Usually the beginning of an Entrepreneurial journey is the conception of the idea. It is what follows after that determines how successful your business will become however. Every business is unique in its goals and so the ingredients it needs to achieve them might differ, but there are certain things every Entrepreneur must include in his/her to do list before starting the business.

• Research and understand your competition

• Make sure you are a Game Changer

• Put together a sustainable team with quality

• Do surveys and get Feedback

• Find a Mentor

• Find your market and learn how you will penetrate it

Research and Understand your competition: A lot of people rush blindly into a business because they believe they have come up with an idea that will change the world. They believe they are the only ones to do it because they are yet to see anything like it. Big mistake! It is absolutely vital that you take a few weeks to look for people who’ve done something similar, understand how they work, how long they’ve been around, their revenue, their market e.t.c. The truth is that every business/start-up has some competition (side note: if a VC or Angel Investor asks you how you intend to handle your competitors, please never say you have none. It oozes laziness and lackluster research.) Make sure you do your homework to know what you are up against so you can effectively plan to counter and do better than them.

Make sure you are a Game Changer: You don’t have to come up with a completely new idea or business plan in order to be successful but you must know how to set yourself apart from others in the same field. To every line of business in the world today, there are inefficiencies and inadequacies. How about stepping up to the plate and addressing some of these problems? Over time the customers’ needs start to change and you must be aware of these changes if you are a good entrepreneur. No one ever really believed that  young people will be so interested in having a website help them manage their funds, even the investors  that were presented with the business plan asked the same questions several times: “how are you going to convince 20-30 year olds to submit their bank information to you? What makes you think these people are even interested in finance at this young age?” But Aaron Patzer, founder of Mint had seen something. He had noticed that more and more college graduates were interested in learning how to manage their funds so they could pay off loans, start planning 401k e.t.c. He spotted a chance to change the game and he did just that.

Put together a Sustainable team with quality: I have talked about the importance of having a strong team to a start-up. The value is immense and must not be overlooked. For new start-ups, here is a good post I came across that can give you more insight into how to pick a good team.

A good team not only improves the quality of the product or service the business renders, It also increases your chance of getting funded. I have been told by some VCs in the past that many times, they start out reviewing a business plan by looking at the team involved in the business. They want to gain an understanding of what the team members have done before, do they have a successful record? Do they have good recommendations? The truth is that many Investors/VCs are Entrepreneurs themselves, so they know the value of a good team from their past experiences. They take it very seriously and so must you.

Do surveys and get feedback: Another thing people fail to do is to find out what people think of your idea. Will they be willing to use your service or buy your product? You might think the idea is appealing but then again it was your idea, you don’t want to be the only one patronizing your business, do you? So how about  starting a survey, randomly walking to people and asking if they will use your product and getting their feedback. This way, you will know if your start-up has a chance or not, you will know who likes your product and who doesn’t.

In Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek, there was an example of a guy who was interested in starting an online business where he would be selling some rare shirts he had discovered on his trip to France. While in France he thought there might be people in the states who would like the shirt as well, so he decided to do a market/demand test. He took pictures of the shirt and posted it on e-bay for sale. Few minutes before the bid closed, he realized a lot of people had bid for the shirt and what they were willing to pay was substantially more than the cost price. It was then he knew he had a solid business idea. He opened an online store and started doing business. The point of that story is that he took time to find out if people would like the shirt and would pay for it before jumping into business. Everyone gets excited at the chance of starting a business, but always slow down and take time to do some research.

Find a Mentor: I recently wrote an entire post about the importance of a good mentor. The advantages are numerous. Look for someone in your line of business who has been involved with startups in the past. This person will add value both in front and behind the scenes. They will act as guardian angels to show you how to deal with difficult situations based on their experience and will connect you to other people that could be of help: investors, employees, other mentors e.t.c.

Find your market and learn how you will penetrate it: Before you start doing business you must have a marketing strategy. This includes knowing the demographic that would be interested in your product/service and how you will reach them. Good marketing will always bring a business tremendous levels of success and sales, ask Tony Hsieh of Zappos. You can build an in-house Marketing team or outsource it, either way you do it, make sure you have people with quality who can explore every avenue to win fans and customers.

