Business Plan, Ideas, Opportunities, Development, Planning

Jen Kessler is the CEO and cofounder of Bizzy, a state-of-the-art marketing platform for eEommerce businesses. Jen studied business at Stanford and math at University of Pennsylvania. She's worked at the forefront of bringing inventive predictive modeling to portfolio management across multiple industries, and is excited to be bringing that innovation to the marketing industry. Here's her business advice for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start a business: "Stay balanced. As an entrepreneur, you need to be constantly processing new information, adjusting your plan, and making decisions." "Stay balanced. Get sleep, exercise and have a life outside of just work." @jenkessler1 "If you are exhausted and 100% monopolized by work, you won't have the perspective and insight that you need to guide your venture in the right direction. Sleeping, exercising, and having a life outside of work is critical for your endurance as a human informa...

Sol is an entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience, 6 companies and 8 figures generated from his businesses, including Examine.com, the original authority featuring independent analysis on supplements and nutrition. He now writes about entrepreneurship on SJO.com. Here's Sol's best business advice for first-time entrepreneurs: "I have to go with: inaction. New entrepreneurs tend to overthink things that don't really matter (logo, copy, etc.), but instead of validating their idea, they get lost in the weeds." "Don't overthink the things that don't matter. Validate your idea and build from there." @sol_orwell "The advice is simple - just do it. Do a minimum version, talk to some friends, and see if they would be interested in it. If so, make a quick version, and go from there."

Vasil is a super connector for entrepreneurs. He's the CEO of Startup Socials, a global community of entrepreneurs that connects and empowers professionals working in the startup ecosystem. He's also the founder of Growth Marketing Conference, Silicon Valley's largest digital and growth marketing event. Here's his best business advice for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start a business: "We have an exciting tradition at Startup Socials. Every Friday we meet with entrepreneurs one-on-one and help them solve startup related challenges." "Become your company's best salesperson and marketer before hiring." @VasilAzarov "One of the most costly and painful mistakes that I see over and over again is hiring in marketing and sales too early. Things tend to go VERY wrong when a founder brings on board a senior sales or marketing person who is lacking entrepreneurial spirit and/or experience working in startups. Instead of hiring fu...

Cody is the founder of MarketDoc where he helps marketers, business owners, solopreneurs and bloggers get more customers from smarter content marketing. He's also a co-host of the Content Promotion Summit. Here's his business advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: "Many first-time entrepreneurs don't follow the Customer Development Model (the Steve Blank school of thought). They won't presell their product. They avoid surveying their market, meeting or calling people from their target audience before they pony up substantial money and time building a product." "In other words, too often first-timers build a product behind closed doors and don't get the feedback necessary to ensure they get buy in for their idea. As a result, they don't reach product-market fit and end up building a product that fails or succeeds by mere chance, not by calculated steps." "Don't build your product behind closed doors. Get feedback and validat...

Lauren is a full-stack marketer who's been featured on Business Insider, Entrepreneur, The Muse and more. You can find her on Twitter, Medium, or you can subscribe to her email newsletter. Here's her business advice for millennials who want to start a business for the first time: "The biggest mistake new entrepreneurs make is banking on an idea that isn't valuable to anyone with actual, real-world problems." "You read about this new social media tool or this new game or social app. And it's like: What happened to solving REAL, big, hairy problems as opposed to helping privileged kids send pictures that explode in a day (sorry, Snapchat - first example I thought of)?" "Spend time with people who are different than you, it'll open your mind." @laurenholliday_ "My advice is to spend time with people who are different than you. This will open up your mind to different people and different problems, allowing you to ...

Jason helps entrepreneurs connect with influencers and experts to rapidly grow their business together at TheStoryTellerMarketer. He also co-hosts the Content Promotion Summit and teaches other entrepreneurs how to get more out of the content they create every day. Here's what Jason has to share with aspiring entrepreneurs who need some business advice before they start a business: "The most painful mistake I see first-time entrepreneurs make is that they don't count the cost or figure out how they'll actually make money ahead of time. Since entrepreneurs don't create a business as a 'charitable deed to mankind,' they need to think about where their revenue and profit will be once the business scales." "If you want to succeed in business, count your costs and project revenue ahead of time." @jdquey "For example, when I launched the Content Promotion Summit with my partner Cody Lister, we started off by focusing on three th...

