Good advice can completely change your approach to business and make your company more efficient. We have collected for you 50 tips from outstanding businessmen. Develop yourself and boost your business!

1. Create a library in the office  Books are a concentrate of experience. Someone walked the rake for you for years and decided to transfer to you knowledge for less than 1000 rubles, for which you would pay at least two hundred thousand for consulting. So here. Take the books and put them in the office. Your people will read them. Well, those who want to grow. 15 thousand rubles per library - and now you are already dramatically increasing the growth rate of your active people within the company. It's worth it. So training is very cheap and very effective.

• Read more: How to organize a corporate library

2. Think seasonality of your business.  Flower sellers know that looking at profitability charts all year is painfully painful. A big joyful booze happens, for example, on March 10, when three to four days provide sales immediately for two to three months. You need to identify such fluctuations in your business as early as possible - at the start, because viewing an incomplete picture will give you incorrect data for business planning.

The best way to communicate between employees is email. .

3. Think Communication The best messenger is mail. For one simple reason: not she pulls you, but you her. If you want not to read before lunch - do not read before lunch. All who wrote stand in line and quietly wait. With skype, "ICQ" and social networks chats will not work. And when someone writes you, you get a message right away. This at least hellishly violates your concentration and schedule. A normal person does not need such distractions. For urgent things, there is a telephone.

4. Set up the bar stools at the checkout  The restaurant has a rule: the waiter cannot sit. As soon as he sits down, the ass gives the brain a command to relax. The waiter stops thinking about the client in the room. Still waiters always look in a hall, but not chat with each other. Having opened the first store, we realized that this also applies to the seller at the checkout. In addition, when the seller is sitting and the buyer is standing, conversations on equal terms fail. Just unpleasant. Naturally, standing all day is difficult. Therefore, at the box office we have bar stools.

5. Show off a large quantity of goods  When there are a lot of identical goods in the display, this is a signal: hit, you have to take it. When the product is small or, for example, it remains in the amount of a pair of pieces - this is another signal: "Do not take it, no one takes it." Typically, the seller thinks the opposite: left alone - which means they are buying well. But the buyer knows: there must be a whole bunch of goods. Therefore, when we want to increase sales of something, we are building a huge pyramid of goods in the hall on a pallet. This frees up the warehouse, and helps to promote the position. The buyer sees a bunch of goods and takes one to see. No wonder they put a bunch. And buys.

6. What to do during off season  It is very convenient to patch holes when there are few sales. Since the load is small, you can debug business processes, fix mistakes, and generally improve all the work. If you need to reform something in the company or carry out a reorganization, it is better to choose an off-season, because due to the abundance of free time for underloaded employees, the subsequent period of confusion will not affect the efficiency of the processes.

• Read more:

7. Daily Issues You need to ask yourself every day, why do people choose you and not one Vasya? Due to what "outside" are you different from him? There are obvious signs: quality of service, price, location. There is a reaction rate, competent operators, a good seller on the spot. There is an assortment. It’s like a matter of choosing an airline: someone chooses any of Vnukovo, because he lives nearby, someone flies with Aeroflot, because a gold card, and someone just takes a ticket for the cheapest flight for tomorrow. Or, for example, only one company flies from Moscow to South Africa.

8. Tune in to customers  Customer focus is the desire to become convenient for the consumer. Here is an example. A man was sitting in a pizzeria and suddenly posted on Twitter: they say it’s impossible to sit, loud music. They immediately saw it in the office and called the manager in this very pizzeria. The manager did quieter, and then went up to the client and asked: “Is that normal?” Then the client had an attack of wow-hysteria. You and I understand perfectly well: if he really needed to, he would come up and ask him to make it quieter. The result would be the same. But in this case, the company did not wait for the request, but showed that she did not care. I curtsied toward the client. This "do not care" real customer focus and differs from empty statements.

9. Phone on the site  When you call at 21:05 on the website and hear long beeps, it’s not clear what is happening. Either the store does not work, or no one answers you, or well, to hell with it and it's time to dial the competitor's number. Under the phone on the site should be indicated the time of the call center. And another weekend, if any. The phone should be able to explain to the guest from Vladivostok that everyone is sleeping now, if he did not look at the time and called at noon, and not at noon around Moscow, as on the site.

