Small Business Tips: 7 Millionaires Share Their Best Advice

Are you a small business owner and need some tips on how to create a more lucrative income for your company? If you are in business, then I’m sure it goes without saying: you want to make more money! After all, isn’t that why you became an entrepreneur in the first place?

There are plenty of wealthy entrepreneurs that have made both a name and a fortune for themselves and who now are more than willing to share their advice with others.

In this post, we will focus on seven millionaire entrepreneurs who have some helpful tips that you may benefit from.

What Every Entrepreneur Must Know and other newspaper headlines

Tip #1: Start with the customer and work backward

Many starting business owners make the mistake of “Field of Dreams” and assume that “if I build it, they will come.” While this may be true for some, it is not the norm. Just because you think a product or service is a great idea, does not mean that your customers will agree with you. It is wise to do some sort of test in your local area first to see the level of enthusiasm you can generate for your idea.

Start with the customer’s needs. Create surveys and put them out on your website or newsletters for customers to fill out so that you can get a glimpse into the types of things they are interested in.

If you focus on the customer that you wish to attract first, or current customers then build what they want, you are going to be in a much better position to sell them more in the future, which is a key element of your success.

Steve Jobs used this approach and often mentioned this technique in open forums to tell people how Apple became so successful.

Andrew Mason is another successful entrepreneur who thinks this way. He created Groupon, a successful portal site that features a wide variety of online coupons that customers have asked for by name.

Tip #2: Manage your inventory

Michael Preysman is a millionaire entrepreneur who sells physical products. He has a company known as Everlane, a famous shoe store that brings in an estimated $30 million per year in sales! Preysman recommends that you keep careful stock of your inventory at all times and to manage it strictly.

This avoids you keeping an overstock of physical merchandise that you are not going to sell, thus creating a deficit for you within your revenue flow. There is no room for wasting inventory on stock that may soon go out of style of have to be discounted drastically. Preysman credits his strict use of inventory control to his high revenue because you can grow more as a company if you don’t have a large amount of unsold inventory.

Overstocking on inventory can literally break a business in one year.

Tip #3: Are you obsessed?

This is a topic I have thought of often myself and millionaire entrepreneur Drew Houston agrees with me. He owns the wildly successful company DropBox which offers a way to store and transfer digital files online. Obsession is the key to success when it comes to business. If you look at all of the successful business people, filmmakers, artists, and engineers, you will see that they are all obsessed. Granted, some have a larger degree of obsession than others and its good to try to lead a balanced life.

But in order to be truly successful, you should think, live, and breathe your business in the back of your mind when you are not keeping it at the forefront. Always be looking for new ways to generate customers, ideas, and products that are going to please your customers and take your business to new levels.

Tip #4: Do it now

When it comes to running a business, there’s no time like the present. If you procrastinate or try to be “perfect” and always dream of what you are going to do tomorrow, you will stay stuck in the past and you will never realize your dream. Entrepreneurs know that they must always be a doer, not just a dreamer. So if you have a great idea, follow the advice of Fred Schebesta, who is most known for his work at Finder.com.au, a comparison shopping website that he co-founded with a friend. He was a millionaire previous to the invention of this site and is known for creating Freestyle Media while still a student in college.

Fred, like many other successful entrepreneurs, believe that procrastination is the obstacle to invention and progress and that you should take action, even if you think the action is not the best thing to do. As long as you are moving forward, you are moving toward something.

Tip $5: Think bigger

One of the mistakes some people make as a beginning small business owner is that they just don’t think big enough. The world is a big place nowadays and you can compete with some of the biggest companies in the world simply by thinking big. Grant Cordone is a big thinker and he was a recognized millionaire by the age of 30. He says the biggest mistake he made early on was not to think big enough.

He stresses that having high financial goals is important to your success and will drive your thinking and your actions forward to meeting your higher goals.

He did also mention that being frugal in your spending will keep more money in your bank account and allow for expansion.

Tip #6: Never give up

Just like Winston Churchill said, successful millionaire entrepreneurs agree. Brenton Hayden started out selling Kellogg’s cereal but was determined to create his own empire. He decided that, if he was going to be successful, he had to just get out there and do it. So he started cold calling people about his own products.

He got several rejections but one year later, he created a successful company known as Renters Warehouse which had already pulled in $966 by the time he was 26 years old.

His fearless determination and belief in himself won him the ability to retire at age 27.

So never give up. Churchill’s motto still works in the business world!

Tip #7: Watch your budget

Adrian Cartwood, author of “How to Make 7 Million in 7 Years,” emphasizes the importance of living frugally while trying to make your fortune. He built his technology-related business on a shoestring years ago by doing just that.

He states, “Learn how to live within your means and delay gratification; these are the habits that you will need to maintain on the way up, so you can keep your millions when you get there.”

Make it your own

These tips are good to keep in mind in your journey to entrepreneurship and success. But remember that what works for one person may not work for everyone. No matter how successful or great someone is, you should always define your business, your budget, and your brand to the vision you have for your own business. Have the confidence to break through the mold and realize that there is no one road to success, no one path to wealth. And the best part is the journey.