Bobby is the CEO of Loka, a mobile app development company located in Silicon Valley. He previously started and sold two other companies in the technology space. He knows a thing or two about what it takes to build and sell a profitable business, and here's his best business advice to aspiring entrepreneurs: "The biggest mistake first-time entrepreneurs make is being deathly afraid that someone will steal their secret idea. Spoiler alert: Ideas are worthless." "Spoiler alert for first-time entrepreneurs: Ideas are worthless." @wiredbobby "It's the execution beyond the idea that really brings home the gold. So focus on getting out there and meeting as many folks as possible to join your team, give you feedback and point you in the right direction. Any successful entrepreneurial journey is the sum total of a rather large (and under-appreciated) team that came together in a magical way. Get cracking on building yours."

Caroline is a writer and entrepreneur helping millennials uncover their professional purpose with stories, statistics and heart. You can find her at carolinebeaton.com, on Forbes and right here on my blog where she shares her incredible story of going from secretary to self-employed. Now, here's her best business advice for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start a business the right way: "The most painful mistake I see entrepreneurs make is launching before learning. For example, you may decide you want to launch a marketing consulting company, so you hastily make a website, content and reach out to people, but you haven’t yet figured out who your target clientele is. What people actually need help with or what you're specifically good at. So no one bites." "Or you could launch a new app, but you don’t know what sells well in the app store or how to promote it. So even though you have a great product, no one sees it. Or you decide to write a book but ...

Tim is the head of marketing at Ahrefs and he runs a cozy little personal blog called BloggerJet. Here's Tim's best business advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: "The most painful mistake that first-time entrepreneurs make is they rely on their business idea too much." "They're convinced that success in business is pre-determined by the awesomeness of their business idea alone. And they couldn't be more wrong. Execution is equally (if not more) important than the actual idea. Ideation is the easy and fun part and execution is the hard and tedious one." "Success in business is NOT pre-determined by the awesomeness of your idea." @timsoulo "That's why people would rather put faith in their ideas than invest countless hours of work towards making it happen. Like the character of Mark Zuckerberg famously said in "The Social Network" movie: "If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you'd have inve...

Navid is the world’s leading expert on producing profitable virtual summits. His media coverage includes Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Huffington Post, Business Insider and much more. His mission is to show entrepreneurs what's really working to build a profitable online business. Find out more about his courses, summits, and expertise on his website. For now, here's his business advice for first-time entrepreneurs who want to start a business: "There's one incredibly painful mistake that I see new entrepreneurs make. It’s painful because it keeps them from success. They feel like they're working hard, but not making any progress. The mistake? Trying to do too many things at once." "Focus on just one project & strategy at a time, you're more likely to succeed." @navidmoazzez “Focus, by definition, means narrowing your field of vision and attention. It means choosing which opportunities, projects, and even customers you’re NOT goi...

Also known as Logo Geek, Ian designs logos and brand identities for startups and SMEs. He also has over 80,000 Twitter followers and runs a popular social media group where he creates valuable resources for designers. Here's his best business advice specifically for freelancers, and for more check out his episode on my podcast about how to become a freelance designer: "As a designer, I frequently hear horror stories from new freelancers who’ve had a client that vanishes without making a single payment. Designers who have worked for hours, sometimes weeks, yet received nothing in return. It’s upsetting for them, painful to watch, but easily avoidable." "If your freelance client won't agree to a 50% deposit, they're not worth working with." @Logo_Geek "To prevent disasters like this, I recommend taking a 50% upfront payment before you even start, then taking the final 50% before any final files are provided. Any client not willing to ...

