My biggest piece of advice to other young entrepreneurs is to read constantly on subjects that apply to your current strategies and problems. Read business magazines to get ideas and see how others are solving problems. Many times, there is no reason to re-invent the wheel. You aren't the first to run into each specific problem, so find out how others have solved it and learn from their mistakes.
Focus on getting the right people on board and everything else will be a lot easier. I had to learn this the hard way. Like many entrepreneurs, I wanted to do it all myself since I didn't trust anybody to do it as well. Once I realized that I couldn't do it all, I started training and delegating, and it was easier than I thought it would be… and it made it possible for us to grow faster than ever. Give your people autonomy and ownership of certain tasks and projects, and they'll surprise you.
Focus on your customers' needs more than ANYTHING else and they will take care of you in the long run. If you have an idea for your business that doesn't help your customers reach their goals, then forget about it.
Pick a small niche and stick with it. Be the best in the world at servicing that niche. Don't try to be everything to everyone. When you are a billion-dollar company, you can compete at that level. When you are small, you have to stay focused on a smaller subset of the market that isn't as important to the billion-dollar companies.
Create detailed and specific short-term and long-term goals and measurements for yourself and your team. It's amazing how employee behavior changes when you create a goal and then measure against it. Just the act of being measured helps keep people motivated and helps them understand how they are doing so they can improve.
Create a mission and vision for your company that isn't just about making money. What's the real value of your business? If your business was suddenly gone tomorrow, would anybody really care? Are you really that valuable to your customers and employees, or are you just another copycat business like all the others? Build a company that matters. Build a company that your customers and employees would fight for. Your employees won't fight for a company that is just based on making money for shareholders or the business owners. They need something to care about. Everybody wants to belong to something bigger than themselves that is doing something unique, important, or exciting. Otherwise it's just about how much they get paid. Once the company down the block offers than a slight pay increase, they'll be gone.
Differentiate yourself from your competitors. No, not based just on price. Anybody can try to offer a lower price than the other guys. That's not a strategy. Create value in other ways that your customers want. Create a brand that means something. You'll be able to have higher margins than your less creative competitors and you'll be around a lot longer.
#7 Nicolas Thomley, Pinnacle Services
My business has continued to thrive since being selected to last year's 30 Under 30. Our growth rate is at about 20 percent and continuing to climb. We have expanded on the services we offer and gained additional contracts. Overall, it has been a great year.
We have several expansion plans, including geographic expansion of our current services. We are planning on moving the company headquarters to a new location that will allow for continued growth in to the future. We are also planning on expanding the services that we offer to new areas of our industry that we have not yet entered. In addition, we are planning on creating new ventures that will support the primary focus of the core business.
Being a 30 Under 30 winner has helped my business in several ways. It has provided a higher level of credibility to me and my organization. It has opened up doors to new opportunities for me such as speaking engagements and partnerships on new ventures. We are working harder than ever at expanding and growing the business to in to new areas and markets and the credibility of being named to the 30 Under 30 has given me a leg up.
What advice would I give other young entrepreneurs? Follow your dreams and take chances -- it's a lot easier to take risks while you're young.
#8 Marc Katz, customInk.com
CustomInk.com keeps making progress in the world of custom T-shirts. We've grown by about 40 percent since last year's 30 Under 30 and now deliver about 5 million custom shirts per year. At that rate, we could outfit the whole country in just 60 years… so, OK, we still have room to grow.
We recently launched a new service called customInk Singles that lets people design and order single shirts for individual use or gifts, as opposed to having to order in bulk for a group or event. Our customers have requested this a long time, and we now we have the system and printing capabilities to do it.
I guess if I were to pick one piece of advice for other young entrepreneurs, I would suggest getting a close adviser who has good entrepreneurial experience, is really smart, and is someone you really trust. For me, that's my dad, and being able to discuss and debate business matters with him is really helpful. I think there are a lot of groups (like YPO for instance) that connect experienced business people with entrepreneurs for coaching and mentoring.
#12 Robin Liss, CamcorderInfo.com/DigitalCameraInfo.com
After establishing CamcorderInfo.com and DigitalCameraInfo.com as bastions of independent, ethical, consumer technology review publishing, I decided it was time to grow. In the spring of 2007, I launched PrinterInfo.com, which provides reviews of printers, a handy ink and toner finder, and independent printer industry news coverage designed to demystify printer shopping and facilitate printer use for consumers. I also created WirelessInfo.com, which features wireless industry news coverage, comprehensive reviews of cell phones, and wireless plan reviews to bring clarity to the world of mobile communications.