10. Magic numbers  It is believed that the price of 1999 rubles is not two thousand, but one with a penny. 3999 rubles - this is not 4000, but three and a little more. In general, it really works, and you catch some of the tired, gaping buyers on this, especially when they add up 3999 + 1999 + 4999. Somewhere 9-10 thousand, right? Banal respect for the buyer suggests that you can not set such prices. Moreover, 999 rubles is immediately an indicator of some kind of divorce. For many. Therefore, the highest price that can be up to a thousand is 990. And better - 950.

11. Show the buyer the savings People do not know how to count. This is a fact, and we must live with it. An ordinary buyer does not understand at all what it was: it was 950 rubles, but it became 870. Ask him how much he saves - he will tell about the child who needs to be picked up from school, a heavy bag, the machine that needs to be washed, and an unanswered SMS that came while he was standing in the store. Therefore, consider for your customers. 950 rubles were, 870 became. “You save 80 rubles.” Believe me, this is important. Because especially numbers like these, a person cannot quickly count. And he decides that he saves 30 rubles according to a subjective assessment.

12. Let's get more than we promised  Promise less than you can give. Because in the case of perfectly fulfilled expectations or a revealed minor flaw, the rating falls. If you promise more than you give, then do not wait for more than one sale. If your business involves selling at least two or three goods to the same person (telephones, haircuts, board games, food, etc.), you are not interested in taking one and hiding in horror, but so that he returns. And he returned again. And further.

13. Prices in the online store  An online store is less expensive than a regular store on the street or in a shopping center, so prices may vary from regular ones throughout the network. In a smaller direction. Only this is wrong. When a person buys something from you first in the real world, and then sees the same product 20% cheaper on your network, he feels, to put it mildly, incomprehensibly. And to be more precise - generally thrown. Sucker. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being a sucker. I project my experience on others, and it seems to me that the majority of the population of our country will subconsciously support me. Therefore, we decided: the prices in the online store and physical retail should be the same.

14. High quality implied  “Our product of the highest quality” is a dummy phrase that will never mean anything. Not “fast delivery,” but “two hours.” Not "convenient return", but "you can return any product for any reason to any of our store." Present the material so that it has far less of your merits than in reality. This is important: because when they encounter reality, the product will seem not just good, but delicious. And even if the world's best product is praised in advance and not left anything for independent research, it will seem normal at home, because it is exactly what the client was waiting for.

Meet customer high expectations. .

15. How people are afraid to do simply  The novice designer is afraid to do it simply and beautifully: it seems to him that if you do not make a fancy design, then his work will be invisible. The copywriter is afraid to write the most effective simple texts, because, as it seems to him, it is necessary to leave a trace of what a real guru of texts has worked here. A manager who checks someone’s result often makes corrections not because they are needed, but because he does nothing and is afraid that the boss will not understand his merits in the project. Only professionals are not afraid to do as they need to solve a problem. Therefore, if you see a leaflet written in a really simple and understandable language, a human press release or an official letter exclusively from clear words, then you should know: it was made by a pro.

16. Do good  There is one common important thing to motivate yourself and staff. This is the confidence that you are doing the right, good thing. For the seller, this is the iron confidence that he is selling a good product. For you - the understanding that you are doing everything as it should.

17. Attitude towards investor and investment  Mom’s sons know: when you create a business, you must definitely find an investor. Preferably a fool. Therefore, IT startups cherish the dreams of the metallurgist, who set off to retire, and the merchants of striped mittens - of the old IT specialist who absolutely does not need their business. Naturally, now we are not talking about business on an especially large scale, where infusion is the essence of the work itself. So here. If you ever thought about the fact that a couple of years you can be unprofitable, and then go for profit, - damn it! Leave this planet immediately. This approach is anti-entrepreneurial. Buy caramel latte and smoothie. The entrepreneurial approach is very simple: money loves an account. Profit from the first day. Do not owe anyone - or give it away very quickly. Once again: profit from day one. Seriously. To spend money, you must first earn it.