Founder of Millo.co, the premier destination for expert advice from the world's top freelancers & founders. Here's Preston's biggest piece of business advice for new entrepreneurs and for more, listen to his episode on my podcast about how to get blog sponsorships: "First-time entrepreneurs almost always focus too much on non-differentiating work. Work that doesn’t make a difference in their business. Work that definitely doesn’t increase revenue." "Without a focus on doing work that makes a difference, your business is just a hobby." @milloteam "A few simple examples: Redesigning your logo or website a dozen times, setting up every social media account possible, trying to stay on top of said social media. And the list goes on. Instead, focus on revenue. Do the tasks that will increase revenue and reduce costs. Without a focus on that, your business is just a hobby." To add to what Preston had to say, I'd double down an...

Steve is a serial entrepreneur and currently co-owner of BuzzSumo and Anders Pink. From his experience starting and growing four different businesses over the years, here's Steve's business advice for new entrepreneurs who want to start a business without falling flat: "Avoid being a single founder." "Creating a company is hard work, most startups fail. The one characteristic you need above all others is resilience. You need to be relentless and work harder than the competition, and even then you will have tough times. It is for this reason I have always started companies with more than one founder. It means there is someone to share the load, to reflect and to support each other." "Want to be successful in business? Avoid being a single founder." @steverayson "It's not impossible to be a single founder but in my experience it is easier to be resilient and successful as a team." You can read more from Steve about ...

Tony is the founder and CEO of Coach.me, an app that helps you put your goals into action by actively tracking your performance in diet, fitness, productivity and life. Here's his best business advice for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start a business: "I’ve been trying to start companies for years and I still make this mistake. Planning too far ahead. Many new entrepreneurs are stuck on this idea of what the company could be five years from now. They’re trying to make the five year version of the company happen tomorrow." "Focus on the next step and don't try to make your 5yr vision happen tomorrow." @tonystubblebine "What they need to realize is that if you have no customers, the next milestone is one customer. A very powerful tactic to overcome this is to help young entrepreneurs focus on building on momentum. That means focusing on the next step and trusting that those first few steps will build to the speed and impact you want...

Nathan is host of the fastest growing business podcast The Top Entrepreneurs, and CEO of Send Later, a company he recently acquired after failing to acquire Success Magazine for $5m. He founded the social giveaway SaaS startup, Heyo and is an experienced online educator at CreativeLive where he teaches Facebook Marketing for Small Business Owners. Here's his business advice for first-time entrepreneurs who want to start a business of their own: "The most painful mistake I see first-time entrepreneurs make is that they try and invent something totally new because their ego tells them they have to." "Don't invent something new. Copy what works and make tweaks to push over the top." @nathanlatka "It's much smarter to copy a competitor you like, then tweak one or two things that you think will put you over the top."

Laurence is the creator of Learn to Code With Me, where she empowers people to learn digital skills so they can get ahead in their careers and lives. Her writing has been featured on Forbes, Mashable, and more. Here's her business advice to first-time entrepreneurs who want to start a business of their own: "The biggest mistake new entrepreneurs make is not putting themselves out there. If you want to succeed as an entrepreneur, you need to show others what you're doing." "Put yourself out there and show others what you're working on." @learncodewithme "Instead of praying an audience (or customers) will find you, get in front of people in your space. Start a blog, podcast or create video content. Take advantage of social media. Attend in-person events. One way to make "putting yourself out there" easier is by making an effort to help others. (Sounds counterintuitive, I know!) On the individual level, maybe it's by maki...

Ankur is the Founder and CEO at Teachable, the premier online course building platform that allows online educators to build beautiful course websites, self-host content, control the branding, student data, and pricing all from one place. Here's his business advice for new entrepreneurs who want to start a business: "The most painful mistake I see people making repeatedly, particularly with their first project is striving for perfection over getting it done." "Weeks turn into months, months into years. As a result, whatever they are trying to launch isn't out there gaining traction in the marketplace because of the fear of being perfect." "Go out and break shit, it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission." @ankurnagpal @Teachable "My advice is to go out and break shit. It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission when you start a business. The only way your project, your business idea or whatever is in...

