7 Principles Every Startup Entrepreneur Should Follow (Pt 1)

Are you a real entrepreneur? Everybody dreams of being a startup entrepreneur, owning a successful business, working on their own terms and not having to answer to a boss. The more courageous types go ahead and quit their job to pursue a startup, and possibly carrying a hope that they could reinvent the world.

If you’re not afraid to fail in your startup, like how the greats have failed in their time, then you’ve taken the first step into entrepreneurship. The journey ahead will be long and ardous, and you will make plenty of mistakes along the way. But if this is what you are destined for, then take with you these 7 principles to aid you in your journey.

1. Don’t Look For Approval

Creating a business from scratch takes monumental effort. Praise to you my friend for choosing to do this, but you must understand, not all people want you to succeed. Not even your family or friends. Not because they don’t like you. They might even love you. And exactly because of that, they want you to stay the same.

Your parents or spouse might not want you to succeed just because you’ll be gone on business more of the time, and at a subconscious level they know that will be detrimental to the relationship.

Your friends might be scared that you’ll change as a person (which will surely happen). They might think of what other people will say about themselves, considering that you all come from the same place, but yet you’ll probably end up richer than them.

You’re better off taking a break from friend’s opinions and family advice for the time being and focusing on your new venture. Don’t seek approval, you don’t need any. This is a crucial step, which most often is overlooked. The ability to isolate yourself from other people’s approval will determine if you’re a winner or a loser.

“People who want the most approval get the least and people who need approval the least get the most.” – Wayne Dyer

2. Leave Investments For Later

Looking for money at an early stage in your company’s life is a really, really bad idea. You’ll only get part of the money you’re looking for and you’ll end up giving away too much of your company assets or even worse, you’ll give away shares.

Shares are your company’s soul. Be gentle with it and always remember that, when and if the time for an exit comes, those shares will determine the amount you get paid. So you should only look for outside investments once you’ve proven the concept of your startup, when you already have decent revenue with at least a 3-6 month track record.

3. Business Incubators, Angel Investors or Venture Capital?

This one is really tough. I would always advice against partnerships too early on, as already stated. The business world is much like the animal kingdom. Usually the small fish gets eaten by the giant shark, no matter how good the deal you’re offering. That’s just because this early in the game, you don’t really have that much leverage in order to negotiate an advantageous deal.

If you do decide to partner with somebody, by all means try to go for somebody in the same industry. That is, if you’re in the online space, you don’t want to partner with venture capitalists who just care about quarter or yearly profits.

You’ll want to do business with somebody who can actually add value, who can actually spend some time with you at least once a week and who knows his stuff in your startup’s niche.

And The Answer Is…

Business incubators and local angel investors are the best way to go. You’ll have more freedom, as opposed to working with a big investment fund.

….to be continued…

source: entrepreneur