I’ve been called by my friends a serial entrepreneur, spending most of my career creating startup technology companies. I have sold three companies in the past 10 years and then Covid-19 crisis hit in 2020 which hurt a lot of small businesses. But to find out, data from the Census Bureau shows that the first three quarters of 2020 an increase of new business applications went up to 3.2 million, compared to the 2.7 million in 2019. New business owners had to make better decisions on the technology they adopted, especially during quarantine. With that said, I have learned a few things along the way that might help future entrepreneurs.
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Find a Mentor – You’re not the first person to start a company. A good mentor can help you make better decisions and introduce yourself to important contacts that could open doors that you may not be able to. A good mentor won’t be free, but has been in your shoes and is willing to help a new owner get started. Experience matters. Learn from your mentors’ mistakes and most importantly, from their success.
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Surround yourself with Good People – Know your limits. As an entrepreneur, you believe you can do everything better than anybody else, but you can’t. Realize your unique ability, stay in that zone and hire people who can do the rest well.
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Join an Organization – There are both local community and national groups that can help. Most offer great networking opportunities and some even offer training or peer coaching. I personally like EO, the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (www.eonetwork.org) as a national forum to help owners grow their companies.
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Embrace Change – A startup company changes almost daily. Adding one person to a small company can be a 10% increase in your workforce. One of the greatest assets that a small company has is its ability to react quickly and “turn on a dime”.
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Cash Flow – As entrepreneurs we are overly optimistic; we expect everybody to come running as soon as we launch our company. It never happens that way. Getting sales and new customers is hard work. Build worst case forecasts, plan to have more capital available than you expect. Be ready to start looking for outside funding earlier than you thought.
Related: How to Go Full Entrepreneur in 2021
Do you have advice to offer? Like, how to grow your business and impower your employees. Times have changed, and so many businesses have shifted from in-person to online meetings during the COVID pandemic. This heavier online presence continues to challenge businesses to upgrade their existing technology application. For meetings and better collaboration, some businesses went to Microsoft Teams, while others select Zoom.
What about financials? Businesses that had desktop legacy accounting solutions felt the pain. During these difficult times, Gravity Software's cloud-based accounting solution was able to upgrade small to mid-sized businesses so they could work remotely and create a more collaborative company culture.
Built on the Microsoft Power Platform, Gravity's intuitive web interface is easy to use and can handle complex accounting processes. And did you know that Gravity’s big claim to fame, is to be able to consolidate multiple companies with just one database to manage. Team members are able to meet online, chat and share files with Gravity’s seamless integration with Microsoft Teams, Outlook and much more!
If your business is stuck on a desktop or legacy accounting application and lacks the features that makes you do work arounds, it’s time to look at Gravity. Schedule your online demo today and realize the value of innovative technology.
Gravity Software
Better. Smarter. Accounting.
This article was originally published in Jan. 2016 and has been updated for current times and edited for clarity.