Founder of GrowHack, an email subscription of 17,000 founders and practitioners focused on repeatable monthly growth. Here's the business advice Conrad has to impart with entrepreneurs who want to start a business today: "At this point, I've worked closely with dozens of new technology products. Across the board, the most painful mistake I see first-time entrepreneurs make is placing too much focus on building product versus learning from users. There usually isn't much risk in building software, but there's a lot of risk in bringing a new product to market." "Take time to learn how your users actually behave with your product." @conradwa "A few ways to solve this include: constantly talking to users, building an audience while or before you build and taking time to learn how users actually behave with your product. Not easy, but if you can really understand which type of user you want to optimize toward, you'll increase your...

Michelle is an entrepreneur and blogger that runs the personal finance and lifestyle blog, Making Sense of Cents. Since 2011, she’s been using her background in finance to write great content and grow her blog business to over $70,000 in revenue per month. Here's her business advice for new entrepreneurs who want to start a business and become gainfully self-employed: "The most painful mistake I see first-time (or inexperienced) entrepreneurs make is that they see others in their industry or niche as competition. This can significantly hold you back, as you may never learn industry secrets and tips, make genuine friends, and more." "Don't view others in your niche as competition. Network and build relationships." @senseofcents "Instead, I think you should see others in your industry or niche as colleagues and friends. You should network with others, attend conferences, reach out to people, and more."

Author of Unmistakable: Why Only is Better Than Best and host of the acclaimed podcast, The Unmistakable Creative, Srini has interviewed over 600 entrepreneurs, creatives and thought leaders from all walks of life. From Tim Ferriss to Seth Godin, Kevin Kelly, Ryan Holiday and more, Srini has learned from the best, what it takes to become successful in business. Here's his business advice for aspiring entrepreneur who want to start a business of their own: "Probably the most costly mistake many entrepreneurs make is in choosing the people that they work with or hire. It’s a mistake I’ve made. And it’s a mistake I’ve seen over and over again." "Work with people on projects before handing over equity or large sums of money." @UnmistakableCEO "The way we’ve gotten around that is to always work with somebody on a project before we start handing over significant equity stakes or large sums of money. If the trial project goes well, then talk about...

Larry is the founder of both Mobile Monkey, a next-generation chat bot for marketers, and Wordsream, a leading provider of AdWords, Facebook and keyword tools used by over a million marketers worldwide. Larry is also a top columnist at Inc magazine, a Techstars mentor and keynote speaker for events around the world. Here's his best business advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: "The biggest mistake I see entrepreneurs make is over-estimating the novelty of their big idea." "Don't over-estimate the novelty of your big idea. Wait for a truly great one." @larrykim "Most often when I get pitched ideas from first-time entrepreneurs, I ask how is this different from [x]? Seriously, because it takes so much time and effort to go all-in on a business idea, you might as well wait for a truly great one."

Jeff is a ghostwriter, speaker, LinkedIn Influencer and contributing editor to Inc. He worked his way up to managing a 250-employee book plant and has become a sought-after ghostwriter for the world's top business leaders. He's written more than 50 books, including six Amazon Business and Investing No. 1's. He's collected four years of business advice in his most recent book, TransForm: Dramatically Improve Your Career, Business, Relationships, and Life ... One Simple Step at a Time. Here's his best piece of business advice to aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start a business of their own: "Never forget that your business needs to take in more money than it spends. I know that sounds too simple, but so many people lose sight of that. That’s also why so many first-time entrepreneurs over-invest (or spend so much of their time looking for investors) early on." "Create solutions that cost little to no money & always spend less than you ma...

Ilise teaches creative professionals how to get better clients with bigger budgets. She mentors, coaches, and sells marketing tools for entrepreneurs on her site, the Marketing Mentor. Here's how she advises first-time entrepreneurs when it comes to setting expectations around what it takes to start a business: "Most people start out with completely unrealistic expectations of what level of effort is required and how long it takes to get a business off the ground. They are easily discouraged and give up way too soon. I blame it on wishful thinking." "There's no guarantee in business. Approach it with humility, grit and determination." @ilisebenun "The reality is that there is no way to know how long it will take or whether it will work at all. So my advice is to approach it with humility, grit and a willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed, even if that means you have to work really hard for a long time."

