‘Tis the season to be thankful. I’ve been reflecting on my past managers, coaches, leaders, coworkers, associates, and contacts I’ve met along the way to starting my own company. I am so thankful that I’ve been surrounded by super successful people at each venture. From being a part of an award winning culture at Best Buy while I was in high school to working along side the top bankers in the country at Chase Bank and US Bank, all before I was 22. I made sure to be a student of their successes. What did they do differently? How did they get to where they’re at? I’ve been compiling some of their pieces of advice and want to share it with you in this blog series; What every entrepreneur should know.

Have something to add? Feel free to send me a text, an email, or leave a comment.

This blog series will be a sharing of thoughts, a compiling of stories, an application of sorts. I will take the different situations and advice I’ve received and put it into a context pertaining to entrepreneurs. What every entrepreneur should know.

I’ll cover topics like how to manage finances, what marketing activities to invest in and which to avoid, best practices that others have used to be consistent and successful, mistakes I’ve made and others have made and what they learned from it, how to balance all the stresses of running a business, and many more. This is meant to be collaborative. So, if one blog speaks to you, leave a comment. Share it! Let others knows why it meant so much to you.

To get the series started, I’d like to share possibly the best advice I’ve ever received. This is definitely an indicator that I didn’t listen the first time; I’ve been given this advice by at least 5 people at various times in my life.

I’m very thankful that the most recent person I heard this from, Dr. Brian Smith of IA Business Advisors, has been a steady and patient person giving this piece of advice multiple times. He’s said “Slow down. Do less and do it better.” What this means is that rushing into a decision, a project, a new business venture, a new client relationship, a conversation, anything really, could mean you haven’t thought about all the implications, other factors, or the bigger picture.

I’m not the only one he gives this advice to. He actually wrote an entire chapter about slowing down in his book, Find the I in Team. It’s something I think every entrepreneur should know. Going too fast causes mistakes and oversights that can be very expensive.

But, how does one slow down? Dr. Smith says it takes will power. I would quickly (no pun intended) agree. Slowing down begins with recognizing one’s desire to go too quickly and then implementing a self check to combat this reaction. For me, I’ve had to write a reminder above my desk; “Quality over Quantity”. I look at this saying at least once an hour. What it means is that I shouldn’t be focused on doing a million things; even though I tend to have a to-do list a mile long. I need to do less so that I can do them with higher quality. Take the time to do the homework. Ask others for their opinion. Listen to them.

Have you ever found yourself rushing through things only to make a huge and costly mistake? What happened? Did someone in your life have to tell you to slow down?

If there’s a single piece of advice that every entrepreneur should know, what would it be?