“Build it and they will come.” Oh, really? Conventional wisdom most likely leads to conventional results (or worse), as successful entrepreneurs often had to discover the hard way. Read these best of the worst lists of business management advice and save yourself years of trial and error. Or just go “follow your bliss”.
A List Of The Worst Business Advice You Can Follow — Ever (Small Business Trends)
A thorough job of running over 20 mind-numbing clichés followed by “yes, but”, by writer Annie Pilon. Highlights:
“The customer is always right”
As Henry Ford supposedly said, “if I asked the people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
“All attention is good attention.”
Except when the business is too new to handle a rush of orders. Or it’s called Enron.
The 5 Worst Pieces of Advice I Got While Building a $100 Million Company (Entrepreneur)
Clate Mask, co-founder and CEO of Infusionsoft, says the number one way to attract unsolicited advice is to tell people you’re launching a business. Mask’s list is what you call counter-intuitive. Examples:
“Don’t involve family and friends in business”
Except that in tough times, they may be exactly the people you trust to have your back.
“Don’t take on any debt”
But “if your business is on solid ground and growing steadily”, you could hamstring your growth without some debt, says Mask
The Worst Business Advice We’ve Ever Heard (allBusiness)
15 entrepreneurs tell how they found success through earplugs, so to speak.
“Quit your day job”
In fact, there are so many free tools online these days, you can test out a business concept at night, after your 9 to 5.
“Focus on infrastructure not sales”
Brian Moran of Get 10,000 Fans says he ignored his business coach and put all his limited resources into product testing and advertising – and the infrastructure followed the sales.
5 Worst Pieces of Advice That New Entrepreneurs Receive (Inc.)
Adam Heitzman, co–founder of HigherVisibility concludes “it’s always better to make your own mistakes” than listen to advice and repeat other people’s mistakes. From his list:
“You have to be less expensive than your competition”
Aim for a fair price as a startup and don’t start off in a downward spiral of competitive pricing.
“Be passionate about what you do and they will come”
Sure, but be passionate about your business and customers, not being an entrepreneur, says Heitzman. And recognize you can’t be passionate every day.
10 Successful Entrepreneurs on the Worst Advice They Ever Received (Huffington Post)
HuffPost sampled the wisdom of a list of celebrity—and advice-adverse—business people like Mark Cuban and Warren Buffet:
“Work harder than any of your employees”
Wayne Rivers, president of the Family Business Institute says that, contrary to conventional wisdom, it’s not the way to earn their respect. “Focus on results rather than time.”
“It’s been done”
That’s the reaction best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell had to learn to ignore as a beginner. “The world can happily accept more than one approach. It’s all about the execution,” he says, speaking of writing, but equally of business.
What’s the worst advice you ever had to overcome? Let us know in the comments section.
