The Toughest Lessons to Learn in Business (and How You can Avoid Learning the Hard Way)

When you first started your business you probably had an idealistic view of how everything would work out. You have a great product or service, you have people that have encouraged you to start the business, and you were excited to take on life as an entrepreneur. For many of us entrepreneurs, sometimes those initial expectations make it hard to weather the storms of business when we start running across obstacles that block our growth. So let’s take a realistic look at some of the toughest lessons to learn in business, how you can avoid learning them the hard way, and what to watch out for so you can be prepared when storms hit.

Lesson #1: Hiring the Right People is More Important than Paying the Right Salary

Have you ever hired the wrong person for a position at your company? If you have ,you know exactly why we put this lesson first.

If you’re a larger company and have started an LLC or Corporation, you might have an HR department and processes and policies that you need to follow that could keep you from being as flexible in your hiring process. And if you have a smaller organization, this is one of the key areas that can help you stay competitive!

This is where your experience in your industry can be critical. The right person can be worth more than 5 of the wrong people, and the wrong person for the job can actively set your organization back. That’s why sometimes it’s better to just not hire anyone than to rush the hiring process. Wait until the right person comes along, otherwise you’re just looking at “filling a spot” for the sake of optics.

The salary that you’re giving an employee should be reflective of the worth that they bring to your organization, not necessarily a reflection of what their coworkers are making or what the industry thinks they should be paid. For some roles this is more true than others. For positions where you’re just expected to hit certain numbers in a controlled environment this may be less true. For skill positions and management, the right person can be 10-20X more valuable than the wrong one and you don’t want them potentially jumping to another organization if pay would be the main reason they would consider that change.

Lesson #2: Just Because Something Doesn’t Work the First Time Doesn’t Mean It Sucks

Small sample sizes means small statistical significance. That doesn’t mean that you should keep banging your head against the wall just to prove a point. But it does mean that you should give different ideas and strategies in your organization a fair shake when it comes to testing them out. Whether it’s with Edison and the lightbulb, Elon and the electric car, or any other major physical invention, the end product took hundreds if not thousands of different tweaks and iterations before it was accepted as a massive achievement. Testing doesn’t guarantee success, but anything worth building is going to be tested repeatedly until you figure out the model that works best and how to implement it at scale.

So how do you evaluate if something is moving in the right direction when you’re testing out a new product or idea? Ask these questions to figure out if you’re headed that way…

• Is this something my employees or customers actually want?
• Are there key people in my organization that think it’s a good idea based on their experience?
• Does the project to test this new product or idea seem to be moving in a positive direction?
• Are we learning something new that will benefit the project or the company as a product of pursuing this new strategy of idea?

Hopefully these questions will steer you in the right direction. Regardless, it’s a great start to take stock of where you’re at with a new idea.

Lesson #3: Roadblocks Don’t Mean It’s Time to Give Up

It can be easy to think that issues or roadblocks that keep you from running your business the way you’d like to are reasons for you to stop the business or change everything up. But sometimes you’re just a few key pivots away from being in a better position than you ever thought possible. Great businesses, just like great sports teams, take years of planning, training, and good decision making before their success is recognized. Sure you need to put in the hard work, the dedication, and the time otherwise none of it is possible to begin with. But great things take time. Anyone that’s an “overnight success” did so after years of grunt work and dedication.

Sometimes you just need a little encouragement to get you across the finish line. Join groups with other like-minded entrepreneurs and businesspeople that have been in your shoes and can give you insight and positive backing to keep pushing.

Lesson #4: Prioritize the Customer Over Everything Else

We’ve written a number of articles on this topic before, but if you’re not putting your customers first ahead of everything else in your business, your likelihood of success is slim. Being great at your customer support will cover a multitude of problems. Your sales can be less than what you’d like, but you’ll get more of them if you have happy customers. Your marketing could be better, but if your customers are happy they’ll do a lot of the marketing legwork for you through referrals and recommendations. Your products and services may not be as competitive as the ones your competitors have, but if your customers like working with you more they might be more willing to pay a higher price point or take a product that isn’t as superior just because they like doing business with you and your team.

Moral of the story: listen to what your customers have to say and make them feel special at every opportunity you have.

Wrapping Up

So what’s the takeaway with all of these different lessons? You might have the theoretical knowledge to keep yourself from making these mistakes, but sometimes putting them into practice can be a lot harder than having the mental understanding behind it. If you can hire right, prioritize your customers, and make decisions with the long-term as your priority over short term roadblocks and frustrations, you’ll be lightyears ahead of most of your competitors within as little as a few years. The team here at MyCorporation is cheering you on and hopes you take advantage of this and other resources in our business learning center that we have available for business owners just like you on our website!