Entrepreneurs share the best business advice they’ve ever received

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Here – from entrepreneurs of different nationalities — are bits of business wisdom which they received from others  which they have found very useful.

 

Listen to the other side

 

 “You learn more from listening to the other side than by listening to your own witnesses, this is what a law professor once told me.

 

“So now, when I discuss things with a customer, I see things from his perspective, his needs and wants.  With that attitude, I’ve become less obsessed with my own product and my own ideas.  I’ve  become more attentive  to what my customer is saying.  In doing so, I am  in a sense thinking what my competitor would do in the same situation.”

 

— Edilberto Bravo, Philippines

 

 

 

See the customer’s point of view

 

“Paraphrasing Thomas Edison: Focus on how the end-user customers perceive the impact of your innovation – rather than on how you, the innovators, perceive it.”

 

—Taylor, San Diego, California, USA

 

 

 

Right timing

 

“Startup success is not about the product, or the technology, or even the management.  It is about picking the right market at the right time – and then having the product, technology and management to ride the market wave.  Time is everything in life, and in entrepreneurship.”

 

—Allen, Portland, Oregon, USA

 

 

 

Blue ocean

 

“I read the book ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne which discusses red and blue ocean strategies.  The first is about competing head on with rivals over  shrinking market and profits.  The second is about not battling competition but creating uncontested market space, the ‘blue ocean.’

 

“With my company Confetti, I must have discovered a blue ocean, offering comfortable and affordable shoes.  We used manmade materials from Marikina designed to be worn by Class B people.  We had to teach people from Marikina to treat the materials with respect and make fashionable, classy shoes out of them. So Confetti shoes were trendy but unbelievably affordable.

 

— Victoria Bello Jardiolin, Philippines

 

 

 

 Be patient

 

“Getting your business launched and your first product onto the market will take you twice as long, and cost you twice as much, as you think it will.”

 

—Dave, Toronto, Canada

 

 

 

Perspective

 

“Never confuse activity with progress.”

 

—Ty, Boston, MA, USA

 

 

 

Cash is king

 

“Cash is more important than your mother.”

 

—Grace, Shanghai, China

 



Sources:

Dreamers, Doers, Risktakers – 3 by SERDEF

Business Insider.com