37 Entrepreneur Tips & Tricks from over 50 hours of podcast interviews
Over the last year, I have recorded 50 podcast interviews with Ireland’s top entrepreneurs.
I have distilled down over 100 hours of knowledge into a concise list of strategies, principles, and lessons that you can use to make you a better entrepreneur.
1. Listen to advice but learn how to filter it
Very few people intend to give you bad advice. People want to help. You must remember that their advice is based on their experience and may not be right from you. Know your own business and trust your instincts.
Tommy Courtney, founder of Prelo (now PerchPeek).
2. Build your audience
Start to build your audience today. Even before you start your business, start to grow an audience that will eventually become your customers. Customer acquisition is hard and expensive. Try to own that relationship directly with consumers over a long period of time.
David Delahunty, is a serial founder of businesses such as Grow Your Clicks & Designers Humour.
3. Social proof is real
Humans learn from watching others. Figure out how can you get your product into the hands of high profile individuals or influencers. You are now just DM away from almost anyone in the world.
Fabio Molle, founder of Funky Christmas Jumpers.
4. Evolve or die
No matter how successful your current business is, you need to be evolving your product or launching a new offering. Trends and tastes change fast so even if your business is at it’s peak, ensure you are experimenting and trying new things.
James Murphy founded Zest Fitness and now runs Beatbox Gym.
5. Age is not a barrier
You don’t need to have years of experience to start. Just be able to do the job really well and age/race/location doesn’t matter. Karl started his social media and web design agency when he was still in school.
Karl O’Brien is the founder of Effector.
6. Ideas are easy, execution is everything.
Devan Hughes is a serial entrepreneur and has tried and failed many times. You got to keep trying until you find the idea that you can execute to perfection.
Devan is the co-founder of Buymie, an online grocery delivery firm.
7. Timing matters
Call it luck, timing, or good planning, how successful you will become is dependent on a huge range of external factors beyond your control. Siobhan entered the online fitness space when Instagram was still in its early stages and rode the wave of popularity.
Siobhan O’Hagan runs OH Fitness, an online fitness coaching program.
8. Build a community around your brand
Gym+Coffee is equally well known for its leisurewear as it is for the fantastic free events they host. I recently attended their 3rd birthday celebrations where over 600 people turned up to hike a mountain in Ireland on a wet & windy January morning. That is the power of their brand.
Niall Horgan is CEO & co-founder of Gym+Coffee an Irish athleisure brand.
9. Take your original plans and 3x it
It will take three times as long & and costs three times more than you think it will. This is a nugget of info that I have repeated so many times since chatting with the ex-professional sports star, Shane Monohan.
Shane Monohan is CEO & founder of Limor, the social audio app.
10. Stop forcing it
Idea inspiration rarely strikes when sitting at your desk in “idea mode”. Get out, explore and you will see things that inspire you to start new businesses. Caolan spotted his idea for rolled ice cream when on holidays in Thailand.
Caolan Cullen founded Arctic Stone Ice Cream.
11. Learn how to say No
When you are a successful entrepreneur, you will be offered new ideas and partnerships that can seem like fantastic opportunities. James explained that when you overreach and are pulled in too many directions, it will lead to burnout and a lack of focus on what made you successful in the first instance.
James McCormack is the founder of The Dublin Barista School.
12. Your vision is only limited by your ambition
If you think global you will make decisions and be offered opportunities on a global scale. Sonia prepared every week for a year to present her product on the America shopping network, QVC. They sold out after appearing in the show and their brand growth exploded globally.
Sonia Deasy is the CEO & co-founder of Pestle & Mortar.
13. Persistence beats Resistance
Failure only defines you if you stop. Very few entrepreneurs make it on their first attempt. Keep going, learn from your mistakes, and tweak your approach.
Shane Ryan is the founder of Fiid.
14. Stop waiting for the perfect moment
Dan & Sacha started their business from their apartment when expecting their first child. There is no moment when the stars align and you are presented with the perfect opportunity to start your business. The perfect moment was yesterday, start now.
Dan Nugent is the co-founder of Ambr Eyewear.
15. Hire hard & manage soft
Spend time initially to find the right people for your business and then give them the guidance and freedom to achieve their goals.
Garret Flower is the founder of Parkpnp.
16. Get your hands dirty
Gary saved his company by driving around Ireland for an entire year, eventually getting his product on the shelves of over 3,500 stores. He packed his VitHit drinks into a van and drove from town to town, staying in small guesthouses. The cult of passive income has fooled aspiring entrepreneurs into thinking it all takes place behind a laptop screen. Get out there and sell.
Gary Lavin is the founder of VitHit Drinks.
17. How badly do you want it?
Just because something hasn’t been done in a long time, doesn’t mean its impossible. Jack & his family founded the first distillery in Dublin in over 125 years and it has grown to become an international brand in just 5 years.
Jack Teeling is the founder of Teeling Whiskey.
18. It’s a marathon, not a sprint
The myth of the startup founder grinding for 20 hours a day is finally exposed. Sustainability of high performance over a long period of time will be the new benchmark for what defines a successful entrepreneur.
James Brogan is the co-founder of PepTalk & Legacy Communications
19. Don’t reinvent the wheel, reimagine what it looks like
A true entrepreneur can take a concept that has been around for hundreds of years, completely reimagine it from the ground up and improve it 1000x.
Chris took one of the oldest professions in the world, teaching and brought it into the future.
