Advice to Myself When I was a Younger Businessman

I shared a LinkedIn Post last week advising young producers to not pick up other people’s grenades.  It’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way over time.  One of my favorite parts about a LinkedIn post that resonates with people is that it brings out other stories.  People started sharing stories about nightmare clients.

After reading other people’s posts, I wanted to go deeper.  I know this post isn’t a unique idea.  It’s like the song:

“I wish that I knew what I know now… when I was younger.”

But I also know there are people that are taking the same journey as me, they’re just 10 years behind.  The only way they’ll know I what I know now is if I share it.

Here are the things I’ve learned the hard way.

Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash

1. Focus on Products and Services with Large Barriers to Entry

If it’s hard for you to learn, then it will be hard for someone else to learn as well.  I’ve come to be grateful for that difficulty.  That becomes your personal moat.

Vince Lombardi says every man worth his salt comes to appreciate the grind.  I’ve found the opposite to be true as well.  Most people give up when it’s hard.

It’s not fancy, but the willingness to persevere is a moat between successful people and unsuccessful people. 

Simply by appreciating the grind, you’ll separate yourself from the competition.

2. Serve Your Tribe

Everything is easier when you serve people that you intuitively understand and people that intuitively understand you. 

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a ton of work that goes into making people feel like you understand them.  I read trade journals.  I spend a lot of time listening.  I read books about, management, psychology, and accounting.  I read the Wall Street Journal public company 10-K’s.

But everything is easier when I see the world the same way as the person on the other side of the table. 

I’ve shaped myself to think like a growth-oriented entrepreneur.  When I sit across the table from someone that meets that mental profile, the sales process is easy.

Your tribe can mean industry, background, or mindset.  Find your tribe and serve them.

3. Specialize and Go Deep

When I was younger, I thought I would know everything about everything.  Honestly, I thought I already did.

I’ve gotten a little older.  I’ve got enough experience at this point to know that idea is crazy (and that I was a little arrogant).

It helpful to know a little bit about a lot of things.  Charlie Munger encourages cross-disciplinary learning because it helps develop various mental frameworks for solving problems.  He’s a smarter man than me.  I try listen to him.

But the thing that helps me create separation from my competition is knowing a lot about one specific topic.  Dig 1,000 miles deep when other people are only digging 50 feet underground.

In point number one I emphasized that products with large barriers to entry create competitive moats.  The willingness to go deeper on a topic than anyone else is a competitive moat as well.

4. Bad businesspeople are Bad Clients

I remember sitting in a CIC class for Agency Management.  The instructor told the room to not call customers who don’t pay on time.  I was sitting next to an agency principle.  He turned and looked at me.

“If my CSR didn’t call I’d fire them!” 

I’m harsher than the instructor.  That agency principle had their head in the sand.

Bad businessowners hire bad employees.  They have bad training practices.  They have bad quality assurance.  They have more claims.

And they don’t pay on time.

I only get small windows into the life of my clients.  The way they handle their accounting and their renewal process is an indication into the way they handle their entire business.

My best clients pay on time.  Every time.  None of them have billing problems. 

My bad clients have more excuses than I can count. 

You can’t fix bad business owners.  You can only choose whether or not to work with them.

5. Be Ruthless with Your Time

I know it’s harsh.   It’s hard to tell people no.  There’s an art to doing it tactfully.  But here’s the truth.

My best clients are 100 times more profitable than my average clients, and they take less time to manage.

My best employees are 100 times more productive than average employees, and they take less time to manage.

I’m not advocating for firing all your clients and all your employees and starting over.  I’m a firm believer that I need to invest in my people and my clients.  I can’t expect other people to bring value to me unless I bring value to them.

But with some people, it’s like pouring water into a cup with no bottom. 

The time that you can save from less profitable ventures can be reinvested into more profitable ventures.  And the returns aren’t linear.

The returns from those time reinvestments are exponential. 

6. Expect Losses and Adapt

You’re going to lose sometimes.  Even when you’ve done everything right.

The Seven-year itch is real.  Sometimes people want to leave just because they think it’s time for a change.

Other people will screw up your deals.  Underwriters will miss deadlines.  Companies will renege on their deals.  Your customer service representatives will makes mistakes.

In all of these situations, you’ll be the one to take the hit.  Bake it into your expectations for the year.  Don’t be surprised when it happens.  Move on quickly.

7. You Can’t Tell Anyone Anything

Failure is an orphan and success has many fathers.

Or stated another way, if you want people to agree with you, you have to get really good at making them think it was their idea.

The best method I’ve discovered is asking questions.  Flip every statement into a question.

Instead of “I think the next step is a proposal,” try “What do you think is the next step in this situation?”

Instead of “I need to talk to the decision maker, try “How do you think your organization would go about buying this kind of product?”

8. If You Want Referrals, First Seek to Give Referrals

Give first.  Always give first. 

Give quality information to your clients. 

Give referrals to your centers of influence.

Always give first.  Never expect reciprocation.  But don’t worry, what you put out in the world will come back to you.

Conclusion:

Like I said, I’m not a guru.  If there’s a good idea in this post, I probably stole it from someone else.  But if it helped you find a shortcut in your journey, it’s worth it to me.

Give first.