Here's how you can navigate the lack of resources when starting a career in small business.

I am a huge proponent of offering value and building relationships within the community. Being of service and being solution oriented in your field will bring you trust and allow people to get to know you personally and in your new endeavor. Be an adviser not a sales person. Learn from those successful in your industry and never take for granted the small successes… they will lead you to big ones! I suggest reading “Raving Fans” and “The Go Giver”. To set your mind and new business on the correct path. I read them both at least once a year. The other staple in my yearly reading is “Black Sheep”. All are amazing and encourage me no matter where I’m at with business or personal life situations.

The best advice I ever got was to find a client before formally starting the business, so you can prove yourself as a creator of new value. If you estimate that your first client can generate you six months of revenue, you are in a better position to create your company. I had this quote on my wall, borrowed from Inc. Magazine: "Don't look for money, look for applause. If you create something of value, the sales will come." I did all of the above and I was able to put myself on the entrepreneurial path as an immigrant, becoming a catalyst of breakthrough results for my clients.

- Use social media monitoring tools that offer real-time analytics and alerts. - Establish baseline metrics for normal periods to easily identify deviations. - Set up automated alerts for significant metric changes. - Regularly review these metrics, not just when alerted, to spot gradual shifts.

Don't be afraid to help people. A little help may come back later as a major requirement later because your skills and knowledge have been recognised. Think long term.

Buying right is a great skill. You've heard the saying "buy low so high"?Well if you're manufacturing and are able to save on the raw materials, the multiplier by the time it gets to retail value could be 10 times, so even saving a nickel per foot or per pound can really make a big difference. You can also find similar users that are not competitors and see if you could do a group buy. For example, I may not need a carload of lumber, but someone might need 90% and I can easily fill out the other 10% and pay the same price as the big guys. It's also important to look at your raw materials and offer smaller users a group purchase opportunity. They inturn may reciprocate with items that you may not be using in huge numbers, but it all adds up.

When I started my first company, I heard that I needed to attend four networking events across a diverse group of people that might be my buyers each month. I endeavored to do that (not being a very savvy networker, I figured it would help me practice pitching) and decided to do one event per week. I chose as many free networking opportunities as possible but also strategically chose to pay for events that I thought would connect me to the right people. I think it was one of the best things I could do for the business. My presence led to new business and my willingness to offer help first before asking for a sale worked for my business. YMMV. But, being visible in your local community is usually highly effective in growing your business.

Networks are there for the building. The more robust, the better. Remember, your network is not just a list of contacts..

How does someone grow from good to great ? A simple answer is always consider yourself an infant in a subject matter. No matter how much you know there's even more that you don't know.

Continuous Improvement means never stop learning. Have a sincere desire to learn and stay committed to it. Every man is my teacher. Knowledge will often compensate for a lack of physical resources. Coupled with networking skills, continuous learning (webinars, workshops, online courses) will assist in gaining confidence and trust in your community.

Be careful with the idea of "maximizing time". Hustle culture is real. Don't forget to sit back, have some fun and enjoy you're time too.

Time scarcity is real, but it's also about aligning the work to the appropriate time. You can waste a lot of time easily, when you should have plenty of time to start and manage a business without burning yourself out. Follow your biological prime time (when you're most alert and focused during the day) and place your most important work in that time block. Protect that time block for that kind of "most important" work daily. Also, don't get rose-colored glasses about "deep work." Sometimes the most important thing to do is make a three-minute call to a client who will say "yes" to close a deal.

Shooting for a top voice here so please disregard anything I'm about to say. Technology exists to be utilized. If you own it, utilize it. If you aren't utilizing it, get rid of it. I should really take that advice and look at the billion SaaS subs I currently have.

With the advent of AI and improvements in software, it’s easier than ever to find resources to automate your small business systems and procedures. You can streamline your company so that you can spend your time working on what matters most for you in your company. Examples of what you can automate (these are just a few!): - Marketing your small business - Generating leads - Onboarding new hires - Having SOPs for all aspects of your business easily accessible to your team - so much more…!

As a head/neck/brain cancer survivor, resilience is ingrained in my DNA. Transitioning this strength into my role as a small business owner, I've learned to view setbacks as stepping stones, stay adaptable, and seize new opportunities. By embracing challenges, pivoting when needed, and bouncing back from adversity, I've not only navigated limited resources but also laid a foundation for long-term success. Use your own greatest pains and setbacks as personal markers of your resilience and strength knowing how much you have gone through to get to this point. Utilize it as motivation to get yourself to the next level and remember to be gracious to yourself, give thanks to a higher power and all of those who contributed to your journey.

An example I've seen is that you learn something new everyday I feel like I hear bad news 📰 all the time ⌚ I think 🤔 folks are very 🙏 forgiving I want to be resilient and move forward I intend to take this opportunity in stride and 🙏 forget former things

Boot strapping a start up can often be a blessing in disguise. Through this, you can be more resourceful and think differently than perhaps you would have been had you started out with cash, inadvertently creating a cookie cutter of another, same old business. Dig deep into your network, apply cross industry thinking and tap into all of your skills you’ve acquired to date, even if they don’t seem relevant. Be brave and ask for things that perhaps you wouldn’t have dared ask for before. And think how you can be of service to others, rather than “what can people pay you for” and you’ll be surprised at what opportunities arise.

• Be creative—Which of your existing resources (skills, network, …) can help others? Reach out for win-win collaborations and partnerships. • Leverage—Who else might work with or gets exposure to same type of clients, and already has more visibility? (podcasts, blogs,…) Offer to share your expertise on a topic of interest for their clients, so your business gets more exposure. • Manage better your energy—so you can do more with same amount of time.