20 Lessons I’ve Learned in Business

I never trained nor studied in business - getting involved in SEO and then running a SEO company was all pretty much an accidental process, and an interesting learning curve to boot.

However, I have learned a number of principles of business which I think have kept me in good stead.

I’ve already posted them in the Platinax Business Forums: Biggest lessons you’ve learned in business

but I’ll re-post them here:

1. Never allow yourself to feel intimidated by lawyers, but ensure you take good legal advise to ensure you know your legal rights and limits

2. Never sell a service to a customer - sell the benefits and cost effectiveness instead

3. Try and plan for long term goals - and make sure you meet at least some of them

4. If you ever plan for anything, make sure that it’s not only flexible enough to cope with new eventualities, but also ensure there’s enough redundancy for it

5. Learn to gauge risk from experience - make decisions based on small risks, make decisions based on big risks - but never risk more than you can afford

6. Always invest in your company for the long term

7. Never let work sink your personal life - always allow for personal time. Additionally, know that there always has to be a clocking off time, and that some things really can be left until tomorrow

8. Be honest but direct - never bullshit, but don’t waffle irrelevantly even if well intentioned

9. Avoid getting too technical with clients - just tell them what they’re getting and at what cost, and you deal with the rest

10. Never try and get one up on a client. Be faithful.

11. Never take anything away unless you can offer something of value to compensate

12. Be organised as much as possible

13. Spend some of your business time on projects with low income value but strong on passion value, to keep your enthusiasm up

14. Find people you feel you could rely on, then rely on them for delegated tasks

15. Never buy B2B services on price alone - buy on quality and value. If you spend peanuts, you get monkeys.

16. Know your industry and the people in it - then you can spot those who walk the walk, as opposed to those who just talk

17. Be gracious and polite as much as you can. Try and reply with humour instead of anger. If you can’t, walk away.

18. Listen to your intuition. Always act on your gut feeling where possible, but avoid rushing in too quickly. Good gut feelings remain persistent until you either act on it, or they prove themselves right to your detriment,

19. Listen more than you talk. If you talk, say something useful. Remember that even those with less experience than you can teach you something valuable

20 Always be open to new ideas, and new directions, but remain focused on how and why you follow them up