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Many young entrepreneurs are guilty of starting a Marketing campaign only after they have launched their product or their website has gone live. I have come to learn that it is a better idea starting much earlier, even before your prototype launches. Now this is a question that will certainly get varying answers from people but in my opinion, starting a marketing campaign pre-launch gives you more stature and improves your chances of getting funded when you go live. You don’t want to go ask for funds from VCs for your dating website when the only members of the site are you, your co-founders and some buddies from Math class. It’s not a good look!

The most popular complaints I hear from people about launching early are:

1.) They don’t want people knowing their ideas and stealing them, and

2.) They don’t have enough time to start a marketing campaign while working on the start-up and working a part-time job to bootstrap their efforts.

While these two points are valid complaints, I have reasonable counter-acts for each…and they suffice for me at least.

1.) When you are working behind the scenes, building your start-up and consider yourself to be in stealth-mode, it is understandable that you don’t want people knowing your idea and going to reproduce it. It’s too early along for competition and that kind of pressure, I get it. But from the time I have spent around other young entrepreneurs, I have come to realize that other people are too busy building their own ideas to throw it all out and do yours. Infact most people will think your idea is garbage when they first hear you pitch it, they will think ‘really? is that his idea? I think mine is much better’. Honestly think about it, how many times have you heard someone else’s idea and thought “wow, this is brilliant, I should do something like this”?  perhaps 5% of the time. Now of that 5%, how many times would you say “okay I am going to try my hands on this project and leave mine for a bit”. I think that drops it down to somewhere close to 0.5% at best. Everything in life is a risk. It is a risk becoming an entrepreneur, It is a risk putting your idea out there early but the rewards could be bountiful. Ask the guys at Viralogy. They started their marketing campaign early, no one stole their idea and they got loads of people sign up in the first week.

2.) I am not sure how you view marketing relative to your start-up, but in my opinion, it is an intrinsic part and not just an “add-on”. You need to pay just as much attention to your marketing as you do development. When people say they don’t have time to market because they are too busy developing, I find it hard to understand. I think their perception is misconstrued. You have to set aside the time to market, make it a part of the schedule. If you cannot afford to bring someone else on board whose sole task is to strategize and execute a marketing campaign, then cut back on the development time to market or simply work a few more hours. If you only have 7 hours/ day to work on your start-up, and you spend all of it on development, you need to re-distribute your time and start marketing atleast 2-3 hours a day. Get on twitter and tweet about it, create a blog where you write about what your start-up will offer once you launch, relate and interact with other bloggers e.t.c. Also make sure you create a splash page or a simple welcome page, say what your start-up is in a sentence or two, ask for their e-mails so you can update them on your progress and contact them when you finally launch. These are some great ways to rack up a customer base early on. Take for example Betterfly who have done a fantastic job marketing even before launching. They are prominent on twitter, have an informational web-page and have a dynamic blog going even before they launch fully. There is no way they won’t hit the ground running once they are fully launched.

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I recently came across this website called IdealPitch and thought I needed to share with other entrepreneurs. I am personally not so big on VCs but if you’ve been involved in a start-up in the past, you know that there comes a time when you really do need funds from an external source. I am almost at that stage and so I set out to look for ways of getting money from Angel Investors and funding groups. That’s when I discovered IdealPitch.

The website is pretty user friendly and easy to navigate. Its premise is this, get several entrepreneurs with innovative ideas on the same platform with suitable Investors and let them interact. Simple as that. The service lets you create a user account as either an Entrepreneur or as an Investor, describe yourself a little and start looking for matches. Entrepreneurs are allowed to give a brief pitch of about one paragraph or two explaining what they are looking for, occupation, expected ROI and so forth, while Investors are also allowed to do the same.

I particularly like this service because of how easy it is to use. It is sort of a very basic social networking site for people involved or looking to be involved in start-ups. I definitely encourage everyone to check it out. They are growing fast and have a vast collection of Entrepreneurs and Investors already patronizing them.

IdealPitch blogs here

IdealPitch is also on Twitter

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At the moment, there’s about 78million men and women who proudly represent the millennial generation in the US, and they are taking up their places in the various facets of the workforce. Just as this is happening there’s a switch in gear, there’s now a difference in how people work, when they work and what they work for. Between 2002 and 2010, there’s going to be a drop of almost 33% in number of workers aged  38 and above. As this starts to happen, the scale will start tipping and Gen Y-ers will suddenly become more prominent in the work force, causing a huge generational baton-exchange in the workforce.

