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Unusual Business Advice From 25 Successful Entrepreneurs

Last updated on October 22nd, 2021

The world of business is changing fast. The rules of the game in this world are no more the same as they were a decade ago. Now, the ever-increasing competition has compelled business owners to take a relook at the conventional ideas of making a mark in business. Modern entrepreneurs have different business advice to give, based on their own experiences.

Business owners dream of achieving significant milestones. But how many of them realize their goals? In fact, very few of them achieve their target. Most entrepreneurs are unable to exploit their full potential because they pay no heed to experienced and successful business owners’ advice.

In the modern highly-competitive environment a new approach to doing business matters the most. You cannot go on repeating the same conventional marketing plans.

You should know the ways to stand out from your rivals. But to build an enterprise that looks different is itself a special skill. You need to hone this ability.

So the key to running a business successfully, you need to find out what works best for you. Take calculated risks! Modern businesses make and sell products or services based on users’ experience. Once users have shown confidence in a new company’s products, its business starts growing.

Here, it is to be noted that most startups fail abruptly. They wrap up their companies before the second year of their inception.

According to an estimate, nearly 70 percent of new tech companies and 97 percent of crowdfunded companies fail. This is a considerable percentage of failure.

Naturally, these businesses could not attract customers. Most of them failed as they were following conventional ideas for business growth. Not all of those old tips work in today’s highly competitive world.

Here Are 25 Unusual Business Advice From Successful Entrepreneurs

01. Richard Branson

Advice – “The best businesses come from people’s bad personal experiences’’.

Sir Richard Branson — the founder of the global Virgin Group — is one of the most recognized faces in the corporate world. The billionaire boasts of a vast empire of more than 400 companies.

In an interview, his advice to the new entrepreneurs was that they should provide solutions to the problems that people are facing.

He asks them to keep their eyes open and see what is frustrating your customers. Then, come out with the solution. That will be your business. He says that a business is all about improving people’s lives.

02. Robert Herjavec

Advice – Show your expertise and confidence while presenting your case to the clients! You have just 90 seconds to make the impact.

Robert Herjavec built and sold many companies to global brands like AT&T. He runs an award-winning show Shark Tank for new entrepreneurs.

He says that while facts and figures are of significant value, present your case to clients in such a unique way that they know your expertise. He says that you need to persuade your clients in quick time, or they may just ignore.

For example, modern businesses can make a quick impact by creating stunning visuals such as a great logo design. Since a logo is the face of a company, it can help impress clients.

03. Arianna Huffington

Advice – Love the business you started despite detractors.

Arianna is a co-founder of The Huffington Post. She is also the author of The Sleep Revolution, a best seller book. Her one valuable tip to new entrepreneurs is — ‘love the idea or project you’ve started’.

You’ll always get some people who disapprove and dismiss your unique business idea, but if you’re passionate about it, you will eventually succeed.

When she first launched The Huffington Post, which she co-founded, critics called it an unsurvivable failure; but it proved to be a roaring success later. This is because she and her team members believed in the project.

04. Mark Cuban

Advice – Pick something you are good at.

Mark Cuban is an investor on ABC Shark Tank and owns the NBA’S Dallas Mavericks, Magnolia Pictures, and Landmark Theatres. He is also the chairman of HDTV cable network AXS TV.

In his opinion, the key to success in any business is that you should be doing what you are good at. Thus, merely doing something that you love is not enough, you should also know how to do it perfectly. You should be an expert on it.

05. Tim Ferriss

Advice – You are what your friends are. In fact, five people you frequently associate with make the most impact on your business. You are the average of them.

Tim Ferriss has three best-selling books to his name. He is not only a successful author but an investor as well. He hosts the number one ranked business podcast show, The Tim Ferriss Show. He says that networking is the most important aspect of a successful business.

He suggests to follow the adage ‘your network is your net worth.’ This means that you should be with the best people related to your field and do networking.

06. Sophia Amoruso

Advice – ‘Do not take no for an answer.’

Sophia Amoruso is well-known for her Nasty Gal store at eBay. She started the store from scratch and turned it into a multi-million dollar business. She sells her own clothing line. She is the author of the bestseller GIRL BOSS.

Her advice to the budding entrepreneurs is — ‘never give up’. Most importantly, they should avoid taking no as an answer. She says that her experience is that those who say no ultimately tell her yes.

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07. Guy Kawasaki

Advice – Prototype is the key, focus on it.

Guy Kawasaki is the author of 13 books including the Art of the Start and he is the Chief Evangelist of Canva. He advises entrepreneurs to pay heed to the prototype.