Sujan is a growth marketer and co-founder of the content marketing agency, Web Profits. He also runs MailShake, Narrow.io and jumps out of airplanes in his free time—but seriously, Sujan has some impressive marketing skills and he (unknowingly) taught me much of what I've learned about how to drive traffic to my website. Here's his best business advice for first-time entrepreneurs who want to start a business today: "The most painful mistake I see inexperienced entrepreneurs make is copying or doing the same things that successful entrepreneurs have done, expecting similar results. What first-time entrepreneurs don't realize is that the world is not a vacuum and there's more going on behind the scenes than it appears. There's much more effort that has gone into creating the success they see on the surface, and there's no guarantee that a particular tactic or strategy will be successful for everyone." "Don't get caught up in the glamo...

As the founder of WPBeginner, Optinmonster and several more successful online businesses, Syed has learned a thing or two about starting a business in his 25 years as an entrepreneur. When asked to share his best business advice for young entrepreneurs, here's what he has to say: "Perfect is a curse. Innovation is messy. Test, learn, and improve." "Perfect is a curse. Innovation is messy. Test, learn, and improve." @syedbalkhi "Often new entrepreneurs wait too long to put their product out in the market. With limited resources at hand, its crucial that you get an MVP out ASAP and start getting traction. Take the user's feedback to iterate and improve your products." "Not launching fast enough is a mistake you simply can't afford to make. If you want to get an edge over others, launch now!"

Jon is the New York Times best-selling author of five books, including Do Over. He’s helped some of the biggest brands in the world tell their story, including The Home Depot, Bose and Staples. Now, he speaks to hundreds of thousands of people annually and reaches over 4 million readers on his blogs. Here's his business advice for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start a business: "What I've learned, and what you're going to learn too, is that being an entrepreneur takes hustle. And here's the problem: Sometimes we think hustle is about becoming a workaholic or adding a lot of stuff to our lives." "Hustle the right way. It's not about doing more, it's about doing what you need to do." @jonacuff  CLICK TO TWEET “Hustle is an act of focus, not frenzy. Hustle is about subtraction and addition. It’s not about doing more, it’s about focusing on the things that you need to do, in order to move your business forward. Hustle the rig...

Lewis is the New York Times best-selling author of The School of Greatness, and host of the top-ranked podcast bearing the same name. He’s a writer, speaker, and online educator that teaches entrepreneurs how to start profitable online businesses—and he shares his story in this episode of my podcast, right here. Here's his single best piece of business advice for aspiring young entrepreneurs: "Perfectionism cripples a lot of entrepreneurs. They won't launch their site or put their product up for sale until they think it's perfect, which is a big waste of time. It's never going to be perfect." "Don't let perfectionism cripple you. Launch as soon as possible and adapt." @lewishowes CLICK TO TWEET "Pitch your product or service as soon as you have the bare bones of it put together. This will give you valuable feedback about whether your market really wants it. You can polish it later."

A Huffington Post columnist, Vanessa's groundbreaking work at Science of People has been featured on NPR, the Wall Street Journal, the Today Show and USA Today. Here's what she believes is the biggest mistake entrepreneurs make when they start a business for the first time: "There is no path! I think the biggest mistake first-time entrepreneurs make is they desperately want a structured business plan and direct path." "Don't plan everything! Listen to your customers and make changes as needed." @vvanedwards CLICK TO TWEET "One of the most important things about starting a business is being flexible. Listening to customers, watching data and making iterations and changes as needed. Sometimes having a path or a rigid business plan can limit you. Think of your business like a meadow not a path, just play!"

Steli is the CEO of Close.io, a high-powered inside sales communication platform (and my pick as the best CRM for small business) that's powered by his years of experience driving millions of dollars in sales for hundreds of venture backed Silicon Valley startups. Here's what Steli has to share as far as business advice for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start a business today: "One of the most painful and common mistakes I see first-time entrepreneurs make is that they fall in love with their own business idea." "They'll spend months building what they believe to be the next innovative, disruptive, game-changing startup. Then they launch... and nobody buys, nobody cares, nothing happens." "Don't fall in love with your idea, fall in love with the problem you're solving." @steli CLICK TO TWEET "Don't fall in love with your business idea. Instead, fall in love with the problem you're trying to solve ...