Gen Y has a completely different idea and approach to work than the baby boomers. They don’t live to work, they work to live. They have watched in horror and shock as their parents, uncles, mentors e.t.c. worked punishing hours to make money…money they rarely had time to spend. They’ve graduated college with this idea that they would not suffer the same fate as the previous generation and hence have become more demanding. More demanding in how much they ask to be paid, more demanding in the way they want to work, how flexible their hours are and so forth. They have come in with the idea that a fine balance must be struck between their work life and personal life.

Some months back I had coffee with some seniors at my Alma Mater, UMBC. The discussion swiftly shifted to what they planned to do after they graduated college. “I can’t stand all this 8 – 5 people get sucked into” started Megan, a Finance and Mathematics major who already had an offer from a big firm in downtown Baltimore. ” I have spoken to some of the employees there and I just think they are treated so poorly. The idea of working 9 hours a day, with overtime every now and then just doesn’t appeal to me. I want to have a life! I want to have flexible hours and be able to go to concerts, watch my favorite tv shows at 7pm. How can I do that when I get off at 5:30-6p.m, sit in traffic for about and hour or two and wake up 7a.m. the next day to do it all over again?” In reality, Megan is not alone. Research has shown that more and more Gen Y-ers will quit their job if it wasn’t fun enough or if the salary doesn’t meet their standard. The idea of dealing with mediocrity is not one the millennial generation like, they will not settle for anything they don’t deem worthy.

Are these demands being accommodated by companies? You better believe they are! Why wouldn’t they? Have they got an option? Most companies infact will do anything and go any length to lure the very best graduates. Madalyn Brooks is an HR at Procter and Gamble. I once heard her stress the difference between the interview sessions she had some years back to those she sits in on now. She explained that most young job seekers now care about how many days off they will get, if they can work from home, if they have at least a 3 month sabbatical and so on.

The issue of money and benefits also comes up. Most Gen Y-ers are asking for a lot more than the baby boomers did for the same position. They are asking for several other perks as well. It’s not unusual these days to see companies luring graduates by offering them a company paid BlackBerry phone, an ipod touch, a macbook amongst other things. Why is there this sudden demand for more money and perks? For one, the cost of going to college has blown up off the hinges leaving several graduates in debt. You can’t expect them not to ask for more money when you require them to have a Masters degree  or MBA(for better chance of landing the job). How do you think they paid to attain this level of education? There was a CNN documentary some weeks back when a recent grad expressed his desire to be started on $70k a year in an industry where the average salary was $50k last year. His argument is that most companies won’t look your way if you don’t have internship experience(s) under your belt. He explained that he worked terribly hard to get those internships and while he doesn’t expect an official car or a macbook, he expected to be atleast “compensated for the hard work he put into preparing for the position.”

The improvement in technology has a lot to do with this change in my opinion. When young graduates see Gen Y entrepreneurs like the creators of Facebook, Myspace, Youtube and other web 2.0 companies, they have this belief that they really don’t have to give up their life in a boring 10hr a day job in order to be successful. The fact that social media is now also a basis for many companies reaching more customers has also been responsible for how Gen Y has chosen to work. Most companies now encourage their employees to try to harness the power of social media for the good of the company, and who better to go to than Gen Y-ers?

Just like it is quite hard for most members of Generation X to understand why many young adults these days would rather pay $100 for a ripped pair of jeans than $40 for one that has not been met by a blade, they find it hard to understand why they need to invest in Social Media for their companies and businesses. Most new companies/start-ups have already done their research and joined the bandwagon, take Zappos for example, and with how much buzz it has built from Social Media it remains hard to phantom why the  ‘not so new’ companies don’t get it.

A few days ago, I was reading a post by Monica O’Brien, who I have come to admire as a person and whose brilliantly written blogs I can’t stay away from. In that particular post, she explained the type of clients she won’t work with and those she loves to work with. The types that struck a chord with me are the inspiration for this post. Two things: 1.) Those that “measure experience in years” 2.) Those clients who don’t know what it is and despite explaining over and over several times what Social media is all about and what it can do for their company, they still don’t get it.

