compartmentalize and put your problems out of your mind, especially late at night when you want to get some sleep. But for solving business problems, I’ve found the opposite works. I will sit down at my computer for 15 minutes right before going to bed. I’ll look at an email message that outlines a troubling problem or I will just jot down a problem and study it. I say to myself, “I’ll think about this overnight.” Then I go to bed (…).”
• 4. Treat Your Computer Systems Like a Factory Production Line - “For millions of business owners like me, our computers are the biggest set of business equipment we have — and they’re crucial. Without a computer system, I cannot operate my business. Yet, why do so many of us still treat our computer systems as if they’re discretionary gadgets? That’s one of the mysteries of the universe (…). We don’t back up our data regularly. We don’t do maintenance (such as de-fragging or critical updates) the way we should. Our electronic files are a disorganized mess. We practically ignore our computer systems until a problem happens. Then the problem turns into a full-blown crisis (…).”
• 5. Pretend you Have an Accounting Department - “Everybody in business hears the standard advice about the need to track and understand your financial numbers. Unfortunately, that kind of advice is easy to give, but hard to follow. Part of the reason startup entrepreneurs avoid bookkeeping in the early years is that the numbers can be flat-out dismal. I hate to look at bad numbers (…). But you know what? Those numbers are unlikely to get better unless we as business owners find the courage to face them (…).”

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