Starting an online business is a crazyyy journey. You never really know what will happen and if your ideas are any good unless you test them out (or have an expert look at them). Nonetheless, starting a business by yourself holds a TON of lessons. It will change you when you come out the other side.
I have a collection of lessons I personally picked up from starting multiple businesses myself. But in this week’s episode, we are joined by one of the judges/coaches I worked with while filming a reality TV show. Peter Busch is sharing the most valuable business lessons he’s picked up in his 16-year journey to starting a business and taking it to an 8-figure exit.
All the goodness waiting for you in this episode:
- What it takes for an idea to be considered good
- How to find out if your business will scale to where you want it to be
- Peter’s 16-year journey of being an unconventional entrepreneur
- Understanding how business debt is different from personal debt
- Why your employees are leaving your team and going into a competitor
Top takeaways from Em:
- See a NEED and meet it
This is the most basic thing to understand if you want to know if your business idea is any good. Is there a need for what you are offering? Will people be willing to let go of their money to get access to your solution?
Starting a business is all about helping people solve pressing problems. When you see this need in the market… find a way to solve it and customers will come. Whether that be through paid marketing or word-of-mouth referrals.
- Understand how business debt works
This is a common misconception for early-stage entrepreneurs. They think business debt is the same as personal debt. And they will only think “How can I pay for this?”
Business debt is different. Your aim with a business loan or a funding round is to know… How can this money be used to make more money? Instead of how to pay the debt off as quickly as possible.
Once you understand this concept, you’ll start to see that there are actually good debts too. Ones that give you the leverage to turn business ideas into reality.
- Find a place to connect and build community
Entrepreneurship is ISOLATING. Very few people will be willing to listen to your business ideas or how you’ve hit an income milestone this month. Not even your team will have the same fire you have for your business.
This is where a solid community of entrepreneurs provides the most value. I so, so love mastermind groups. There is excitement in hearing from your customers that your product or service works. But when you don’t have that many customers (or any at all) to tell you that… People who know and have been in your current reality will give you the validation you need.
- You won’t nail your pricing day one
Pricing your products or services is tricky. You won’t get this right on day one… And that is totally okay. As a business owner, you have full control over how you will run your business. When you don’t have enough confidence to charge high rates… look for feedback from your customers. They will tell you if your offer is worth the money.
Plus, pricing changes from time to time. When you grow as a business owner, you’ll realize that your worth is not exclusive to the output you give to clients. Most of the time, your rate is ALSO dependent on the time and dollars you spend improving your mindset, your skills, and your knowledge of what you do.
- Numbers change but business fundamentals don’t
One of the most valuable lessons I got from this talk with Peter Busch is that business fundamentals from the $100K level and the multi-billion dollar level are very similar. They are only playing the business game with higher stakes but the questions they asked when they were still starting are the same questions they are asking now.
Starting and scaling a business will be crazy. But once you understand that most of what you need to succeed is already within you… you’ll find that it’s (a tiny bit) easier.
XO,
Em
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