18. How to live with partners  When the partner is the partner, and not the investor or manager, there is one idiotic, but working scheme. Together you need to “enter” exactly 50/50 together. In a small business it is damn important that no one in the first two or three years weighs who works less and who works more. Both are equal, both are trying their best. But at the same time one should be the main thing in everything. And not in the regions, but in everything at once. Otherwise, the plan will not converge.

19. Trading is appropriate Bargaining is appropriate. This is the basic principle of any business. If you do not bargain - tear off your hands. Figuratively. You can always bargain. Although not, there is one point: when you do something from bounty, a favor. And both sides understand this. For example, when a transaction has a relationship related to patronage or something like that. When the deal is clean - buy-sell, then you always have to bargain. They don’t take money for demand. If everyone is given as much as they ask, nothing will remain. Any offer implies that a person is willing to give in at a price.

20. Your position  Do not write a post on a business card. If you notice that you have the right to make a final decision, this immediately weakens your position in the negotiations. And sometimes it offends the person with whom you lead them. Indeed, instead of saying: “No, I decided that”, you can always say: “Management has not agreed on such a budget.” And the situation "I am bargaining with tyrant" turns into a situation of "I and the phenomenon of nature."

21. Clients themselves will tell you how to provide good service.  It makes no sense to listen to what the consultants or someone else say about how you should welcome visitors. The only thing that matters is what the customers themselves want. They must be asked.

22. If the client asks for something, agree  Every time a client asks us if we can do something for him, we have one answer - “yes”. If you slammed the door, leaving the keys in the car, or pierced the tire and now call us and ask for help, we will answer: “Of course.” Of course, we will not be able to paint your house or wash the windows: we still sell cars. But when your request concerns our business, we will respond positively. Whenever possible, we try to help our customers.

23. Forget what working hours are.  Customer service is work 24 hours a day. In any case, it should be like that. Firstly, customers may sometimes ask you to do something after 5 p.m. or Sunday. Since we have agreed on the rule “When a client asks for something, the answer is always“ yes ”, then it should be applied in this case too. There is a second, more fundamental reason to forget about the concept of “working hours”. How can we serve the customer the best if we make him adapt to our schedule? By definition, this is inconvenient for him.

24. Systems, not smiles A systematic approach to doing all this is much more important than just politeness and willingness to help. In the end, our customers do not care how polite we were if we did the wrong job for them.

25. Fire the controllers  Regardless of our efforts, problems will arise. It's unavoidable. We are all human and make mistakes. And, despite all the quality assurance programs, manufacturers will sometimes produce defective products. But supervisors make people careless. If you know that someone after you will check your work, you will not check it yourself.

26. Fire managers who are responsible for customer relations  Once you get rid of your supervisors, you can also fire employees who deal with customer relations. Customer service is too important a thing to leave to the “customer relationship” department. Everybody should do customer service. Customers judge the service for each person with whom they have to interact. If the cashier is rude or the seller does not want to help, the client thinks that he is receiving terrible service - regardless of how friendly, warm and helpful the customer relations department staff are. And he is right! He was really terribly served.

27. Do it right the first time  Too often, people talking about customer service spend time explaining what to do in case of an error. Of course, it is very important to correct or compensate for poorly done work, but if you did everything right right away, then you simply will not apologize for anything. At its core, good customer service requires you to get the job done right the first time.

28. Give what they ask  If you want to support your business, give customers exactly what they ask, without any hesitation. If you do even a little less, you can just do nothing, as you will lose their location anyway.

29. What does the client want?  It is difficult to arrange the right repairs or provide a good service if you do not know what needs to be repaired or what the client wants. Find a way to make the client spend ten minutes to describe his problems and wishes in detail.

30. Implement programs for regular customers Frequent customer programs prove to customers how important they are to you. Using this approach, you go much further than when you say (sometimes mechanically) “thank you”. You really reward people who deal with you.

