Business advice from some of the best entrepreneurs, on The Startup Magazine

All the entrepreneurs who are interviewed on The Startup Magazine are asked this question “If you could give one piece of advice to someone thinking about starting a business, what would it be?”. We thought we should put some of the best of these answers in to one article, to have as advice and motivation for the new year.

“Keep things simple when you start. It is incredibly easy to overcomplicate things when you first start a business – you need to think about the core idea and launch it in its simplest state. It is much easier to build on a great idea than it is to cut-back a needlessly complex one! Our first website was too complicated to the extent that it became difficult to use; it has taken 18 months and a lot of effort to re-shape it into something that we are very happy with.”

Rob Blythe and Felix Mitchell, Founders of Instant Impact

“Firstly, don’t take no for an answer – keep going and have persistence. Also, be prepared to work, because it’s not easy. So many people come out of university and say, “I’m going to be an entrepreneur” – but I don’t think they all realise how hard it is and how many hours you need to put in. The other thing is to take responsibility. Whether you’re working for someone else or yourself, people always find blame and are full of excuses. The only common factor between everything you do is ultimately yourself.”

James Eder, founder of The Beans Group

“I would say firstly, walk before you run. Its much better for a small business to take its time getting its feet in the market that its in, and really learning what it is that the customer wants and expects from them. Once you have found this its then much easier to implement the correct protocol or procedures across the board with all your customers.
Secondly, always deliver on something that you have said you would do, on time. The consistency of your service/s should be exactly the same for every customer, and strive for that. The trust worthier your company is, and the more reliable your company is, the more your customers are likely to spread the word!”

Rob Goodkind, founder of GoodKind of Food 

“Make sure you create a great team from the start, recognising your own weaknesses and at the same time building a support network that you can talk to – helping you both deal with the stress of starting the business as well as being able to provide advice and guidance. Investors increasingly want to back teams, not individuals.”

“If you want to build something massive and amazing, get something small and cool out there that people can use and play around with as soon as possible. Don’t be precious about version 1, it’s not going to be perfect. Getting early feedback (from real people, not your mum) is absolutely critical.”

Doug Monro and Andrew Hunter co-founders of Adzuna

“Don’t just talk about it, do it! Act on your instincts and get yourself out there, network like mad and attend industry events and drinks such as Silicon Drinkabout. It is really important to share your ideas with people, try your idea out and see what the reaction is then refine your product based on that. Start building your product even if it’s just a landing page and see whether people are interested. My advice is to graft hard, work on your idea in your spare time, get people on board who have the skills you don’t have and finally, persevere – it always takes longer than expected to build a product so stick at it! As Thomas Edison once said ‘Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.’ ”

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• Is crowdfunding a viable way to fundraise capital for your start-up? (thestartupmag.com)
• Better than spreadsheets – why online accounting is a shrewd move for your business (thestartupmag.com)