Holicent
VIP Contributor
You won't know if you're in the right job until you've been there for a while. You won't know if your company is going to be successful until it's too late. And you won't know if the business idea you've got is the one that will succeed until it's too late. I've learned this lesson many times over. It's something I can never forget, and it keeps me from getting too excited about new ideas or businesses that might not work out.
But how do you start? How do you make sure that what you're doing is actually valuable? And how do you know when something isn't working?
Here are five critical things that I wish someone had told me when I started out:
1. Don't start a business because everyone else does it.
This seems obvious, but sometimes we get so caught up in the idea of being part of something that we forget that there's a lot more to owning your own business than just making money. Owning your own business means taking responsibility for everything that goes on inside your company — from hiring and firing employees to deciding what products or services to offer customers and how much profit they'll make off those sales. It means dealing with all kinds of financial issues like taxes and more.
2. Your business is your business, not the Internet's business.
3. The person who runs your company is the best person to make decisions about your business.
4. You have a responsibility to treat your employees well, even if they aren't doing anything yet and won't be doing anything soon.
5. People need more than money to live happy lives; they also need meaning and purpose in their work and lives.
6. You can't rely on the Internet or other external forces to make you successful; it's up to you and your team to figure out what makes sense for your business, then go do it.
But how do you start? How do you make sure that what you're doing is actually valuable? And how do you know when something isn't working?
Here are five critical things that I wish someone had told me when I started out:
1. Don't start a business because everyone else does it.
This seems obvious, but sometimes we get so caught up in the idea of being part of something that we forget that there's a lot more to owning your own business than just making money. Owning your own business means taking responsibility for everything that goes on inside your company — from hiring and firing employees to deciding what products or services to offer customers and how much profit they'll make off those sales. It means dealing with all kinds of financial issues like taxes and more.
2. Your business is your business, not the Internet's business.
3. The person who runs your company is the best person to make decisions about your business.
4. You have a responsibility to treat your employees well, even if they aren't doing anything yet and won't be doing anything soon.
5. People need more than money to live happy lives; they also need meaning and purpose in their work and lives.
6. You can't rely on the Internet or other external forces to make you successful; it's up to you and your team to figure out what makes sense for your business, then go do it.