15 Things Every Newbie Needs to Know About Starting a Business

by Brandon

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15 Things Every Newbie Needs to Know About Starting a Business

Starting a business is exciting — and scary.

I’ve started more businesses than I’d care to admit.

In my experience, it’s a bit like driving through a heavy fog where you are only able to see a few feet in front of the windshield — you don’t know what’s up ahead until it’s upon you.

However, the longer you are an entrepreneur, the better you can navigate through that fog.

As I’ve been driving through the fog for over a decade now, I thought I would take today’s post and boil down 15 of the biggest lessons I’ve learned over the past decade of building and growing businesses.

Consider these tips “stuff I wish I had known when I was young and stupid.” 

Let’s get to them.

1. Don’t listen to statistics.

People love to throw around the statistic that 95 percent of business fail. Don’t listen to that — it’s an excuse to make you feel comfortable about giving up. If that number is even correct, it’s because most people don’t commit, they don’t follow through to the end or they are stupid in how they manage their money.

2. Do something you like.

Don’t start something you won’t want to do in five years. Because if you are successful, you’ll still be doing this in five years.

3. You are not going to know everything.

In fact, you probably won’t know anything when you first start. Start anyway. When I first got into real estate investing, I had no idea how to buy a property, rent a house, or evict a tenant. I figured it all out “on the job.” You will too.

4. Finish what you start.

Nearly every entrepreneur I know suffers from the same curse: We like to start things more than we like to finish them. In other words, if you are a good entrepreneur, you’ll have a lot of great ideas. Most of them would probably work out well and make you a lot of money. However, that doesn’t mean you should pursue them. Pick one and go with it until it dies or it makes you rich enough to buy a private island.

Related: How Top Entrepreneurs Overcome the Dreaded Fear of Failure

5. Never partner with someone because it’s convenient.

Partner with someone because it makes you stronger. The wrong partner will drive you crazy, make you hate your work and end up causing more problems than they solve.

(click to continue reading on BiggerPockets)

About Brandon

has written 199 Awesome posts in this blog.

Brandon Turner (G+) is the BiggerPockets.com Senior Editor and Community Director and owner of RealEstateInYourTwenties.com. He is also an Active Real Estate Investor (Flips, Apartments, and Buy-and-Hold), Entrepreneur, World Traveler, Third-Person Speaker, and Husband. Come hang out with him on Twitter!

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