I am an attorney, practicing 30 plus years in Dallas, Texas, until I brought my concept of a wholly outsourced word processing staff for attorneys and law firms to market in 1997. Today we serve over 35,000 clients nationwide. That venture is absolutely the crowning achievement of my career, far outdistancing anything I ever did or learned in my very successful law practice. There are so many things involved in such an adventure that it would be very hard to chronicle them all, but two items specifically come to mind as to what might be helpful for entrepreneurs starting out.
Entrepreneurial Tip 1: First and foremost, always be mindful of the money. Whether you’re starting out with venture capitalists, trying to put together a pay-as-you-go, self funded plan, or anywhere in between, money and your management of it is all-important. Even if you have venture capitalists screaming at your door, that is not always the right way to go. There are many very important decisions you’ll have to make as you move through your business that have to be made without clear cut right or wrong answers, and if you can avoid the entanglement of money and the strings attached with it, you are dramatically more likely to be successful in the long run in making those right decisions based on what’s good for the business, rather than what is good for (or dictated by) those money interests. Try to line up what money you can as you begin and as you go forward, do not take on something, or try to move at a speed that this money will not support, and treat every dollar you get like it’s the last one you’ll ever see. If you have a good idea, money will come in boatloads at the end, but the way you treat this early money is determinative to a very large extent of your likelihood to be successful.
Entrepreneurial Tip 2: Second, trust your own judgment in most all of the decisions that you have to make. There are experts now on every conceivable subject and many, many people who will try to persuade you to substitute their judgment and decisions for your own. Don’t be overly awed by credentialed or “expert” sources for advice. I have always found that it is a good practice to get as much advice on as many subjects as you possibly can do, but in the end, go with your own instincts and life experiences and do so with the comfort of knowing that you’ve sought all of the input that you can get before you make that final decision. The final product and result is going to be yours, after all, so it should reflect you, your wisdom, your character and personality, so don’t let yourself get snowed by someone who claims to be smarter than you.
About Richard Jackson: My company, SpeakWrite, is an outsourced method of accomplishing something that is absolutely essential to anyone involved in the business world, from beginning entrepreneurs to major law firms. It puts the ultimate control of your costs of providing one of the most essential parts of any business – documenting thoughts, communications, ideas and data – totally under your control and on a pay-as-you-go basis. For details you can visit our web site at www.speakwrite.com.