I have been working on Social Media for quite some time now to understand that it isn’t about how many years one has been doing it that sets one apart. I was reading an article on Mashable the other day and somehow I ended up in the ‘Jobs’ section which I have never even seen before. I checked it out and was quite surprised when I saw some positions where one of the requirements was “atleast 8 years in Social Media…” I sat and thought to myself what exactly this meant. Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social network sites and even they haven’t been around for 8 years, so what do they mean by 8 years of experience in social media? Besides I would think that one will measure experience in this case based on how often one has used it over the time it has been in existence. If I were to hire a Social Media strategist today, I would rather have someone who has used social media for actual networking and used it everyday or there about to connect with friends basically before delving into the professional market than hire someone who knew nothing about it a few years ago and has only used Social Media professionally. I just think the former will have a better grasp of the underlying concept of Social Media. If anyone understands the principle behind measuring one’s social media ability in years, please enlighten me.

The other thing that caught my attention is how people fail to understand what Social Media can do for you. My most recent client asked me “Tolu, I know everybody is jumping on the Twitter wagon, but how will this Twitter bring me more customers?” In truth, he has never used Twitter before and claims to only read about it and see on CNN how people love and use it so much. It took me two hours to get him on board and one of the things I made sure to drive home to him is that Twitter alone is not equal to Social Media presence. In those two hours I tried to explain the following values:

1.) Branding: The best way to set yourself aside in any tough industry is to build a strong brand. Branding helps you build a place in the hearts of your fans and confirms your credibility as a company. The easiest and most affordable way of doing this with the aid of social media. A strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies day by day. It’s important to spend time investing in researching, defining, and building your brand. After all your brand is the source of a promise to your consumer. It’s a foundational piece in your marketing communication and one you do not want to be without.

2.) Customer Interaction: Social Media has carved a niche for itself as the most effective means of Customer Relationship Management. It has provided a dynamic way of keeping in touch with your customers amongst many other things. Besides the obvious point of increasing sales, Social Media like Twitter, Facebook, youtube e.t.c. provide a means for companies to ‘problem-solve’ for their clients, get useful feedback and ultimately get personal with customers.

3.) Helps one learn about the Market: Most companies are always looking for information they can leverage to improve their reach in the Market and what better way to do this than getting on social media networks and listening to what people are saying. With social media, you can also learn about your competition giving you a way of getting one over them.

4.) Find potential Customers: Building a strong presence on social networks can take your sales leads and potential customer numbers to new heights. If for example you manage to get the buzz around twitter about your company, there is no saying how many people will visit your website. Now it’s not everyday a company gets on as a trending topic on Twitter but imagine how your life will change if that happened to your company.

5.) Find the best Candidates to join your team: Social Media is now the new name in the recruiting game! With social networks like Twitter and Facebook, you can find the best talent around anywhere, simple as that.

6.) Your Reach knows no bounds. With social media being such a big hit all around the world, there’s potential for your brand and name to go global. You can establish yourself in other countries and not limit yourself to your country of residence.

Who wouldn’t want any or all of these positives?

I am not a fan of always being around people 24 hours a day but I don’t shy away from saying hello to people I have never seen before. I will probably not volunteer to be an event’s M.C. but give me the microphone and I will get a message across. I have never been the most social person, infact until about two years ago I would wash all the dishes at TGI Fridays (the restaurant) on their busiest night  just to avoid addressing an audience of 15 strangers. I won’t say I was shy, I just didn’t have a thing for interacting with strangers just for the mere purpose of it. If there was a reason for me to do it and it was a necessity then I would summon the courage and get it over with.

In college I studied Chemical Engineering as my first major, it was never important for me to speak to anyone in any of my classes. In reality we were encouraged to work individually as much as we could, so I did. I never had to write papers that I would share with my classmates for whatever reason, I never had to get in a group to come up with a routine for a performace like my friend Elena who was a dance major. I was just required to do some integrals and differentiation when necessary to determine the viscosity of an unnamed fluid. My classwork description never asked me to go beyond understanding the concept of CSTRs and the reactions that took place in them until I hit my last year when everything changed! I had to team up with 4 other people who I had taken classes with for 3 years but never had a conversation with. I was asked to come up with a 15 minute presentation every other explaining how I will produce ethanol from wheat-straw and Algae, right from the milling process to the purification of the ethanol. I had to start interacting.

