10 things I wish I knew earlier about starting businesses.

It’s easy to look back at our mistakes and wonder how things might have gone differently, if only. There is only so much value to be had in that mode of thinking. The moment has passed, the decisions were made and paths were taken.

Here is a list of 10 things I’ve learned along the way that might help you improve your decision-making process.

Transcript

Conor McCarthy: 0:08

10 things I wish I knew earlier about starting businesses, it's easy to look back at our mistakes and wonder how things might have gone differently. You know, if only, there's only so much value to be hard in that mode of thinking, though, when you think about it, the moment has passed. And the decisions we made, meant that we took certain paths and they've led to where we are today. But what does remain is the learning. It's kind of like residual growth that can, if treated non judgmentally can actually be the root of future successes. The only thing to do with a good failure is to sit down, appreciate it, and then milk it for all it's worth. Save yourself, move over ego, I am absolutely mining this failure for everything that it's got. My current work of exposing the paths of Business Builders journeys to the first 10 customers has really forced me to examine my own paths to this point, and the many things I've learned along the way. Most of these things were unfortunately learned the hard way. But all of them have taught me things that are now part of my kind of subconscious judgement when making decisions. I don't need to wonder why this decision feels right or wrong. Past experience has taught me that the other way, didn't get me where I needed to go. It also saves me a lot of time rather than chasing possible futures, I can immediately ignore the ones I know from experience won't work for me. What I've also found interesting in speaking with founders on the first 10 podcast is that some of these missteps seem to be universal, they crop up again and again, easy decisions hard one is the term I give to this class of knowledge I've gained. In future blog posts, I'll detail the little trips I made with previous ventures that didn't work out. But for now, here's a list of 10 things I've learned along the way that might help you improve your decision making process when it comes to finding your first 10 customers or growing your business. Number one, figure out what the market needs. Look, the statistics on failed startups are not pretty. But that doesn't mean we should ignore them. Their truth is an important warning to us. When we started to build a business. Knowing that most new businesses fail because they don't address a need is the only motivation, we should need to make sure that we don't fall into the same trap. I once started an online repair service for broken headphones. I was absolutely scratching my own itch. I'm a huge music, music nerd and I go through a lot of headphones. I went through so many I realised Hey, what if what if I just repaired these. So I found someone to help me do the repairing. And I started this little mini venture and after two sales in about three months, where I was promoting it quite heavily. I just kept the whole idea because it turned out that the market was telling me an important message about their deeds. So when it's okay to scratch your own itch, find out if there are enough other people who have the same itch to scratch. Number two is building strong relationships. When I think back to any success I've ever had in business, it's been mostly because of who I met and not the thing I produced. That sounds weird to say because in a lot of cases, I was providing a thing such as a product or service. But always that thing was in service of a person. Whether it was the customers I was selling to the clients I collaborated with, or the partnerships I got involved with is the people who make it happen and make it real. In the background. I've written an unholy amount of emails, proposals, landing pages, you name it, but at the end of the day, it's us endlessly fascinating humans that make all the difference. doubling down on your relationships, or understanding what makes people tick is time well spent. Number three is to find your minimum viable audience. Minimum Viable audience, I learned this concept way too late into my career. Figuring out the smallest number of people you need to make your business work is essential and making progress. And it works on a couple of levels. Firstly, it helps you to focus on the match between what you're offering and what your customers need, which I talked about a moment ago. Secondly, it helps us avoid the delusions of grandeur, that could quickly overtake our thinking, and lead us into making something for everyone, ie something kind of bland. thinking deeply about your minimum viable audience really does enhance everything from your story to your impact. Number four, get involved in things you're not that interested in. I'm always open to collaborations, and putting myself out into the world has been a fun and enjoyable way of getting new ideas out there. But in the early days, when I had more of a scarcity mindset, I found myself saying yes to collaborations on ideas. I had zero interest in. So for example, an online home insurance platform. Sure I'll work on that. Oh, no way. That's a terrible idea for me to work on a collagen based health supplement company. Okay, let's go. Actually, let's not go. I was way too eager to say yes to everything that was happening around me. Saying no, has actually served me far, far better than saying yes But it takes a bit of practice to get used to saying no. Number five, get out there and talk to your customers. Steve Blank said it best when he coined the term get out of the building. His advice was for startups was to get out and meet their customers as much as possible to get the vital feedback that could help them find the elusive product market fit. He wanted them to leave their laptops behind and have actual conversations. I realised only recently that a side benefit of doing this was that you also escaped what I call the anchorman syndrome. This is when you brainstorm a new idea with a group