He says that if the prototype is right and more and more people are using it, then does not worry about writing a business plan or do other such things like forecasting. He thinks that prototype brings you closer to the reality.

08. Tony Robbins

Advice – Your business is your mindset. Its success is 80% psychology. Only 20% is echanics.

Tony Robbins is a renowned business strategist and philanthropist. He is widely considered as an expert on the psychology of leadership.

He is also the author of Money: Master The Game, a New York Times bestseller. He says that a great concept and business plan is no guarantee to build a business.

It is more about your personal nature. If doing business is not in your character, and it holds you back, then you cannot build a successful business empire.

09. Tara Gentile

Advice – Do not wait for the opportunity. Instead, start launching product right away to realize your ideas.

Tara Gentile is the founder of Quiet Power Strategy®. She is a successful author and speaker and helps companies in building profitable business models.

She points out that the biggest mistakes most new business owners make is they endlessly wait for more information, money, and experience to get started.

That is a huge drawback. But she says that they are not learning by waiting. Instead, the best way is to hand over your idea to someone who can handle it well and stop waiting.

10. Chase Jarvis

Advice – Solve a problem that bothers you

Chase Jarvis is one of the most recognized young photographers in the world. He co-founded Creative Live which is the greatest live streaming education company globally.

He suggests that you should solve a problem that is near and dear to you. He does not recommend exploring just any market opportunity that randomly comes your way. Do not just chase the dollar, he says.

11. Steli Efti

Advice – The problem you fall in love should be your business idea

Steli Efti runs a highly sought-after sales communication platform CLose.io. He is its CEO. He has helped hundreds of businesses realize sales goals. He emphasizes the problem.

The new entrepreneurs should avoid falling in love with their business ideas. That will take them nowhere. Instead, find out a problem that they would like to solve and turn that into business.

12. Sujan Patel

Advice – Set realistic goals and avoid taking things for face value

Sujan Patel is the co-founder of Web Profit, a highly successful content marketing agency. He runs Narrow.io and MailShake. He is well-known for his unique marketing skills. He advises to the first-time entrepreneurs not to copy the successful business owners.

Do not expect the same results they got. He says that the new business owners should not be carried away by the glamour of business. They should stop taking the things at their face value.

13. Nir Eyal

Advice – Entrepreneurs should build products for themselves

Nir Eyal blogs is a blogger at NirAndFar.com. He advises on the psychology of products. He wrote a successful book ‘Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products.’ He opines that the aspiring business owners should work hard and not to rely solely on a great idea.

He says that good ideas are plenty and they come cheap. They should first satisfy themselves when they work on a product. He points out that the entrepreneurs of Slack, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat made products that they wanted to use. That is the way to build something with passion.

14. Derek Sivers

Advice – Start on an idea right now, it doesn’t need funding.

Derek Sivers started HostBaby and CDBaby. He is an entrepreneur, TED speaker, musician, producer, a writer, and programmer.

He says that as an entrepreneur you should start right with whatever funds you have. You should not wait to launch your idea until you raise funds. Your advantage over others is that you got started.

15. Noah Kagan

Advice – Do not spend money and time on non-core business issues.

Noah Kagan is the Chief at AppSumo which is an entrepreneurs’ community to find out tools for business growth. He was a director of Mint.

His advice for the new entrepreneurs is to avoid wasting their time and money on the things that are not directly related to your core business idea. It is only when you actually start the business that you should consider spending money on them.

16. Larry Kim

Advice – Make sure your business idea is unique. Wait for a genuinely great idea.

Larry Kim founded Mobile Monkey — a chatbot dedicated to marketers, and Wordsream — a keyword tool used by one million marketers. He is a mentor and keynote speaker on issues related to marketing. He says that most entrepreneurs tend to overestimate their business ideas.

They think that they have a unique idea, but it does not work later. It is better to wait for a great business idea rather than hurriedly implementing a random thought. For example, if you are in the business of creating graphic design ideas for clients, make sure that the ideas are impressive and impactful. Creating something in a hurry will only jeopardize your business.

17. Vanessa Van Edwards

Advice – Listen to your customers before planning anything

Vanessa Van Edwards is a columnist for Huffington Post. She is known for her path-breaking work at Science of People, which The USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and the Today Show featured.

She believes that businesses should avoid starting a business in a hurry. They should first know what their target customers have to say. They should analyze data and make changes before actually implementing a plan.

18. Conrad Wadowski

Advice – Build an audience and take time to know customers’ behavior with your product.

