As an entrepreneur, you don’t always have to learn from your own trial and error. No matter what stage you’re in, there are always other people and companies that you can learn from. Over the past few years, we’ve had the privilege of interviewing, creating content and collaborating with literally hundreds of successful entrepreneurs from all over the world. Whether for blog posts, YouTube videos, and even online courses that we’ve created, these entrepreneurs have generously shared their insights to help our community of entrepreneurs and online course creators succeed. After digging through these resources, we decided to pull out some of our favorite pieces of advice and share them with you in this slideshow. We hope that this collection of advice will help to provide some direction (and maybe even avoid some costly mistakes!) as you build a business that makes a positive impact in this world.

1. tips for Building a Business
from Successful Entrepreneurs
TOP 20

2. “The most important phase is your pre-
work: surveying your audience to
understand what they're most interested
in, and then running a pilot to test
demand and ensure you're providing
information that's relevant and important
to them. That will put you on track to
create a product people actually want.”
Dorie Clark
dorieclark.com
Survey your audience to find
out what they’re interested in.

3. “Money follows momentum, not perfection.
That means that you don't really need your
website perfect and that your course also
doesn't need to be perfect. I've re-recorded
our core product six times since it's start in
May 2015. Just get started and get sales, that's
the most important part at the beginning.”
Scott Oldford
scottoldford.com
Don’t try to create a perfect
product right way. Just get
started and get sales.

4. “… instead of focusing on adding to
your email list or growing your social
media audience, focus on creating new
content for the people you've already
attracted. What new product or
program do they need next?”
Amy Porterfield
amyporterfield.com
Look for ways to better serve
your existing audience and
customers.

5. “I do not subscribe to the theory of build it
and they will come. I want to know what they
want, and that’s what I’m going to build.”
JJ Virgin
jjvirgin.com
Find out what your market
wants and build it for them.

6. “Nobody is ever really perfect. You have to
at some point decide this is what I’m going
to roll with, and then tweak based on
feedback. You don’t want to wait until you’re
perfect because other people are launching.
You want to launch, and you get that initial
feedback, and you change and you tweak.”
James Altucher
jamesaltucher.com
Use feedback from your
customers to change and
improve.

7. “I think that I have grown such a strong
following not only because I create good,
logical, content, but I have created a
trusted brand that is uplifting, but also
fun.”
Dana Malstaff
boss-mom.com
Use Facebook Groups to build
a community around your
business.

8. “People will vote with their credit card. If
they don’t actually put money down, the
idea isn’t validated yet.”
Michael O’Neal
solopreneurhour.com
Until you get a sale, your idea
isn’t validated yet.

9. “A great brand starts with understanding who
you are and what you stand for, understanding
your marketplace, and understanding your
positioning. What is the perception that you
need to create in order to appeal to your target
audience?”
Re Perez
brandingforthepeople.com
Branding is the perception you
create in the marketplace to
appeal to your target audience.

10. “Care a lot about your community and be
consistent and create content on a
regular basis that’s going to help people,
and you will build a tribe of people that
are so ready and willing to become
customers of yours for life.”
Sunny Lenarduzzi
sunnylenarduzzi.com
Show your audience that you
truly care about them

11. “You don’t have to appeal to every single
person, but if there is somebody or a small
group of people that really believe in the
content you’re sharing and they find value
in it, if you’re actually serving the
aspirations that they have, then they will
share that with others, they will make that
a part of their life.”
Adam Braun
adambraun.com
Build your platform but don’t
try to appeal to everyone.

12. “… if you want to develop connections with a
tribe, engagement with a tribe, people who
really understand you and your message, you
need to open up and share your story.”
Alexi Panos
alexipanos.com
Don’t be afraid to share your
personal story. Being open and
vulnerable helps create stronger
connections with others.

13. “You’re not supposed to market and get
people to understand the value of what
you have. You market so that people
understand that you know how they feel.”
Mark Lack
shortenthegap.com
The best way to market your
business is to show your
target audience that you
understand them.

14. “I grew my list during my launch by
running Facebook ads directly to a
webinar landing page. I ran the webinars
almost daily. I reinvested the sales from
the webinar I ran on Day 1 right back into
more ad spend on Day 2. I was able to
quickly ramp up my marketing and grow
my list during my first launch.”
Jeanine Blackwell
jeanineblackwell.com
Reinvest your revenue back
into your business to reach
more people and scale faster.

15. “Do not be afraid of competition. Their very
existence validates that there is demand for
the problem you’re trying to solve or for a
solution to it. So look for that competition.”
Greg Smith
thinkific.com
Competition is a good thing. It
proves that there is demand
for what you offer.

16. “It’s incredibly important that you have
some kind of a mechanism to turn the
attention that you’re getting through your
media interviews into leads and sales.”
Esther Kiss
borntoinfluence.com
Use media exposure to build
your list and increase your
sales.

17. “Start with 1 or 2 main channels of
communication and publishing where you
can be sending people. Experiment with
other touch points that you know people are
using…Keep it simple and always be sending
people back to the main channels.”
Anne Samoilov
annesamoilov.com
Don’t try to use every marketing
channel from the beginning. Start
with 1 or 2 and experiment with
others as your business grows.

18. “We’re not in this business to just get
people to buy our stuff. We want them to
see the change and the impact and
create the success stories.”
Nick Unsworth
nickunsworth.com
Don’t just focus on getting the
sale. Focus on helping your
customers succeed.

19. ”Ask more questions, always. Assess whether "the
one method" people are telling you is the only way
to go, even makes sense for you and your topic or
audience. I've found more engaged audience
members, and more sales waiting on the other side
of ignoring traditional advice and focusing on key
questions about what my audience needs than
through re-creating systems that others have used.”
Regina Anaejionu
byregina.com
Just because something works
for someone else doesn’t mean
it will work for you. Ask more
questions, always.

20. “The way you multiply time is by spending
time on things today that give you more
time tomorrow”
Rory Vaden
southwesternconsulting.com
Invest your time creating
systems to help your business
run without you.

21. “…instead of people having to re-invent
the wheel, or find out things the longest,
hardest, most expensive way through
mistakes, those of us who have a skillset
or have knowledge - it’s not just that we
should, I feel that we have a responsibility
to share that.”
Cole Hatter
colehatter.com
As you achieve success in
business, remember to pay it
forward by helping others.

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