31. Choose the right staff  If they worked well in the past, they probably will continue to work well. So, conducting an interview, look for those who have been successful and have shown leadership qualities.

32. Set the right goals  People by nature love to compete; they will try to achieve any goals, regardless of whether they pay more for it. So the secret is to set goals in the best interests of the business.

Give employees the opportunity to earn more. .

33. Pay employees more  We constantly ask our employees the question: "How can we help you earn more?" Our services cost no more than the services of other auto centers. At the same time, our employees can earn (and earn) one third more than in other places - due to higher productivity.

34. Affiliate payment system  The partner payment system encourages employees to serve customers at the highest level: their salary depends on customer satisfaction. If they want to earn more, they can come early or delay later. Sellers can work in the evenings or on weekends. People can find many ways to increase productivity so that it is acceptable for the company.

35. Tell people about company values.  Even if people know what they should do, sometimes they forget about it. That's why they attend church every Sunday. That is why you, both in word and in deed, must regularly remind people what are the true values \u200b\u200bin your organization.

36. Do not compete with prices  If you focus on providing excellent service and choice, then the number of your regular customers is growing, and the rumor about the company is becoming wider and louder. But in order for this to happen, you first need to focus on excellent service your entire online store. Do this and everything else will fall into place.

37. Investing in customer service is an investment, not a running expense. In fact, it is worth considering investments in customer service as an investment, and today our call center is available around the clock and seven days a week, and there are several more operators than necessary so that customers do not have to wait for an answer in an attempt to contact us. We renamed the customer service department into a customer loyalty group so that both inside the company and customers it was clear: we are aware of how much long-term relationships with them mean.

38. Start small, but focus  You need time in the early stages of your business growth and want to have it, because your goal is to understand how you turn your customers into regular customers, and not how to attract new customers. Once you find this formula, growth will begin by itself, and exponentially.

39. Do not be afraid of competitors  People in the business world like to be secretive - especially for retailers. This is usually due to the fear that competitors will find out all your secrets. Just know what? If you are open about your business and share information with business partners, customers and employees, you will receive much more benefit than harm from this openness. We at Zappos created an “extranet” on the basis of our website, and any supplier can enter this section and see all the same as our procurement specialists. They see stock balances, detailed sales reports, discount offers for various models, see the volume of orders and can even form a delivery request. There is nothing our procurement specialist can do, but the supplier cannot. We consciously handed them the “key to the apartment”, because we believe: the more eyes we look after our business, the better it will go.

40. You need to actively manage your corporate culture  Saying that you believe in excellent customer service is easy, but practicing that faith throughout the organization is not easy. If you set such a task, then everyone should be involved in this. If you spend time and resources managing your corporate culture, you are sure that the whole organization is at your fingertips and that people really understand the value of excellent service. If you can build and maintain a service-oriented culture, much of what you would like to do will happen by itself.

41. Beware of the experts. It is tempting to bring in external consultants who promise you a solution to all your problems. Throwing money away on what is proposed to be fixed is so quick and easy, so ... quick and easy. But in reality, nothing is quick and nothing is easy. If that were the case, everyone on earth would run a great company.

Everyone has ups and downs. Keep moving no matter what! .

42. Do your thing no matter what  Do not criticize yourself too much by making mistakes, but be sure to learn from them. Strive to be different, do not do something just because everyone does it, or because experts advise. Do what seems right to your business. When making a decision, do not rely on external experts. In the end, this is your business, and only you can accept it.

43. Learn to delegate  Delegation is one of the most important management skills. Unable to carefully and efficiently issue assignments, you will not be able to advance to a managerial post that requires more responsibility. The first thing you need to clearly articulate the task. Think carefully about what needs to be done. What result do you want to get? Then select performance indicators. What criteria will you apply to assess whether the assignment is completed as it should? And last but not least, a schedule and deadline for completing the assignment.

44. Follow the work of employees  It is not enough to set standards and retire to retire. Monitoring the progress of work is one of the responsibilities of the leader, so you must ensure that the work is done correctly. One of the best control methods is bypass control. This means that the manager regularly visits employees to keep abreast of what is happening. Thanks to such detours, you receive timely information on the progress of work and can quickly take measures to solve problems and make changes.

