Thank you. It took me longer than I planned, but it was time well spent.

Seth has a great way of framing things.

I love that Seth gives such practical advice that many of us over look. We get so excited about starting our own business up that we forget about the basics.

As long as your wowed from the heart, works for me

@ Giovanna

Thank you. It actually took me a pretty long time to boil it down. Freelancer vs. entrepreneur is my favorite part too.

@ Jason

I can safely say it’s taken me a few trips through to boil it down.

Financial discipline is a great way to put it. I’ve seen too many smart people fail here, that should have otherwise succeeded. Passion got in the way of profit instead of working together.

@ Tom

Thank you. The more I study Seth, the more I’m impressed. He’s sharp and insightful, and best of all, he’s great at sharing what he knows. He’s got a way with mental model and metaphors.

@ Louisa

Thank you Louisa. It actually makes my head spin, but it’s great to finally have a concise set of key points.

@ Jannie

What’s cool is you have a lot of options for who you hang with thanks to the Web.

It’s so cutting to ask how much customers are willing to pay — it helps you get a handle on the intrinsic value and the market value.

Sounds like you have a good team and compliment each other well.

And I like this a lot… “Surround yourself with people who are succeeding. You become who you hang with. By surrounding yourself with people who are succeeding, you’ll learn what’s working and what’s not. You can model their success and open doors that you might otherwise not see.” THAT makes TOTAL sense.

How much are customers willing to pay for your product is a good one too. Thank goodness my husband runs our business, as I am always afraid to charge too much but he gets right in there and doesn’t bat at an eye when he quotes a price.

As for this article, it is a great summary and something worth bookmarking.

Here are my key take-aways, which resonate with my recent business thinking:
– Freelancers are most focused on doing the work and want a paycheck for it. They don’t care so much about building a business as about doing the things they love with some independence and supporting their lifestyle.
– Entrepreneurs care about the business first. A true entrepreneur will understand not just the business but also the work that needs to be done, but in the end its about building the business.
– Business to business is much easier to break into then business to consumer. The customers are more predictable and have more budget to spend. You can get away with smaller volume and higher revenue per transaction, which reduces your scalability risks and costs.
– As a small business you can thrive on opportunities that the big companies will pass by. There are a million niches to be filled, most of which are too small for a Microsoft think twice about. Birds cleaning the hippos is a great visual!
– Financial discipline and an understanding of business principles is key. No matter how good your idea and business model is, you will fail without financial discipline. Money is the lifeblood of a business – you can’t let it spill all over the floor.

This is a fantastic post, well done. A lot of tips, keys points all the goods.

What I found most interesting is the different between freelancer or entrepreneur.

Thank you,
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Acton