That year and the year that followed were very important in how I came into my own as an Entrepreneur. A weak Networker will probably end up a weak Entrepreneur and that’s never going to change. The more I started interacting with my classmates, the more I started gaining an appreciation for learning from other people. In time I learned how to ask others for help, how to seek advice and how to make ‘friends’ with people who will add value to my life.

Any way you choose to look at it, Networking is a vital part of not only Entrepreneurship, but life in general. There’s no way you will go far doing it all by yourself. Eventually other people’s help will be required. The other day I was reading the importance of networking and how to vital it is to running a business, the truth is that every business runs on the support of other people. If you are able to attain a ‘legend’ status in the art of networking, there’s no measure of how prosperous you could be as an entrepreneur. There will be times when you require other skill sets than what you posses…how do you start searching? There might be times when you are running dry on cash…where do you turn to for a lifeline? what of the time when you need to gain fans/customers in a different demographic?

These days I have become a fan of networking. I love chatting with people that can be of help to me or I can be of help to. The emergence of the likes of Twitter and Facebook have only added to my reach, but ultimately I love to do most of my networking ‘offline’. I never want to get to that point where I have no one to grab a beer with, watch the movie ‘Hangover’ with or just seek physical help from. My ‘wolfpack’ has grown immensely over the past two years both online and offline and it’s down to me realizing (very quickly) how important it is to my business.

Put yourself out there. Networking is about not being so self conscious. Most people won’t look at me, say no and walk away if I asked them for help with anything as long as it’s not an outrageous request. I was never good at writing code but I love everything about the internet and business, so I asked for help. I learned from people who were better than me and now I am quite comfortable with it. Just remember you will always need help, and the earlier you start building a network of helpful individuals in your niche, the better for you.

It’s an investment. Networking always pays off in the long run. If today I need a ticket to go see Liverpool play Manchester United, all I need to do is place a phone call that will probably last 20seconds, save the pleasantries. If I need a social networking website coded in a few days, I can place a phone call and have it done for barely any money. My point is this: over the months I’ve got to meet people in my niche who are good at what they do and I built a relationship with them. The networking I did months ago has put me in this position, so never view it as a burden to talk to people, email, tweet them e.t.c. whatever you have to do. Instead see it as an investment for the future.

Real relationships take time to blossom. Networking and relationship building is very similar to growing a plant. It requires you to nurture it, leave it to sit (but keep an eye on it) and keep it away from thorns. You can’t force people to be cool with you. If you are genuine, people often appreciate that and respect you even more. It never hurts to ask to video chat, have lunch or go to an event with someone you found interesting and believe will add value to you. I personally believe offline contact go a long way in strengthening a relationship and network. It’s very similar to dating, long distance, ‘over-facebook’ romance never really cuts it for most people does it? not for me atleast. Nurturing a new relationship/network is very important.

These days my favorite ways to network online include Twitter, Facebook, web logs, and stumble upon. I am a big social media person and believe it will affect start-ups immensely over the next few years without a doubt. I have met and had chats with many amazing people in my niche over twitter especially and can’t quantify how useful these connections have been. I am currently working on my new start-up and all the people on board are people I have connected with in the last 6 months…except for my main partner who I have known for 4 years now.

Networking is important!! Always remember to exchange business cards with absolutely anyone you think will be of help to you or that you can learn from. Keep a list of e-mails, phone numbers e.t.c. of these contacts and always remember to follow-up with them every now and then. You won’t regret it. I was once told that life is full of ups and downs and some people you see on your way up earlier might be people you will need on your way down.

As usual, I would love to hear your thoughts about Networking and building business relationships.

Ever wondered what distinguishes a great business from an ordinary one? or what makes a start-up a true winner? well there is a million dollar question right there. If there was a ’success-o-meter’ that proposes the likelihood of a start-up succeeding versus failing, I am sure all the VCs and investors will own one regardless of how much it costs.

