- According to Shark Tank's Robert Herjavec, speed is the most important aspect of running a business.
- Moving quickly is the best way for entrepreneurs to stand out in a massive playing field.
- Learning to say no is one of the best tools to learn to use when trying to compress time.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Following is a transcript of the video.
Robert Herjavec: You're not gonna sleep a lot. My five tips for entrepreneurs. Don't look to start a business, look for a problem. Too many people think about, "Ah, I got to start a business to do this or to do that." The best businesses are ones that find a problem.
So tip No. 1: Find a problem, solve it.
Tip No. 2: Ask a paying customer.
People are deathly afraid of rejection. They'd rather take a fake "yes" than a real "no." Get the truth. It's better to have your heart broken up front before you sink a lot of money into it.
Tip No. 3: Make sure you have enough cash to pay the rent 'cause it's gonna take a long time for a business to generate cash.
My dad had a tip. He said, "It's good to dream. It's good to want to be big. But rule No. 1: Pay the rent."
Tip No. 4: Narrow your field of focus.
Don't try to do 20 things. You know, if you want to build a great business, be great at one thing. The narrower the niche, the more expertise you have to have.
Tip No. 5, my final tip: If you're gonna compete in a big market, move quickly.
If you move fast, they can't catch you. You know, before I started my own business, I thought I understood moving quickly, and what I realized when I started my business is you're responsible for everything. Coffee doesn't show up on time: You're responsible for it. There's no toilet paper: You're responsible for it. Nobody cleaned my desk: I'm responsible for it.
And so what happens when you start a business is you have so many hours, but the amount of responsibility goes to this, so you've got to compress time. Being a great entrepreneur is all about compressing time. You got to go fast, baby.
*Bonus: How to move fast
There's multiple ways to go fast. The first one is: Learn to say "no." I'm pretty, I'm a pretty nice guy, but I'm pretty... if I don't want to do it, I'm just gonna say "no."
Tip No. 2: Hold other people accountable. If it's your job to do something, it's not my job to do it for you. So learned a long time ago is hold people accountable to stuff, and don't be afraid to tell them when they messed up.
The other one is, yes, be more efficient, do it faster.
Do it, and, you know, the last one is: You're not gonna sleep a lot. People always say to me, "Oh, gosh, you sleep so little. I wish I could do that." And I'm like, it's not a gene that I have. It's just there's so much to do. You gotta get it done.