quietly in the background. Groupthink sneaks into the room, and it sets in and it's so hard to get rid of, suddenly, everyone agrees that this new idea, or this new approach is the best one, simply because it was said and we all agree it is. It's easy and comforting to agree with our colleagues and friends that this is the best way to go. But the reality is that we the people in the room constitute an exceptionally small sample size. And again, it's only by bringing it out to our customers and seeing what they think that we get any real information about our ideas. Number six is be specific because clarity is kindness. When I first started coaching, my pitch was basically I coach people to do things. And it was a real uphill struggle to get clients. After a while I bravely refined this to I coach business people to change their corner of the world, which was slightly better, but still not great. It was too broad, it was too watered down. I really struggled to find clients, always thinking that all I needed to do was improve my sales skills, get a better website by another marketing course. But it was only when I hit on the messaging of I help business builders find their first 10 customers that all of a sudden, I heard and saw people say, oh, right, yeah, I got it. And I became really busy. being vague, not only did me no favours, but it also wasn't generous to those I was trying to serve. It was putting the onus on them to try and understand how I could help them instead of being clear and fearless about what I was offering. Again, clarity is kindness. Number seven, in this specific lies the universal. This is related to the clarity his kindness point. Early on being vague was also a case of me trying to throw a very big marketing net out there to see who I could reach. Most people pass right through that net. I attempt to time and again to narrow my offering. But an underlying fear of going so specific or niche that I wouldn't be able to find anyone always scared me away. What I found when I landed on the first 10 Customers idea was that within one simple idea, lay a plethora of options. It was incredible podcasts, blogs, workshops, sprints, coaching engagements, so much suddenly became available to me that I'm no longer stuck for ways to provide value to those I serve. It's only when we focus on the atom, can we see the constellation inside of it? Number eight, understanding why your customers by doubling or even tripling down on the market needs and Minimum Viable audience points above, I have to say it again, Know thy customer. In a conversation about understanding customers with my friend Ian, he advised me to, quote, find someone with a first name at a blood type A real person you can build for this way you can solve for actual needs and get direct feedback from the people you seek to serve. That way, instead of building it for some generic persona, you build it for a genuine person, ie dissolves X for Samantha, unquote. We could spend all day thinking about demographics and psychographics. But the realisation that I never ever buy something, because I'm aged between 40 and 50. And I'm a homeowner, because I have two kids or work for myself. This was a lightning bolt moment for me. There may be a correlation, but it wasn't causation. The reality is that I and you listening to this buy things to make some sort of progress in our life. If you've heard of jobs to be done, we buy things to get the job done. Understanding this helped me on the road to truly understanding the same and those I sought to serve. A key to this is understanding my customer reviews and how and appealing to those first. And not the fact that they're a homeowner, for example, enabled me to truly step into their shoes. Number nine, get comfortable with uncertainty. When you work for yourself, no two days are the same. It's such a cliche, and as much as you need to get used to this idea, and also get used to the fact that this is often portrayed in a positive light. Just imagine the fun of no two days being the same. The reality is a constant feeling of spinning plates, juggling tasks, and just a dim sense of uncertainty about what's going to happen next. In seeking the freedoms that no self employment are after being comfortable with uncertainty is a necessary skill in the context of a day filled with tasks of varying priorities and content. That can mean putting aside any feelings of what the day should look like and tackling what the day actually is. There's a great saying you know, eat a frog first. You know get your most important tasks out of the way early, even if they're a bit yucky, use GTD planning, getting things done the various ways to to select productivity weapons. But most importantly, spending a little time creating some kind of a plan for dealing with the overwhelm that will show up is time spent. Number 10 321 Go. This is a little trick that has often gotten me through the tasks where I say, Oh, I know I need to do this. But I really don't want to do this. If I start the day, and I see a task looming that I pre plan to do, that now looks boring or difficult. I just give myself a three second countdown to start it. That's it, I see the task and I feel that emotion rise up and I go 321 Go on a jump in. I'm not entirely sure why this works. But it does. And that's good enough. So try for yourself, see if it works. That's lessons one to 10. There will be more lessons in future podcasts and blog posts. And of course, the learnings don't just stop here. What should be obvious is that none of these failures were game Enders. They were just waypoints on the journey. And of course there aren't just 10 of these. So please do keep an eye out for more of those learning experience slash cleaners that have occurred in my life that I'm happy to share with you so that maybe you can avoid the same mistakes I made and gain something from the learnings I made along the way. Helping you find your first 10 customers is what I do. So do pop over to my website at Conor mccarthy.me. To read more about how I can help you get your first 10 customers. Make sure while you're there to sign up to my mailing list, you get some free resources on how to find your first 10 Customers