I can’t tell you i have the answer to what dictates whether a start-up will succeed or fail, and i doubt there are people who will definitely tell you that this is the formula to determine that. However there are certain telling signs that are common with successful start-ups and I will be sharing the most common here. If you know of any others, please feel free to add them down in the comments section. I am sure we can all learn from each other. I once heard Guy Kawasaki say that in the business of starting up companies, no one is an island, no one knows it all or has all the answers…and I absolutely agree with him.

Naval Ravikant of venture hacks once pointed out that for him and many other investors, the first thing he looks at is the team behind the idea and then the idea. Other people I have heard say the same thing are Chris Sacca and Martin Zwilling amongst others. What does this say then, team is more important than product?Personally I believe the two must go hand in hand if you are to be successful. But last week I was having a conversation with Ken Foster, a serial entrepreneur based in London, about the key to a successful start-up and the one thing he said that hit home the hardest was “a great team can make a crap product work but a crap team will ruin a great idea”. So the first on my list of things I believe make a start-up succeed is the team.

1. The Team: A start-up that will succeed will have able people running each and every aspect of the company. It will have dedicated people who are willing to put in extra effort if it is needed and will do anything to witness the start-up succeed. These people will also possess some experience in the role they have taken up. Now as far as experience goes, some rookies have done awesome with several start-ups, however, it is important to have a good mix of experience with your gen y imports. It is absolutely invaluable, the effect experience can have on the fortunes of a new company. Infact most investors you will talk to will tell you they don’t care about your idea, i have been told severally “Tolu, I don’t invest in ideas, I invest in people”. go figure.
2. The product/service: If you are building a start-up, you better make sure whatever you are offering meets the needs of the public…if not, you have wasted money, effort and valuable time. Regardless of how smart or innovative you are, you better survey your market and ensure that your product/service is solving a problem that already exists. Most VCs you pitch ideas to will often ask you: what is the problem? what is this product? and how does it solve the problem that exists? They are only asking because they have learned from experience that if it isn’t broke and you try fixing it, the chance of you failing is alot more than you succeeding. Steve Jobs is regarded as a great thinker, an innovative entrepreneur and alot of people look up to the lad but he did hit his head against the rock with NeXT Computer didn’t he? people weren’t ready for it and he failed to understand this, hence the failure. In a nutshell, your product/service better be satisfying some hunger or you will crash and burn.
3. The Market and your marketing strategy: Some products work for a certain market but will barely make a sale in another. If you come up with some sick Nike-esque kicks designed for women in their 50’s ( i am sure no one is dumb enough to do this, right? well you’ll be surprised), I am sure, so sure you will never succeed in business generally… well, except if you go re-tune your thinking methods! A start-up that will succeed makes sure their market will respond to their product and they come up with genius ways of selling it to them. I was watching CNBC last night and they were discussing Snuggie (the blanket thing with sleeves you see them advertising on tv), and believe it or not the guys that came up with that stuff have banked tens of millions of dollars in the little time they’ve been in business. They took an idea that is really not out of this world, but sold it to their market so brilliantly. They picked the beginning of the fall season to start advertising on TV and their ads were so novel and ‘cool’ that everyone found it appealing. I know people who bought the thing just because they liked the commercial on TV! In a nut-shell, your marketing strategy goes a long way in deciding how successful your business will be.

These are the top elements (in my opinion), that I have seen successful start-ups possess. If you know of any other, feel free to share. I am always looking to learn.

Have you ever heard that phrase that: If you just got a client, you just got married? Whether you like it or not that’s the case plain and simple. Regardless of what industry your services fall into or what your business is, the situation is always about the same. The client needs something of you and even though their approach to getting it might differ, they are persistent and won’t stop till they get it. That’s what they pay you for afterall.

There are 3 different types of clients in my book and I will briefly list them for you later. Different clients require different things and so you must treat them differently. I am not saying be nice to one and be terribly obnoxious to the other, no, you will lose more clients than the Miami heat lost games in the 07/08 season. All I am saying is that the way you approach a lazy client is not the same as you will handle one who doesn’t mind staying up 48 straight hours just to see his business succeed.

Now, there are some obvious general rules that apply to every client regardless of their background or expertise. Make sure these rules are never compromised because it will do your business more harm than it will favor.