45. Encourage ideas and suggestions.  Encourage all company employees to express ideas and suggestions on how to reduce costs without compromising the quality of the product or service. Delay and defer all non-essential expenses. Better to lease than buy; renting is preferable to leasing, and borrowing is better than renting. Use creativity and ingenuity to do more at less.

46. \u200b\u200bFocus on the client The client must be the center of attention. Constantly ask what he wants tomorrow. What are his needs and fears, what disturbs him and upsets him? Success in business often brings complacency, which is dangerous for the company. Satisfied people do not want to change anything, they are not inclined to “rock the boat”. This condition is especially dangerous for the leader. But do you not feel complacency? Do you rest on your laurels? Do you believe that your company will survive and prosper if it continues to do the same as it is now and does not change anything? Maybe you yourself are afraid to take risks and do not allow your employees to take risks? If so, then you are leading the company to collapse.

47. Unleash the potential of employees  The average person realizes in the work no more than 50 percent of his potential. Therefore, it is possible to increase the efficiency of the company by uncovering the potential of each employee. To create and maintain an atmosphere of great trust is one of the most important achievements of a leader, especially in times of uncertainty. The manager is obliged to identify the best in his employees. People show themselves best when they feel confident, safe, respected by others, including yours, and know that they are valued and trusted.

48. Increase employee self-esteem  More often than not, people are afraid to be rejected. They fear disapproval, ridicule, shame, and especially criticism. Usually, these fears lurk deep in the soul and wait for an occasion to emerge to the surface in response to someone’s words and hints (especially coming from the boss). The reason for this may well be someone’s look (even a fleeting one) or a negative reaction to some kind of working situation. Create an atmosphere of trust within the work team.

49. Hire slowly, fire quickly  One of the rules for the effective selection of employees is not to rush when hiring, but to fire quickly. It is best to fire a person as soon as such a need arose. If you made a bad decision by hiring the wrong person, do not aggravate the situation by leaving him in the company. Have the courage and common sense to admit your mistake and correct it. And after leaving, continue to do your own thing.

50. Look for the best People are the main thing. After all, everything else can be bought. You can somehow get all the necessary capital, real estate, furniture, inventory, equipment for production and distribution, packaging and marketing materials. But all this works only thanks to people, and now companies are experiencing an unprecedented huge deficit of highly professional employees.

Based on the materials of the books “Business as a Game”, “Hug Your Clients”, “How the Best Manage”, “Delivering Happiness”. P.S .: Liked it? Subscribe to our new coolnewsletter. Every two weeks we send 10 of the most interesting and useful materials from the MYTH blog.

Many people sooner or later come to the conclusion that it is time to stop working for someone else and start their own business. But achieving financial independence is not so simple. One of the most successful businessmen of our time, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, gives advice to his novice colleagues. Just 15 years ago, this simple teacher decided to open his own business.

Today he is known as the creator of the large Internet company Alibaba Group, and his fortune exceeds $ 29 billion. The Financial Times magazine in 2013 called the businessman the man of the year. He is often cited as an example, as a person with a real Chinese entrepreneurial spirit. He gives advice to novice businessmen who will help on the thorny path to success.

Search everywhere for opportunities.  You can’t be shortsighted looking for opportunities for yourself. We must try to capture the whole picture of our financial and professional activities. And after the map has already been drawn up, one must not forget to carefully examine all its corners. Perhaps there lies a previously unnoticed potential opportunity.

Consider all options.  You should not sort the possibilities, clinging to them labels of the impossible or unworthy - you need to use every chance. If there is scope for action, then all efforts must be made to achieve a result. Moving to a big goal is impossible without small victories.

Work with meaning.  You need to clearly understand the current situation and what do you want in general. It is worth asking yourself what is worth working on? Why achieve this particular goal? What else is needed to fulfill the plan?

