50 pieces of advice I wrote in the air, so you can hit the ground running.

50 pieces of advice I wrote in the air, so you can hit the ground running. 

Before I boarded my flight back to Dubai, I was asked by someone “what advice I would give to a start up who wants to rapidly grow their business”

I started my business when I was 20 and I’m now approaching mid thirties. I’ve stuck with one thing for my entire adult life. Too many people seek short term returns on their projects, careers or businesses. There’s no overnight success here.

So here are 50 pieces of advice I wrote in the air, so you can hit the ground running. 

They are in no particular order. I hope it helps someone out there navigate their own journey. 

I’d love to know which of these resonates with you?

• Find something you love or at least have a strong interest in so it doesn’t feel like a chore. Choose to be in a game that excites you.
• Work Life Balance is a luxury you earn, despite popular mainstream belief in entrepreneurship, you cant stroll your way to the top in a beautifully balanced and well preserved, non stressful state; it’s hard work to build something remarkable. You need to kick down doors, handle extreme pressure and sacrifice short term.
• Enjoy the view as you climb the mountain, there’s no guarantee you’ll make it to the top, so reflect and enjoy on route, if you don’t do this you will feel bitter and lost at the top.
• Learn to trust. I have lost count of the number of knives that are sticking out of my back but I’m still here with a smile on my face trusting other people every single day. Trying to do everything yourself is the best way to slow down.
• Don’t burn bridges, people make mistakes, stay true to your values and rise above things that are said to you or about you. Life has a way of shining a light on wrong doings.
• Exist for a reason beyond making money, it will give you hope during dark times, inspire your team and give you true fulfilment.
• Have a big vision (of course) but be disciplined to break it down into yearly, Termly, monthly, weekly, daily goals and take one step at a time. Stick to it.
• Reinvest in your business, don’t treat it like an ATM, it will be your greatest investment not your home or your stock portfolio.
• Ask your customers what they want, don’t guess, follow the data. 
• “Build it and they will come” is nonsense, Sell an idea, concept, product or service and then build. This is how smart people do business, they minimise risk.
• On mitigating risk…Constantly find ways to mitigate risk, “Only have a Plan A” is nonsense, have several options and be the sort of person who goes all out on one. When other people work for you it’s not just your security on the line, be responsible.
• Become an expert in telling your story, the reason you exist is the true USP of your business. 
• Invest heavily in yourself, raising your value has a massive multiplying effect on your business. Find a mentor who’s been there and done it, you pay for your mistakes either way so pay upfront and get there faster.
• Walk more, get outside, this is where you will have your best ideas.
• Realise early that you can’t do everything, don’t try to, build the team. Find people better than you at each aspect of your business.
• Consider the power of good debt, once you have a proven concept, borrow aggressively and utilise the funds properly. 
• Stay Lean, keep your margins high enough to weather economic downturns or disasters, don’t spend unnecessarily.
• Become an expert in managing your finances, don’t leave this to someone else in the business, have your finger on the pulse and monitor it daily.
• Take full responsibility for absolutely everything that goes wrong in your business. Staff not performing? You didn’t train them well enough or didn’t hire the right people. Customers complaining? You didn’t provide a water tight solution, back to the drawing board.
• Implement quickly and be prolific, your speed will dictate your success not how perfect you are. 
• Find a group of friends like you, share your struggles openly and be a good friend to other people on a similar path.
• Build your reputation, become known as a reliable, hard working, ethical business owner who always shows up for customers, staff and friends. 
• Have more awkward conversations, the stone in your shoe can be the beginning of end of your business. Resentment builds when we hold onto things. 
• If you have kids, never turn them away when you are working. Never put yourself Either in the position where you may have to turn them away and they are second priority. Nothing will fill you with regret more than not pausing your work immediately and admiring the picture your kids have drawn. Kids soon learn that your work is more important than them. 
• Don’t feel guilty for being away from home to peruse your mission in life. Parenting is about far more than just being at home all the time, teaching your children that they should get out there and Pursue their passions and make an impact in the world is an incredible lesson your children won’t forget. Remember they want your presence over your time. When you are with them, they are the priority.
