7 Crucial Survival Lessons - Learned Starting a Business

As a kid, I had no aspirations of being a business owner or entrepreneur. I was a finance major, I was going to college to get my finance degree. I was going to get a corporate job and ride the corporate ladder.

That was my future. Then I read this book: Rich Dad, Poor Dad. That really changed my whole mindset, and got me to thinking seriously about becoming an entrepreneur.

These were principals that weren't taught to me. My father wasn't a business owner, I had no family members that were business owners. This was something I had to learn on my own. After graduation, I was attracted to the financial services industry, because I felt that the income potential there was unlimited. All went well for the first five years – or so it seemed.

Then another revelation hit me: Even though my income was unlimited, I was still a W2 employee. That wasn’t exactly the message of Rich Dad Poor Dad, but it did have certain advantages. But in the end, that arrangement wasn’t as cozy as it seemed. My brokerage firm was bought out, creating one of those moments that almost forces you to change direction, and that‘s what I did. Me and three other coworkers took the leap of faith of actually starting our own financial services firm. I was finally self-employed.

It definitely was very exciting, but it was also very scary. I quickly realized I knew nothing about running a business. Sure, I knew how to make cold calls, get new clients, and schmooze with the best of them. But actually running a business was something that I had never been taught in school and really had no experience with.

Here’s what I’ve learned in starting and running my own business – maybe these lessons will help you to start your own venture… 1 You have to wear a lot of hats. 2. Overhead can kill you. 3. Select your partners carefully. 4. Work on being efficient. 5. You never work 9 to 5 6. Learn to celebrate your successes 7. Just because you build it, doesn't mean that they will come Before you actually start a business, you might want to test it and treat it more like a side hustle. Keep your day job and just see if your business idea has roots.

Test it out with your network. Find out if you actually have something that people are going to pay money for on an ongoing basis. If you can do that, then at least 51% of the risk will be removed from your business. That may be the single best piece of advice I can give!

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