Act without delay. To succeed, you need to win the race. But this does not mean that you have to constantly rush somewhere, without looking around. Sometimes, in order to gain time, you just need to choose the right direction. And let the strategy be flexible, then it will be possible to adjust their actions in case of possible failures.

Do not get hung up on circumstances.  Many do not even try to start a business, complaining about fate, family, poor education and lack of experience. We must believe that success can be achieved in the chosen activity, regardless of the circumstances. The important thing is not who and where you started to work with, but how much persistence, endurance you showed on the way to the goal and whether there is a winner’s spirit.

Steer ambition in the right direction.  Our activity should help to embody ambitions. It is worth focusing on your goal and moving towards it, not stopping and not turning to the side.

Be brave. When the billionaire was just starting work on his Internet project Alibaba, investors were in no hurry to cooperate with him, warning about the likely loss of the project. However, the Chinese decided to take a chance and guessed. Today, his company is one of the most prosperous in the world, with a capitalization of $ 230 billion. The best way to show courage is to chase your own ambitions.

Youth is a chance.  The businessman assures that if a person is not rich by the age of 35, then he has wasted his youth. Energy and fantasy, which have been in full swing over the years, help to achieve goals. In the future, everything will be more complicated.

Assemble your own team and combine it with a single goal.  Jack Ma assures that success cannot be achieved if the unifying element of the team is only its leader. He needs like-minded people who will follow one goal, live with one idea and create a common mission. If each employee will work not for the sake of the boss, but for the sake of a single task, this will make it possible to use the potential of colleagues to the maximum.

Prepare yourself a replacement.  Do not try to be indispensable. The team should eventually become independent of you. Let the subordinates gain the skills that their leader has. It is worth teaching them this. This will provide an opportunity someday to shift part of their functions to your team. Over time, it will be possible to entrust her with the management of the entire project, and do something else himself.

Work with those who are more professional than yourself. If you have to constantly give advice to your employees and specialists, it means that the wrong people were hired. In their specialty, they should be more qualified than you. The businessman’s task is to hire real professionals and provide them with all the conditions for work. Then you don’t have to interfere in the form of tips.

Be courageous, strong-willed and visionary.  A good leader is distinguished from a mediocre by courage, perseverance and the ability to see the situation a few steps forward. Where others see only problems and risks, the leader must discover opportunities. There are times when a team is ready to give up and retreat. In this position, the leader needs to show his will, find clues for solving problems. It should inspire the team to continue moving towards the goal. Only in this way really significant results are achieved.

The key to success is perseverance.  Moving towards the goal, the team will have to overcome many obstacles. Sometimes they arise already at the very beginning of the movement, it is very important at this moment not to lose heart. Let that very desired goal serve as a beacon. Thanks to perseverance, it will be possible to break through any obstacles and achieve the desired.

Attitude is more important than ability.  At any time, difficult or favorable, the leader must remain calm, purposeful and confident. If you are at the foot and not see the top itself, it will be easy to get scared and turn back. But you can, after all, eventually look at the top already from the heights reached. Achieving the goal depends on the attitude of the management.

Make decisions based on common sense.  It should be understood that the leader may not be a genius who is always smarter than his subordinates. The leader should recruit strong professionals in his team and not be shy to turn to them for advice in difficult situations or when developing a solution. Qualified employees will help you calculate all the risks and choose the best strategy. And it would be better to slowly work out the plan, having considered all the risks and nuances, than to create a large-scale “raw” project and quickly fail with it.

Do not mix business with politics.  If capital is presented as a barrel of gunpowder, then politics is a lit match. If you try to combine both of them, the consequences will be unpredictable. When developing a business, you should forget about trying to influence politics. If there is an ambition to go into power, then it is better to forget about business. The fact is that consistency is the key to success.

Persistence is the result of overcoming difficulties. Awareness of the impending difficulties and readiness for them does not mean anything in itself. Persistence is developed only as a result of overcoming obstacles. Tests will make the leader workable and persistent.

We must work harder and more thoroughly than others.  Want to be a little better and a little more successful? You will have to work more carefully, be attentive and do not forget about your goal. And this simple principle works no matter what the person does.

