Oliver Emberton is a programmer and the founder of the well-known Silktide. One of the great things he does on a weekly basis is writing on his own experience of successful business. His blog “oliveremberton.com” is home for a good number of essays that he wrote himself. You will find them motivational, and they will inspire you to work harder and smarter if you put them into action. Actually, I would recommed his blog for people asking about the way to successful business. It would be better to read these essays than skimming your Facebook timeline.
In a number of his essays he enumerated a number of methods that will help anyone to start a business, the following are the best of them:
10 Conforming kills
Following others is the deadly sin that will bring your business to its end. As a person in your newly-started business, don’t follow the surrounding people or your customers’ desires just blindly. Maybe you have started your own business because you would like to be independent, do not screw it up by conforming! And how to do it? Learn to say no.
9 Hiring is a skill
Through experience, you will learn the techniques of hiring skilled employees. It is as important for your career as caring for profits. I say this because hiring someone then deciding to fire him, when they prove to be incompetent, is such an exhausting process that will waste you a lot of valuable time. You have thus to choose the right people from the beginning to pypass this trap. It is not an easy task, but you will learn it with time.
8 Advertising will not push you forward
If you think that you will get your products known and gain more profits through seeking help from an advertising company, you are mistaken. Look to the kind of work you do everyday and if it includes advertising, this is a sign that you are on the wrong way. As a start-up, you should focus on your product or service. A good idea spreads itself.
7 Focus
Do not ever imagine that you are the multitasker genius who can handle a dozen tasks at a very limited time, even if you are. Choose one business idea at a time, one project to work on, otherwise, you are doing yourself a disservice.
6 Choose the thing you are good at, or be good at
You need to be good at the thing you will start your company in. If you are not good enough and love it, work hard first till you learn it.
5 Change your Path
If you started on an idea and realized that it needs modification, do not flinge. Fix it! Do not drown this voice inside. You have started on a road without knowing what lies ahead, and now you are acquiring the experience of doing it right, so simply follow it.
4 Say no, a lot
In order to make an achievement and get something done, you need to reject a plethora of other things. These things might be tempting, still they are distractions!
3 Honesty
Getting a superficial knowledge about your business is the deadly sin you will make. Do not delude yourself or make anyone delude you. With your team, this may happen so often. Do your best to be extremely honest with yourself despite of whatever your colleagues say. Check the rules you are following every now and then, doubt them and doubt your system.
2 Follow your Passion
This is the one piece of advice that you will repent not heeding later in your life. There is nothing more sucking than a life with no passion to steer. You should do whatever you are doing because you love it, you shiver when you hear the name of it, you feel jealous when someone else does a good job in it.
1 Do not Listen to People
Whenever I have an urge to do something, I would find people opposing it. In most cases, my vision turns out to be right and their rejection was just noise. This is not because I am a pure genius. You and me, every single person on earth has their own message to spread to the world, their own niche. We have to discover it. How? By following the voice within our head, the passion in our heart and the intuition in our gut.
Check rule #1 again and echo it bluntly. DO NOT conform because every single person has to carve his own niche.