1. Not every client is right for you and this is the most important thing to remember before you start working with anyone. You know yourself and how you operate, so you know what/who works well with you, don’t be afraid to say no, i’m sorry but I can work with you. It’s better not to start something you can’t finish than start it and have it bring you gloom and sorrow.
2. Treat every client with respect: Every client is a potential business stream whether directly or indirectly. And everyone likes someone who shows them respect, so be nice.
3. Do not start a project you do not fully understand or build and offer a product/software that people don’t want. It will only bite you in the rear end.
4. It pays more than anything in the world to listen. Just as much as your significant other expects you to listen, this client – the one you are now ‘married’ to – expects your full attention. Give it to them!
5. Be honest and fair in your dealings. If you are not, they will find out sooner or later and when they do, in the words of Donald Trump…you are fired!
6. If it does not do you or your business any good in the long run to take a clients word all the time, then stick to your guns and do what you feel works best for both parties. You are the one with the product/service.

There are obviously a lot more but these are the ones I consider vital at this point. Whatever the case is, try to abide by these rules. I know that some of these do not apply to every startup, for example a social networking start-up doesn’t need to interview everyone that signs up to use their website, that’s just terrible for business but generally these rules have their way of factoring into any business regardless of the industry/sector.

The three broad categories of clients I want to talk about now are:

• Those who never listen: I have had my fair share of these and I am sure many others have. They are the most difficult to work with and from experience I have learned to put a finger on that trait they all share so that in the first 5 minutes of talking to them, I can tell that I am not keen of doing anything with them. I can’t put into words what that trait is and say oh here you go, here are people you shouldn’t work with, but the more you work with them, you will surely notice a pattern. Personally, I have so many other things to worry about than whether this person will do what I asked them to do or not, so I just tell them right off the bat that I can’t do much to help them. I am working on my new start-up and that takes several hours of my day, so I just spare myself the pain of dealing with these guys.
• Those who listen and do what they should do: These are obviously everyone’s favorite except you like unnecessary challenge. I am not perfect and I never impose on people what they are supposed to do. But if you have a problem and I feel I can help and offer you my consulting services, I expect that you atleast try my methods out and not crucify them. I like to listen to what people feel are great methods and then I share mine, before I arrive at a plan for you.  These people should be treated with great respect and I personally go the extra mile to show my appreciation for them.
• Those who simply want to argue and have it their way: I am not the biggest fan of these people but I love to learn, so I will listen to all you have to say. Remember to deal with these clients peacefully and respectfully. They are the ones who feel they know quite a bit about the subject and won’t settle. You must let them have their say, maybe they do have a point, maybe not. Either way, it pays to be the one that keeps quiet and listens.

Growing up as a kid, my dad always told me: “son, life is what you make of it. If you decide to go with the flow, you will end up like me but in all my years I have come to realize that people love and respect the guy that stands out.” Don’t get it twisted, my dad is a good man, very respectable and did well enough to care for his immediate and even extended family. All I wanted to do was be like the man, so when he tries to tell me he’s ordinary at best, I always felt sad. As I grew older I began to realize that he wasn’t trying to put himself down, he was only trying to tell me I could be better, trying to instill that “think out of the box” mentality! For this and many more things, I am deeply grateful and hope to buy him a Porsche someday

It’s never easy to be the one guy who does things differently, is it?  you constantly get looked down upon, written off, considered an outcast and often times left for dead (in this case failure). However nothing GOOD comes easy, so imagine how tough it must be if you are not shooting for GOOD but for GREAT. It’s not today we started hearing stories about the then class joke, who nobody wanted to be seen around because of how he/she looks or perhaps the fact he/she did things differently only to emerge as the most successful of his peers. “Show me a successful person and I will show you his struggles and the many things he has done abnormally” said Simon Webbe. I agree with him. Most people who have made a name for themselves chose a different route, a path society might have deemed against the norm…they carved their own niche.

When William Gates decided to drop out of Harvard in 1976 to pursue his dreams, do you think he recieved cheers and adulation in the hallway? do you think his mates smiled and gave him the thumbs up? I don’t think so. He once recounted how many people thought he was making the biggest mistake of his life… I reckon owning microsoft and sitting of the “richest man alive” throne for several years is a big mistake. If you are in school, don’t misunderstand me, I am not asking you to drop out of school and call that your way of carving a niche…I am only asking you to stand out, stand out from your class mates, stand out from your peers.