Even in competition, you should adhere to honest rules.  If you treat your competitors as enemies, then you should prepare for the fact that soon you yourself will become an enemy in their eyes. And around will be only irreconcilable opponents. Let the competition be fair and open. Then, based on clear and transparent rules, it will be easier to win.

Respect your competitors.  We must learn to treat competing companies with the same respect as with our own business. An honest fight leaves everyone an equal chance. Competitors are the same people who are prone to mistakes. But underestimate them and do not respect is not worth it. It happens that those who had not been noticed before were ahead of the favorites.

Behave on an equal footing with competitors.  Just like ourselves, our rivals started somewhere. So even if your company is young and promising, it is worth behaving equally when dealing with the "mastodons" of the market. After all, each of you is an equal participant.

Winners don't cry.  Failures happen at all. They cause irritation and depression, but complaints about life and despondency are a sign of a loser. Anyone will have difficulties and problems, but instead of complaining about rock, all his efforts should be directed towards solving problems. Success can be achieved not by tears, but by hard work.

The customer is the most important.  Any leader has little time and energy, so you should prioritize. Clients should always come first, and only then colleagues. Only after the interests of the first and second are respected, it will be possible to pay attention to shareholders. Many businessmen make a mistake, caring mainly about shareholders. But practice suggests that such a distribution of resources is ineffective.

You can not put money at the forefront. People start their projects not only for money, but because they want to satisfy their spiritual needs and realize their intellectual potential. On the way to the goal, one should be guided by one’s own ambitions, and not chase profit. Greed will push you from the chosen path, you can not give in to it. With determination, money will appear over time.

Work with comfortable people.  When hiring an employee, you need to pay attention not only to his professional data, but also to sociability. The powerful mind of a person does not guarantee that it will be possible to work with him. If you hire a great experienced deputy, it may soon turn out that he simply does not have confidence. And how then to build effective communications? And a solid resume will say little about whether a person is ready to grow and develop with the company. You must hire those with whom you are comfortable. Of these, only then will it be possible to grow specialists of the required level.

Free is very expensive.  Do not get involved in shares on the free distribution of their products. And with competitors information should be shared carefully. You need to understand that the free provision of its resources robs the company of profit. Thus, the money spent on the development of their ideas and their implementation is thrown into the air. Rivals can just get intellectual property. Altruism can be too expensive for an enterprise.

Think with your own head.  The important thing is not what they are trying to convey to us, but what is in our head. We must constantly make sense of everything around us, draw conclusions and make decisions based on our own point of view.

Listen to your heart.  This advice does not contradict the previous one. Sometimes it’s worth trusting decisions based on your intuition. She will help in the selection of personnel, in the formulation of strategic objectives. One can be greatly surprised at how true the decision was made by the heart, and not the mind.

Do not forget to enjoy life.  Our life is not only work. Who wants to devote himself to one race for the result and die ahead of time from a heart attack in the workplace? That is why it is necessary to find time and give rest to the soul and body. Would it be bad to spend time with family and friends, spend it on your favorite pastime, travel? If you devote your whole life to work alone, then it will be too late to regret it later.

The worst is giving up ambition. When we leave an unfinished business and admit defeat, we practically refuse a part of ourselves. After all, abandoning a dream, we will not be able to find out what they are actually capable of. It is worth changing your strategy and adjust your goals if necessary. But you must never give up!

Many people dream of starting their own business, but uncertainty often becomes a stopping factor. It is important to force yourself to leave the “comfort zone” and follow your goal.

The experience of many businessmen will help you develop the right strategy and start your own business. Remember that successful people also began their journey into the unknown, but overcame doubts, preferring to develop, rather than waiting for the right occasion or “good man” who would do everything for them.

1. Be prepared to become a risky person. Make informed decisions, carefully weigh the steps, but be prepared for the fact that you will need decisive action on the verge. Do not try to act thoughtlessly, relying on fate. Only you are responsible.

2. Do not forget that you will have to develop daily and keep up to date. Stay afloat and become competitive will help new knowledge and skills that you can apply to grow your business.