• Assume a third of everyone you meet dislikes you. It’s often a reflection of themselves but regardless. It may sound weird but we often restrict ourselves and hide our authentic selves out of worries people may dislike us, if you assume that’s the norm you are a) less affected when it does happen and b) you just live a more authentic life without that concern. 
• Obsess over product innovation, at the top of your industry it’s the 1% changes here and there that make the difference.
• Take bigger risks then you feel comfortable taking. Sometimes you only find the creativity and resilience to navigate through them when you absolutely have to, “Get yourself into trouble”.
• Don’t take things personally, try to look at your business in third person if you do. It will give you a sense of calm. 
• Sleep on it. Don’t make big decisions in the moment, if you can buy time and sleep on it you will leverage the power of your subconscious, you’ll also have a more poised and calm approach. 
• Build a cash buffer in personal and business. Stops you thinking like a cave man and worrying about money and elevates your mind to visionary mode. 
• Keep your cool, learn to become a master at regulating your emotions. I’ve sat in so many meetings where some bad news has been dropped, keeping my cool has saved us from disaster whereas loosing my temper or patience would have ruined us. No one wants to work for a highly emotional or reactive leader. 
• Understand the balance between scarcity and abundance mindset. Both are there to serve you, some tasks (like cutting costs) are better done with scarcity mindset and other tasks (expanding abroad) are better done with an abundance mindset.
• Seek negative criticism from your customers, it’s gold dust. Sometimes it’s the little remarks that give you the insight to make radical changes that improve your service. 
• You don’t need to be an athlete but don’t be feeble physically. Become empowered physically through good health, it will give you something to feel good about when things aren’t going well, keep your energy high and give you clarity, teaching you to be disciplined which will impact your business hugely. Nothing grinds your business to a halt like a health scare. You can avoid that long term so easily.
• Focus on habits, what does the perfect day and week look like for your health and your business? Try to repeat it every day, every week, every month.
• Ditch the ego, stay creative and curious, constantly seek new information and question your performance. Ego is one of the biggest reasons people don’t make it to the top in their industry (certainly in mine!)
• Never be quick to make judgements, you rarely understand the full picture at first glance. 
• Zoom out and see this like a career in entrepreneurship, you are a professional problem solver, there’s no reason to retire from solving problems.
• Find a way to test things without over committing, once you have evidence and have a strong gut feeling and intuition it will work, go all out on it.
• Fulfil your promises, never over promise and under deliver, always follow through. By not doing so you subconsciously weaken your own position and from a reputation point of view, you send a clear message to everyone around you. 
• Play with the concept of imposter syndrome, more than anything it’s an indicator that you are about to level up. Recognise it for what it is, as it pops up in your life, smile and say to it “Hello My Old Friend” and then go ahead and do the thing anyway.
• Learn from other people in other industries, don’t just stick to your own, true innovation is hard to find when you don’t explore. 
• Make ethical decisions over financial reward, the long game is less about money and more about relationships. 
• Have fun. I try to bring a level of humour to most things throughout my day in business. Be professional but don’t be too serious. You will be more fun to work with.
• Don’t be a course or book junky, instead of going from book to book, really deep dive and implement everything from one book or course before moving on to the next, implementation is everything. 
• Get used to rejection, until you are established and have amassed excellent social proof, credibility and a proven concept you will be rejected by most people. Part of the game is overcoming that so accept it.
• Systemise everything, when you delegate a task make sure you make a look video or clear instructions you can pass onto someone else so you don’t need to retract everything all the time. We have over 700 instructional videos on how to run our business.
• Don’t expect linear growth, get in the trenches and expect to be there for years not months, if you love the problem you are solving and the people you are solving it for, you’ll be digging your trench with a smile. These days will become the good old days.
• Reflect on this statement; “True Entrepreneurship is exploring your full potential to serve mankind not just yourself”