Whenever I find myself thinking of business ideas, I tend to stay far away from anything that has been done before, implement skills that have not been used and market/promote using tools that not so many people will consider helpful. I want to do my own thing in a different way so when people think of me they won’t be thinking of 2 dozen other people, that’s never good for business. If you are building a start-up, engage your users and customers in ways they haven’t been engaged before! If your competitors are giving one month free, how about you push the boundaries (even if it means stretching yourself financially) and give them 2 months free. If your service/product is good, they will pick you over the other service and trust me, they will stick.

Branding yourself and your start-up is highly important and a lot of new entrepreneurs take this for granted. A great book I read earlier this year is Me 2.0: Build a powerful Brand to achieve career success by a Dan Schawbel. The biggest lesson I learned through it is how easy it is to fail if you can’t set yourself apart and get lost in the sea of several other new start-ups. I encourage you to read. In your dealings as an entrepreneur, keep yourself on the ball all the time. You are an entrepreneur (which makes you a thinker), think of novel ways to offer your services, come up with unpopular marketing ideas, don’t worry about traffic as soon as you start out…when you have set yourself aside, they will come pouring in. If everyone is jogging why not run?

Part I: You will have to ask people for things. Most of them will say “no.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self Reliance was required reading my freshman year of high school. And while the focus of that particular essay is on one’s inner strength and trust in himself, I also recall being taught the virtue of doing things for myself.

Make no mistake about it, self reliance is a virtue in business. Being able to accomplish tasks yourself, being willing to make decisions for yourself, and having the discipline to work when your friends are out playing are all requisite qualities for an entrepreneur of any age.

But there inevitably comes a time in any business venture when you will have to ask someone for something. The very nature of business as a series of mutually beneficial exchanges between parties demands that at some point you will have to interact with others.

Even in entry level positions this holds true. If you work as a retail clerk, you’ll be asking people if they want to get the company’s credit card. If you work in a restaurant, you’ll be asking people to dine & wine with you. If you work in a call center, you’ll be asking people to buy products from you.

And if you’re running your own business, well, then the list of things you’ll be asking for will be very long, and will likely include:

• Asking a bank or investor for funding
• Asking your friends or family for support
• Asking a peer for help
• Asking someone with connections for introductions
• Asking a source for intelligence
• Asking a mentor for advice
• Asking your customers or clients for referrals
• Asking strangers to become your customers or clients
• And the list could go on for another million questions, or so.

And here’s the worst part: No matter how good your product is, no matter how likable you are, no matter what, a large portion of the people you ask for something will tell you “No.”

They’ll have their reasons, even if they don’t share them with you. Maybe they don’t trust you or your product. Maybe they’re too busy. Maybe they don’t like doing favors. Maybe they don’t have the money to do it right now. Whatever the reason is, the simple fact is that they’ll say “No.”

There are two reasons I wish I had learned this lesson before I ever entered the business world to learn it for myself.

First, I am atrociously bad at asking people for things. Whether it’s a foolish belief in a strange type of self-reliance or mere shyness, I’m not sure. What I do know is that whatever the reason, I get very uncomfortable when I have to ask someone to do something for me. In the end, this has the effect of creating even more people who will say “No” to me.

I’ve found that there are two remedies for this problem.

1. Start asking people for things. Start asking now, start asking today. The more comfortable you are asking for things, the better you’ll be at it.
2. Second, remind yourself that when you ask for something that you should be offering something in exchange. The number of people out there who will provide favors at no cost is near zero. The number of people who will share value in exchange for value is great. Even if you’re low on capital, you’ve got something to offer in exchange – figure out what it is.

The second reason I wish I had learned this is that I still struggle when people tell me “no.” Even the kindest of rejections sting, and I wish I had better prepared myself to simply roll off of those rejections and keep going, rather than dwelling on them.

As with the discomfort asking people, experience can teach you to take rejection in stride, and knowing what you have to offer will decrease the times you have to do it in the long run.

So, get out there and start asking people for things. It’ll do you good.

TJ Wihera blogs at http://www.generationwhy.com/whysperspective
You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/timothy_wihera