Top 5 Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know
by Stacie Krajchir,
Ladies Who Launch member, Los Angeles
1. Familiarize yourself with the term “intern.”
If you haven’t heard, interns are the new black. If you don’t have one, find and hire one. Actually, get as many as you can.
Not only are interns smart, young, eager, willing, and able, they are in most cases free.
2. Nothing is guaranteed.
When you hire a new employee, isn’t the honeymoon period the absolute best? They rock, you rock, the company is thriving, clients are thrilled..Well, enjoy it while it lasts, because unfortunately the number one thorn in your business-owner side is called employee turnover, also known as “nothing is guaranteed” and further called “get on the back-up plan program pronto.”
There is no secret to knowing if an employee will be with you for four years or four minutes. It’s a risk and a gamble and simply an un-fun part of doing business.
The biggest takeaway here is this: Never give so much responsibility to one person that their departure will affect your business so much that you turn into a paralyzed ship on rough seas.
In a nutshell, if you are a small business, be sure that someone else on your staff can handle or is privy to 50 percent of what each employee knows, so in the event of an unexpected departure, you are facing a few whitecaps rather than a tidal wave.
3. Get yourself a bookkeeper.
This is not complicated, though I seemed to make it as convoluted as possible early on in my own business before finally “getting it”: Recognize your strengths and weaknesses.
My weakness is not organizing and keeping receipts and not entering all this into QuickBooks. ( Ed. note - If you do all your banking online and pay everything w a debit or credit card, you are half way there in your bookkeeping.)
4. Reach out and touch someone.
Small business owner slash entrepreneur rule #345 is drop the ego at the door and reach out and ask for what you need.
However you do it, be it by phone, e-mail, or in person, reach out to women who actually get you. Unlike men, who have a tendency to want to conquer, kill, and overtake, we like to incubate, share, process, collaborate, and connect beyond deals and dollar signs. Don’t get me wrong, we like dollar signs a whole lot. But we demand more.
My chosen unexpected “partner in help” is Ladies Who Launch. I can’t even recall how I came upon the LWL crew, but my reaching out to and participating in this network of women has changed my business in more ways than you all want to hear. A handful of women guided and supported the launch of two new divisions of my company, injected warmth and humor during the breakup with the love of my life, lent me free fabulous legal advice, and acted as a fresh reminder that the art of barter is not dead and actually works magnificently.
5. Your competitor is actually your BFF.
Whatever you felt about competition prior to reading this, let it go. Take a memory loss pill and practice the new idea that your competition is your new BFF (best friend forever).
Within this group we pass along potential clients when we are unable to bring them on, or if there is a conflict of interest. It’s nice to be able to pass along business to a friend versus just saying to clients “no I cannot work with you …”
Good website for productive networking.
