Cultivating Capital is my first venture, and I’m already learning lessons the way they were meant to be learned – through experience. So far, these are my first three lessons learned:

1. With free, you get what you pay for: When it comes to starting a business, it’s tempting to look for ways to cut costs. In fact, the savvy entrepreneur knows that keeping startup costs low is important. However, it’s also important to be careful about going to the extreme and accepting offers for free logos, websites, or other support. I made this mistake and wasted a lot of time in the process. Finally, I realized that the logo and website were critical to my business and I needed to hire professionals to do the work. I did this, and the results were much better than what I was going to get from the free help. One important point related to this is that not only will the work generally be better, but offers of free services tend to be low priority, so your project may languish.
2. Forget American Express, don’t leave home without your business cards: A few months ago, I found myself in Anaheim preparing to meet my cousin and his family for dinner. As I left the hotel room, I decided to travel light and left my wallet with business cards. “I’m going to Disneyland; I won’t be needing my business cards tonight,” I thought to myself. Sure enough, my cousin’s friend, a small business owner, joined us. Over dinner, we got to talking about business and as luck would have it, at the end of the night he asked for my business card. Doh! Lesson learned: if you’re asked for a business card while with your family at Disneyland, you could be asked anywhere. Be prepared.
3. Find the right balance between planning and action: On the spectrum of planning to action, I lean more towards the planning side. I’m a firm believer in working strategically, so that any new project is undertaken to meet specific goals. This involves engaging in a planning process to be clear about my goals, developing a strategy, and identifying the tactics to achieve those goals. However, at a certain point planning becomes ineffective and you just have to get started. Other people fall on the other end of the spectrum – rushing into action without having a clear idea about their goals and strategy. This can result in a needless waste of two of the most important resources in your business: time and money. Remember the old business adage:  “Planning without action is futile, action without planning is fatal.”

I know that these are just the first three of the lessons I will learn as an entrepreneur and small business owner. After all, every startup learns lessons the hard way. What lessons have you learned as an entrepreneur?

Related posts:

1. Tips for 2010 Year-End Business Planning