Conrad Wadowski is the founder of GrowHack which has more than 17,000 founders as email subscribers. He advises entrepreneurs to have the patience for building an audience gradually.

They must find out how customers are behaving with their products rather than focusing too much on building products.

19. Lewis Howes

Advice – Pitch a product early rather than waiting for perfection

Lewis Howes is the host of the top ranking podcast Lewishows. He is the author of the best-selling book — The School of Greatness. He says that to look for perfection is a huge mistake. They should think of launching a product whenever they are ready.

Many of them wait until achieving some level of expertise. It is better to get feedback on the product and polish it later than to delay it. That is also the way to build your brand identity amid target customers steadily.

20. Ankur Nagpal

Advice – Get rid of the fear of being perfect

Ankur Nagpal is the CEO and founder of the prominent online course building platform Teachable. He helps to build course websites and self-host their content. He also enables them to take control of student data and control branding.

He says that most entrepreneurs wait for months and even years first to achieve some perfection. As a consequence, they do not meet their business targets. Instead, let the customers use your product and listen to what they say and then improve.

21. Oleg Shchegolev

Advice – Do not worry about the competition. Think of what you want to do and your business.

Oleg Shchegolev is a co-founder of SEMrush, a marketing toolkit. He is responsible for the fast growth of SEMrush, which has offices across the world with hundreds of employees and more than one million users four years ago.

His best advice for new entrepreneurs is that they should not worry much about their competitors. They should think about their companies more.

Every company has a different DNA. So, one strategy usually does not work for all. If a strategy is not working for your business, it is because your business is different. You should hire a professional graphic designer to create your logo etc. visual identity only after you know your competition inside out.

22. Nick Grant

Advice – Put in place a robust sales strategy before launching your products or services.

Nick Grant is the Chief Revenue Officer and co-founder of Killer Infographics, which provides the designs of motion graphics, infographics, and interface infographics. It is a Seattle-based leading visual communication business.

Nick says that many upcoming entrepreneurs refuse to see the importance of robust marketing. They have no great sales strategy. They should give top priority to marketing and sales so that they earn fans.

23. Jim Fowler

Advice – Avoid running your business in the best case scenario

Jim Fowler is the founder and CEO of a leading crowdsourced intelligence platform Owler. He also owns Lookout Pass, a ski resort in Idaho. His advice for the new entrepreneurs is that they should not be overly optimistic.

This often results in being cash strapped. He suggests that you should avoid running a business in the best case scenario. Instead, be an optimist realist. This will keep you safe and secure from many business fears.

24. Syed Balkhi

Advice – Test, learn and improve. Don’t go after perfection and innovation.

Syed Balkhi is the founder of WPBeginner and Optinmonster as well as many other online businesses. Running businesses for over 25 years, he is not a big fan of innovation and perfection. He says that innovation is messy and perfection is more like a curse.

He points out a mistake that most new entrants in the world of business make. They wait for a long time in launching their products in the market. They think that it is not perfect and innovative.

But Syed says that they should bring the product in the market as soon as possible and test it with customers. Learn from what they have to say about it and make improvements based on their reaction. That way they can have the edge over their competitors.

25. Michelle Schroeder

Advice – View your competitors as your colleagues and friends. Build relations and network.

Michelle Schroeder runs a highly successful lifestyle and financial blog, Making Sense of Cents. She has grown her blog revenue above $70,000 per month.

Her business advice to the budding entrepreneurs is that they should stop seeing other businesses as their competitors. It is a mistake.

She is of the view that taking them as competition in your niche or industry will hold you back. She warns that this attitude will not let you learn the secrets and tips of an industry.

So, she is of the view that businesses should reach out to your competitors when attending conferences and make them friends. A new entrepreneur has many things to learn from experienced and successful business people.

As you can see that most of the modern day business owners advise the upcoming entrepreneurs not to worry much about the conventional marketing ideas, most of them want you to test your product in the market and not on paper. And satisfy yourself first that your product is great and useful.

New business owners need effective visual identities such as logos, business cards, websites, brochures, etc. as well. These visuals enhance a brand’s presence and impact amid target audience.

Here, Designhill, a leading marketplace, can help in creating impressive logos etc. identities of upcoming businesses. At this site, you can have great design solutions at affordable prices. You will need unique design solutions to project a great brand image of your business image.

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Conclusion

New entrepreneurs want to have some business advice from experienced and successful business owners. In the modern competitive world, a common suggestion is to launch a product quickly rather than waiting for perfection and innovation. Most conventional marketing tips are no more relevant today. Business owners need to make amendments in their convention ways of marketing.

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