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20 Pieces of Advice from Top Business Owners

It’s a great idea for new business owners to take advice from experienced entrepreneurs. Although some advice may seem like it doesn’t apply to you at the moment, it probably will at some point in the future. While it’s impossible to take everyone’s advice, there will be guidance and tips you’ll be grateful you got. Factor Finders has developed some tips of advice from the top entrepreneurs of today’s society below.

  1. “Do the work. Out-work. Out-think. Out-sell your expectations. There are no shortcuts.” Mark Cuban, Entrepreneur and Shark Tank investor
  2. “People want to do business with someone they like. If people like you, they’re going to want to do business with you.” Barbara Corcoran, Corcoran Group cofounders and Shark Tank Investor
  3. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway CEO
  4. “The biggest risk is not taking any risk…In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook co-founder and CEO
  5.  “It’s OK to ask for help.” Chip Wilson, Lululemon founder
  6. “You are who you associate with.” Tim Ferriss, Entrepreneur and author
  7. “If you’re not being told ‘no’ constantly, you’re not pushing hard enough.” Shafqat Islam, NewsCred CEO
  8. “Being comfortable is the enemy.” Sara Rotman, Advertising entrepreneur
  9. “You can never save too much money.” Daymond John, Founder of FUBU and Shark Tank Investor
  10. “There are no substitutes for hard work.” Allison Page, co-founder and head of product of SevenRooms
  11. “A common mistake I see many startup founders making is they aren’t solving a real problem. You should try to solve a real problem that people have or identify a much better way for people to do things that they’ve historically done before…” Alexis Ohanian, Founder of Reddit, Hipmunk and Breadpig
  12. “Pick a good market. The idea for approaching that market may change, but find a meaty problem to solve. You can try to attack it a bunch of different ways. Don’t be too narrow.” Caterina Fake, Founder of Flickr
  13. “As tempting as it may be to staff your new business with friends and relatives, this is likely to be a serious mistake. If they don’t work out, asking them to leave will be very tough…” Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin
  14. “Be true to yourself. If you follow that principle, a lot of decisions are actually pretty easy.” Tony Hsieh, Founder of Zappos
  15. “Learn public speaking. Of all the skills that an entrepreneur can have, I think the ability to convey an idea or opportunity, with confidence, eloquence and passion is the most universally useful skill…” Tim Westergren, Founder of Pandora
  16. “Go after solving a problem that you have. Something that’s near and dear to you, not some random market opportunity. Because, when things get hard, if you’re chasing just the dollars, or a random market opportunity, you’re not going to be able to have the fortitude, the passion to stay with it.” Chase Jarvis, CEO at CreativeLive
  17. “If you get a prototype out and you get enough people using it, you never have to write a business plan. A prototype is where you separate the BS from reality.” Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist of Canva, author of ‘The Art of the Start 2.0’
  18. “Don’t give up, don’t take anything personally, and don’t take no for an answer.” Sophia Amoruso, Founder of Nasty Gal, author of ‘#GIRLBOSS’
  19. “Don’t wait for everything to be perfect before you make your first step. Dive in and learn as you go!” Chris Beatty, Entrepreneur
  20. “Ignore everyone who says you’re crazy and it will ever work. Adopt the stance, ‘oh yeah, just watch me’.” Debra Gould, Entrepreneur

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