Noah's the Chief Sumo at AppSumo, a community for entrepreneurs to discover and utilize the greatest products and online tools for growing a business. He also runs Sumo, a powerful suite of tools for growing web traffic, and was employee #30 at Facebook before getting fired and moving on to be an early director of marketing at Mint. Here's his business advice for entrepreneurs wanting to start a business for the first time: "Don't waste time or spend money on non-core issues when starting a business. In fact, don't spend any money until you make some." "Don't spend any money until you make some." @noahkagan CLICK TO TWEET In an interview on my podcast, The Side Hustle Project, Noah shared with me even more of his business advice and thoughts about how aspiring entrepreneurs should go about starting their projects—including how he earned $1,000 in 24hrs on a brand new idea... selling beef jerky. Give that interview a listen ri...

After becoming one of the world’s most well-known photographers at a relatively young age, Chase went on to co-found, CreativeLive, the world’s largest live streaming education company. Here's his business advice for new entrepreneurs who want to start a business of their own: “Scratch your own itch. Go after solving a problem that you have. Something that’s near and dear to you, not some random market opportunity." "Scratch your own itch and solve something that's near & dear to you." @chasejarvis CLICK TO TWEET "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.”

Author, speaker, and the founder of Quiet Power Strategy®. Tara works with business owners to help them transition into more profitable business models, more compelling messaging, and more influence. She's featured in Fast Company, Forbes, Inc, and DailyWorth for the work she's done on TaraGentile.com. Here's Tara's take on the biggest mistake new entrepreneurs make when they want to start a business: "They wait to get started. They wait until they have more information, more experience, more, more money, and a more perfect version of whatever they have created." "The best way to learn is by doing. Stop waiting and bring your ideas to life today." @taragentile CLICK TO TWEET "All that waiting means they're not really learning. When you're an entrepreneur, the best way to learn is to do something, to put your idea into someone's hands, or to talk to the people you want to serve. Stop waiting and do... something....

Nir is the author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and blogs about the psychology of products at NirAndFar.com. Here's his two cents and success tips for first-time entrepreneurs who want to start a business: "The easiest way to tell if someone is a first-time entrepreneur is when they're secretive about their ideas. I don't reply to people who ask me to sign an NDA. Real entrepreneurs know good ideas are cheap and that success comes from hard work, not a stroke of genius." "Good ideas are cheap. Success comes from hard work, not a stroke of genius." @nireyal CLICK TO TWEET "The other big mistake I see entrepreneurs make is building a product for a customer they don't know well. That's why I always advise entrepreneurs to build a product for themselves--at least that way you ensure you've built something for a user you know intimately. All of the great tech companies of the past decade--Facebook, Twitter, ...

Derek has been a musician, producer, circus performer, entrepreneur, TED speaker, and book publisher. He started CDBaby and HostBaby, which got way too big, so he gave them away. Now he's a writer, programmer and student. Here's his best business advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: "Start now, you don't need funding. Watch out for when you want to do something big, but say you can't until you raise money to fund the idea. It usually means you're more in love with the idea of being big than with actually doing something useful." "Start now. For an idea to be big, it has to be useful-being useful doesn't need funding." @sivers CLICK TO TWEE T "For an idea to get big, it has to be something useful--and being useful doesn't need funding. If you want to be useful, you can always start right now with just 1% of what you have in your grand vision. It'll be a humble prototype of your grand vision, but you'll be in th...

Guy is Chief Evangelist of Canva, the author of thirteen books including the acclaimed Art of the Start, which has been hailed as a weapon of mass creation by entrepreneurs around the world. He's also the former chief evangelist of Apple. Here's his business advice to aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start a business of their own: “My best business tip is to focus on the prototype. Don't focus on your pitch deck, business plan or financial projections." "Focus on the prototype." @guykawasaki CLICK TO TWEET "If you get a prototype out and you get enough people using it, you never have to write a business plan, do a forecast or do anything like that. A prototype is where you separate the BS from the reality.”