Chris Lauder is the founder of The Dublin Academy of Education
20. Become immune to rejection
First-time entrepreneurs are going to hear No and I’m not interested more times in their first year of business than in their whole life combined to that point. Get used to rejection and use it not as something to fear, but as a method of learning to get better and improve your business. Understand why the answer is No and find a way to turn it into a yes.
Luke Mackey — Co-Founder and CEO at Bamboo
21. Understand your customer to understand your business
Go hyper-specific on who your customer is to understand what niches you should be targeting. Where do they live? What do they work at? How often do they exercise? Build up a comprehensive profile of who is purchasing your offering and it will allow you to make your marketing 100x more efficient.
Micheál Dyer is co-founder of Clean Cut Meals
22. Go face to face with your potential customers
When you are developing your product idea, go out, and chat with potential users. The insights will highlight other products or improvements to your idea that you could never get from online surveys, emails, or web research.
Sean Toomey is co-founder of Team Human.
23. Devil in the details
Before opening his first restaurant, Conor knew every single detail that was going to make his business different, from the number of knives and forks it would have, right down to the beats per minute of the music he would play.
Only when you deeply understand the nuts and bolts of your business can you expect success.
Conor Sheridan is the founder of Mad Egg.
24. Invest in yourself
If you are overly focused on the business and neglecting your own personal wellbeing, physical and mental, your business will never achieve it’s potential. John has a personal tracker system where he logs his diet, sleep, and mood and is able to ensure when he is working, he is performing at his peak.
John Ryan, founder of Gigable.
25. Progress not perfection
By letting go of her quest for perfection Jennifer learned to call on other people to inform her decisions. She places her trust in her team and advisors to have the skills and knowledge that the business needs to be successful.
Jennifer Rock aka The Skin Nerd is the founder of The Skin Nerd & Skingredients.
26. Be your own customer
Sounds very obvious but sample/use your own product or service. If you are asking your customer to spend their cash with you, you must know every aspect of your business. Jamie took this one step further to prove his branding agency was the best by launching his very own range of chocolate bars to show they could create a world-class product & brand from scratch.
Jamie Helly is the founder of Dynamo & co-founder of MIA Chocolate.
27. People buy stories
People buy from people. Simple, eh? Can your customers relate to you? Have you told them the origin of how the business start? Do they understand how you make your product service? If the answer is no, you are selling yourself and your business short. Podcasts, YouTube videos, Instagram stories, and blogs can be an incredibly effective way of telling our story.
Evelyn Garland & Luke Judge, founders of Simply Fit Food
28. Invest in your network
Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely business. Make sure you invest time in developing relationships with people who are also in business. The key thing here is to not make it transactional. Do not do favors for people with the explicit reason for asking them to return it immediately. If you build your network like you would build your group of friends, you will get far more back in the long run.
Andreea Wade, co-founder of Opening.io
29. Turn your weakness into your strength
When she was fired from The Apprentice TV show in the UK, Pamela took the feedback she was given and used it to fuel her business. Be true to yourself but be open to taking on constructive feedback. Don’t take it as rejection, but repurpose it into motivate to drive you towards success.
Pamela Laird, founder Moxi Loves
30. Learn how to fail and fail fast
Understand what success means for your business. Run regular experiments to improve and test the assumptions you have about your business and customers. Based on clear parameters of success or failure and use that to get better each day.
Mark Little, co-founder Kinzen
31. Work smarter, not just harder
The only certainty in business is constant change. Make sure you are always taking time to be aware of the overall picture. Be focused but never be too narrow in your view as you may miss the tiny change which has completely thrown you off course.
Brian Kenny, founder of MiniCorp.
32. Draw a straight line to success
Shekinah’s philosophy is simple, decide what the end goal is and draw a straight line from where you are now to where success is. Be crystal clear on your goals and don’t be afraid to be judged. His goal was to become rich and he knew he needed his company to be a success to make that happen. This motivated him every single day to push harder and bounce off rejections.
Shekinah Adewumi, co-founder TouchTech Payments (sold to Stripe).
33. Imagine the worst-case scenario
When trying to make tough decisions in your business, always run a worst-case scenario plan. As the cliche goes, plan for the worst and hope for the best. If your business can survive in a worst-case scenario, you have managed it correctly. If not, make hard choices to sustain cash flow.
Brett Myers, founder of Currency Fair
34. Cut hard, cut early
When managing a crisis or an economic downturn, you must preserve cashflow. Make tough decisions in the early stages to ensure your business can survive a period of a prolonged downturn. Don’t let it become a slow death by a thousand cuts.
Paul Byrne, CEO of CurrencyFair & founder of Trintech.
35. KISS (Keep it simple)
Starting a company can be overwhelming. You only need 3 main things to start a legal business.
Register the company, e.g. sole trader, partnership, Limited company.
Open a bank account
Register with the Government for tax.
Glen Hynes, Startup Accountant
36. Tough times = resilient entrepreneurs
If you can start and run a business in a recession or tough economic period, your chances of success will be multiplied. Starting a new company when cash is scarce and people don’t have much money to spend means you will hone in on exactly what the customer wants.
Jennie McGinn, founder of Prowlster & Opsh
37. Stealth mode is a load of sh**
Talk to people about your business idea. Get as much feedback as you can. No one is going to steal your idea. The idea is only the starting point. Talking to people about it almost makes it more real for you.
Claire McHugh, co-founder Axonista