What to Avoid When Launching a Startup
When you are launching a business, you will hear countless bits of advice and opinions. Mention that you are building a startup, and everyone (from your roommate’s boyfriend to the person you just met at the coffee shop) has some idea about how you can make millions and get acquired by Facebook.
The success of any new business often hinges on getting the right advice from people who have been there before. However, not all advice is worth listening to. Much is out of date, out of context or just downright wrong. Applying the 90-10 Rule to advice means that 90% of the advice worth following comes from just 10% of the advice-givers.
Over the course of launching several businesses, I have learned a few lessons on how to weed out the noise and focus on the right kinds of advisers and mentors. In particular, you want to avoid these five personality traits when seeking advice for your startup:
1. Advisers who don’t listenHave you ever come across someone who starts spouting advice without taking the time to understand your specific situation? Over the years I have been told my business needs to lower its prices, raise its prices, start offering wills, even get out of the market altogether. The problem is none of these individuals bothered to ask me a single question before launching into their “advice.”
Certain people like to give advice just for the sake of feeling important. In these cases, the conversations are more about them than you and your business. You can avoid these individuals by focusing on advisers who ask thoughtful questions and then listen to your answers. The best listeners usually make the most helpful advisers.
2. Advisers who are always vagueMost likely, you already know the basic steps of how to make your business a success: Attract more customers, lower your costs, find funding or secure a big account. The problem is you don’t always know the best way to make that happen. The best advisers are able to discuss big picture goals, as well as dive into the specific steps to achieve those goals.
3. Advisers who have too narrow a viewPast track record is my top criteria in assessing the soundness of someone’s advice. I have a hard time listening to someone who isn't at the pinnacle of his or her game. However, there is always a risk that an adviser’s past success will color their vision to the point they can’t see beyond their own experiences and previous wins.
With this type of individual, you will soon realize that every conversation always goes back to the past, for example a business they launched 10 years ago. The problem is that times change and different circumstances often demand different actions. Ideally, you’ll want to find advisers and mentors with a breadth of experiences, or at the very least, be able to apply one experience in different ways and contexts.
4. Advisers with hidden agendasIn a perfect world, every person you come across will be genuine and honest and every adviser will have only your best interests at heart. But we all know that’s just not the way it works. Over the course of starting your business, you will run into a few individuals with very different motives behind their advice.
For example, when our non-compete clause ended following the sale of our first company, my husband and I were eager to get back into the online legal filing business. At the time, two former colleagues and law school friends were adamant that this would be a terrible decision … they piled on the reasons why we shouldn’t re-enter the industry, and even encouraged us to purchase a clothing company.
Something told me that their advice was not genuine, and sure enough my intuition was validated when I learned that these two had been planning on getting into the very business they warned us against. Trust your gut when assessing the true motive behind someone’s advice, particularly with unsolicited advice and overly persistent advice-givers.
5. Advisers who agree with everything you saySome of the worst advisers are nice, friendly and always available. Sure, they’ll be easy to reach and you’ll never cry at the end of a lunch meeting with them. But overly nice people can’t give you the tough pushback that forces you to confront your fears, take risks and stop making excuses.
The most effective advisers know when to be supportive and when to critique and challenge. Some of my most monumental conversations have pushed me out of my comfort zone. If you are truly serious about hearing advice on your business, find someone tough, but fair. After all, you won't learn a thing from someone who agrees with you 100% of the time.
Of course, the most important element of getting good advice is to remember that you are the one running the show. Mentors and advisers can share their expertise, but they should never make any decisions for you. Instead, weigh others' experiences within the context of your own core values.
The success of any new business often hinges on getting the right advice from people who have been there before. However, not all advice is worth listening to. Much is out of date, out of context or just downright wrong. Applying the 90-10 Rule to advice means that 90% of the advice worth following comes from just 10% of the advice-givers.
Over the course of launching several businesses, I have learned a few lessons on how to weed out the noise and focus on the right kinds of advisers and mentors. In particular, you want to avoid these five personality traits when seeking advice for your startup:
1. Advisers who don’t listenHave you ever come across someone who starts spouting advice without taking the time to understand your specific situation? Over the years I have been told my business needs to lower its prices, raise its prices, start offering wills, even get out of the market altogether. The problem is none of these individuals bothered to ask me a single question before launching into their “advice.”
Certain people like to give advice just for the sake of feeling important. In these cases, the conversations are more about them than you and your business. You can avoid these individuals by focusing on advisers who ask thoughtful questions and then listen to your answers. The best listeners usually make the most helpful advisers.
2. Advisers who are always vagueMost likely, you already know the basic steps of how to make your business a success: Attract more customers, lower your costs, find funding or secure a big account. The problem is you don’t always know the best way to make that happen. The best advisers are able to discuss big picture goals, as well as dive into the specific steps to achieve those goals.
3. Advisers who have too narrow a viewPast track record is my top criteria in assessing the soundness of someone’s advice. I have a hard time listening to someone who isn't at the pinnacle of his or her game. However, there is always a risk that an adviser’s past success will color their vision to the point they can’t see beyond their own experiences and previous wins.
With this type of individual, you will soon realize that every conversation always goes back to the past, for example a business they launched 10 years ago. The problem is that times change and different circumstances often demand different actions. Ideally, you’ll want to find advisers and mentors with a breadth of experiences, or at the very least, be able to apply one experience in different ways and contexts.
4. Advisers with hidden agendasIn a perfect world, every person you come across will be genuine and honest and every adviser will have only your best interests at heart. But we all know that’s just not the way it works. Over the course of starting your business, you will run into a few individuals with very different motives behind their advice.
For example, when our non-compete clause ended following the sale of our first company, my husband and I were eager to get back into the online legal filing business. At the time, two former colleagues and law school friends were adamant that this would be a terrible decision … they piled on the reasons why we shouldn’t re-enter the industry, and even encouraged us to purchase a clothing company.
Something told me that their advice was not genuine, and sure enough my intuition was validated when I learned that these two had been planning on getting into the very business they warned us against. Trust your gut when assessing the true motive behind someone’s advice, particularly with unsolicited advice and overly persistent advice-givers.
5. Advisers who agree with everything you saySome of the worst advisers are nice, friendly and always available. Sure, they’ll be easy to reach and you’ll never cry at the end of a lunch meeting with them. But overly nice people can’t give you the tough pushback that forces you to confront your fears, take risks and stop making excuses.
The most effective advisers know when to be supportive and when to critique and challenge. Some of my most monumental conversations have pushed me out of my comfort zone. If you are truly serious about hearing advice on your business, find someone tough, but fair. After all, you won't learn a thing from someone who agrees with you 100% of the time.
Of course, the most important element of getting good advice is to remember that you are the one running the show. Mentors and advisers can share their expertise, but they should never make any decisions for you. Instead, weigh others' experiences within the context of your own core values.