When it comes to business lessons and advice, you can find tons of wisdom out there from well-known business moguls, fortune 500 companies, and successful entrepreneurs from many different industries.
Let’s be honest. Most are pretty obvious! For example, focus on revenue-generating activities, build a great team, know your audience, master your mindset, value your time, and so on.
However, there are a few business lessons that I’ve learned along the way that I don’t see many people talking about.
Here are five unconventional business lessons every entrepreneur must learn:
LESSON 1: Take care of yourself, first.
When you’re running a business, it’s too easy to prioritize all things business and neglect your health. A couple of years back I couldn’t figure out why I was feeling mentally foggy, abnormally tired, and lackluster so I reluctantly made a doctor’s appointment.
To my surprise, I let an ear infection (in both ears!) go undetected for months. Not only did my general health suffer, but looking back, my productivity suffered too (lesson learned!). So when I felt a lump in my chest in June 2019, I wasted NO time and scheduled an appointment the very next day.
You might see the time spent in a doctor’s office as the precious time you could be working, but as an entrepreneur, the last thing you want is to get sick, have deteriorating health, and eventually lose your momentum.
Your health might not always seem urgent, but it’s always important. If you make it a practice to prioritize your health, you’ll prevent it from becoming something that then becomes urgent, further throwing you off your game.
LESSON 2: Vision creates clarity.
There are so many decisions that need to be made in business on TOP of life decisions. It can all get overwhelming at times. But wanna know what keeps me from going insane?
I maintain a crystal clear vision for my business and life.
There was a time when I lacked clarity in just about every area of my business. I didn’t quite know what direction I wanted to go in, what type of product I wanted to create, or even who I wanted to serve.
If you’re indecisive and find it difficult to make quick business decisions, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. You need to have your end goal in mind. What impact are you trying to make in your business? How do you want to live?
Once you’re clear on what you want in business and life, let that vision guide your decision-making. When you have a clear vision acting as your guide, how could you possibly make the “wrong” decision? It’s the best thing you can do to make sure you’re living in alignment with how you want to work and live.
LESSON 3: Perfection is the enemy of progress.
As an ambitious entrepreneur with extremely high standards (too high at times!), this is the most difficult lesson to learn! And to be honest, I’m still learning to this day. I’ve struggled with this for as far back as I can remember.
Looking back, I’m embarrassed at how long it took me to launch my website, create my signature program, produce Bloom TV, and hire help to grow my business to six-figures.
You have to know when good is good enough. But that doesn’t mean you put out crap—do the best you can with what you have. Done is better than perfect. Someone wise once said something on the lines of, if you look back and you’re not embarrassed at what you created, you waited too long to put it out there. I’ll leave it right here!
LESSON 4: Creativity is crucial.
When I first started my business I had so much inspiration, genuine optimism, and creativity flowing that it was unbelievable! Fast forward three years in, I found myself distracted. Mainly by other people’s business blueprints and cookie-cutter strategies for how to create a booming online business.
I was creatively starved thinking that I had to follow someone else’s “6 Step to 6-Figure Formula” to be successful. Not only did I fall out of love with my business, but I lost my lust for life.
Your creativity is the lifeline of your business. Lose your creativity and you’ve lost your edge to grow personally and innovate your industry.
In business, you must use your creativity to position yourself as the expert you are, market to your audience effectively, create amazing products, and build a brand that stands out. When you stop looking at what everyone else is doing and tap into your creativity, you start playing a different game!
LESSON 5: Network with people outside of your industry.
I’m sure you hear a lot of people talking about the value of networking. I mean at this point, it’s starting to look like that played out meme from last year that everyone has seen a 1,000 times! We all get it, networking is important. If you find yourself running up against the same problems in your business, it may be time to look outside your industry for new insights.
A few years back, I found myself stuck in a vicious cycle. I was struggling to get clients, and when I looked around at the people in my industry, they were also having the same problems!
To make things worse, we were all in the same Facebook communities, attending the same events, and learning from the same marketing “gurus” who were also having the same problems. And we all wondered why we were stuck in the feast or famine cycle?!
It wasn’t until I started networking with people outside my industry did I start to see the trees from the forest. Some of my brightest ideas have come from learning from people who were building businesses in completely different industries!
Networking with people outside your industry brings an elevated level of diversity, insights, and invaluable wisdom. When you’re looking for new ways to grow your business, and innovate, step outside of your industry bubble for inspiration. Trust me, you’ll thank me later!
Learning these lessons the hard way has cost me so many tears, thousands of dollars, and almost a decade to learn.
Apply any one of these lessons and I promise it’ll save you so much time, money, and heartache. Guaranteed!
I hope you not only enjoyed these but put these insights into action.
Noelle
