3 Lessons I learned starting out as an Entrepreneur

Here are 3 lessons I learned starting out as an entrepreneur. I'm not saying I won't learn anymore, but I think these are important to avoid and definitely slow down a startups progress. Now the answer "it depends" applies to literally everything in our quantum physics world, so feel free to tell me where they don't apply or give me your thoughts on why they do as always discussion is encouraged. I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors, I want you guys to see this before I pass out for bed.

1) Never extend free trials

So this one is simple. As a startup you don't have the costly time to give clients extended trials because the more you extend the trial the lesser it makes your product or service seem worth it. For example, lets say you give 3 months worth of service for free that was supposed to have a 2 week trial. Now imagine how hard it is going for a monthly fee after...The client will almost always try to talk you down (in my B2B experience). This happened on two business models I ran and both resulted in no deals. Plus starting out I don't need hard to get clients, I want my good clients to get to the point where I can have the option to afford picky ones. Some people are never satisfied with anything, so if you ever will extend free trials tread with haste.

2) Best do what you have to do directly

Now this one is more complicated to find. A lot of times in startups if you're not doing your tasks as effectively as possible then you'll shoot yourself in the foot or die the death of 1000 papercuts. Happened to me when we were trying to do SEO on a product that made a $150 monthly profit. With some products selling face to face or cold calling works faster and is easier to get going. Of course in the best scenario you want all business channels producing, but in a startup you need to do what's effective first and disqualify or establish the business asap. Cold calling still hurts me to this day, but I do it because like flossing I know its the most effective way to my goals, maybe one day I'll love it.

3) If your gut says something is slowly going wrong, cut it off fast

Following number 3 is similar to 2, but warrants its own bullet point. Sometimes you'll be in deals or be a part of a team that doesn't feel right. Cut that off now! I had my co-founder go off to another state, tried working remotely failed slowly and miserably, while my gut told me to get out the whole time...as a result I wasted a few months of progress. I've also been in deals with people fishing for information and nothing more...should have listened to my gut and gotten out rather than waste my time. Now I follow deadlines meticulously, if you haven't met a deadline something is terribly wrong.

So there you go, those are the three tips I try to follow and would tell myself when starting out, let me know what you think.

Thanks for the read,

Find me on: https://twitter.com/VladMkrtumyan
Find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vlad.mkrtumyan