Hello dear readers. Remember I wrote an article? There I mentioned one good book, “Start Small. Rules of doing business from the founder of Subway. " And in this article I just want to write a short review and my opinion about the book, and also say why I consider it one of the best for a novice entrepreneur. So, let's begin!

What is this book about

In the book, author Fred DeLuc talked about how he and his friend opened the first Subway diner and how the business developed further. I was surprised that such a large network of eateries was open with $ 1,000 of initial investment. The author also talks about his acquaintances who opened their business projects from several tens of dollars to several thousand initial investments, and came out with huge profits. The message is precisely that you can make a business with small investments if you are driven by passion, big goals and desire.

It really is! I completely agree with the author, because I started with 500 rubles in my pocket to create this site “How to make money.ru”, and all my other projects with a slightly higher amount, but it’s a penny anyway compared to what income from the projects were the result.

Why is this book one of the best

For a novice entrepreneur who is just starting, support is needed and there is one in the book. In a book in simple language, the author gives recommendations that will really help a novice entrepreneur in difficult situations, motivate him and show what he is doing wrong and what is right. There are no step-by-step instructions or anything similar, the book sets out everything from the point of view of the psychology of business, which provides food for thought. And this is awesome!

Subway founder business rules

1. Start small. This is better than not starting at all. (True!)
2. Earn a few cents before you start earning dollars. (Pure truth. The main thing is to start earning at least a penny.)
3. Start is an idea. Perhaps she’s under your nose. (Many try to invent something supernatural, but more often than not, ideas lie on the surface.)
4. Be far-sighted. Always imagine the big picture. (You need to know what you want to come up with. Learn to set goals.)
5. Believe in yourself and your business, even when others do not believe. (Faith must always be.)
6. Get ready, fire, aim! If you think too much, you risk never starting. (This is the mistake of many beginning entrepreneurs. Everyone tries to “suck” the idea to the smallest detail, find a bunch of difficulties and don’t start. But the process could be different, you need to solve problems as they arrive and try everything.)
7. Profit or loss. Increase sales and lower prices. If you do not do this, then your business will perish. (Without profit, your business will not last for a long time and you need to try to get it as soon as possible. About the price reduction in the book, the author means that you need to try to reduce costs in every way and reduce the cost of the product or service less.)
8. Be positive. Then the blows received at the school of life will not knock you down. (Positive should always be otherwise you will quickly burn out.)
9. Constantly improve your business. This is the best way to attract customers, make sales and generate revenue. (There is no limit to perfection, you need to constantly improve your business, come up with something new for its development. If you stop, then soon you will be overtaken by others.)
10. Trust your people, otherwise you are in trouble. (You need to surround yourself in business only with the best people and without fear of delegating work to them. It's difficult, but you need to be able to trust.)
11. Never spend all your money. This is the most important business lesson. (This is so. You should always have reserve money and this is not only in business, but also in everyday life.)
12. Attract new customers daily. The model of consumer behavior always works: familiarity with the product, testing - use. (Each new customer is an investment in the future. If he did not buy it now, then he can buy it later.)
13. Be persistent. Do not give up. If you quit, you will definitely lose. (I would advise you to apply this rule not only in business, but also in life. If there is at least some chance, use it to the last. Be persistent in everything and achieve your goal.)
14. Give the brand a name. Treasure your reputation. (When you are already known, the risk of stumbling increases for you and you are more thoroughly approaching decision-making processes.
15. Opportunities do not wait for anyone. Fractures happen, but the way you use them makes them good or bad. (This point goes all the way to goosebumps. I often talk about this. Do not miss the opportunities that come up to you. Every opportunity can change your life beyond recognition. I am grateful that I learned this lesson a long time ago and only because of this gradually develops as I want.)

Conclusion

This is just a small review of the book, and I highly recommend that you read it. You can buy at Ozone  in electronic version (it’s cheaper just like that). But I'm used to printed books, so I spend a lot of time in front of a laptop and my eyes get tired. In general, read and do not forget to share your opinions about the book in the comments.

Regards, Schmidt Nikolai