10 mistakes and lessons that I shared at the third edition of FuckUp Nights Madrid. You have to own up to your mistakes and share them if they can help others.
FuckUp Nights began in Mexico in 2012, when five entrepreneurs decided to get together to talk about their failures and mistakes over a few “chelas” (beers) to make it lighter and more fun, and the event quickly spread to other cities and countries.
In Madrid it was Javier Moral Ruiz, a hyperactive man in the entrepreneurial, creative and coworking ecosystem, who decided to launch it. The venue is perfect too: our friends at Utopic_Us are up for anything that breaks the mould.
So my friend Javier talked me into going to bare my professional soul at one of the FuckUp Nights. As most of my experience comes from 20 years as an intrapreneur working for other people, and barely 3 as a micro-business owner, these are the mistakes and lessons I talked about.
Here is the presentation I gave, live and in person:
After working my socks off for other people in companies of every size, running a couple of SMEs and finally launching my own company, these are some of the mistakes and lessons I have picked up along the way. I hope you find them useful.
1- Never take more than 24 hours to reply to a client and send them a proposal. Even if you take more than 2 hours, your competitors may have replied faster. Maximum focus on the client, always. Practise consultative selling, solve their problems, don’t sell them snake oil.
2- Bullshit: on the 1st of every month you are worth nothing again, you start from zero, no matter what you sold the month before or the months before that. Don’t let your guard down; sow the seeds and look for clients so that you don’t reach the end of the month with zero sales.
3- Don’t put all your eggs in one basket: diversify your sources of income and have a plan B in case things don’t go well in a company. Don’t have a client on whom 70% of your income depends. A client is not for ever: look after all of them, big and small, and try to grow the business with each one.
4- Find ambassadors for your brand: identify the clients or users who are true fans of your brand, heavy users who even defend your brand or company tooth and nail. Once you know who they are, reach out to them, get to know them better, look after them, give them unique benefits and give them visibility.
5- Connect online with offline and vice versa. Design 360º marketing and communication campaigns; everything is connected. Even if you are 100% online, get close to your clients and users at events, trade fairs and conferences. Any excuse is a good one: you will gain credibility and trust.
6- Don’t work yourself into the ground for a company, a position or a boss (least of all a bad boss). If you work for someone else you will almost always be a number, and however much you have done in the past, if things go badly they will make you get off the boat. Learn from bad bosses precisely how not to be when you manage people yourself.
7- Be a star: strive for excellence in your work, be unique and even try to become indispensable. Leave your mark wherever you work. Act as if you were the CEO of the company, even if you are a salesperson, an administrator or the finance person; fly your company’s flag.
8- Professional networking: it is more effective to be present at professional events, talks and conferences, or to work with and sponsor certain niche events, than to put up a banner. Look after your brand identity in the digital world, and leave a record online of everything you do offline through videos, photos, tweets and posts.
9- Run away from ungrateful people: if you come across people who only ask you for favours, contacts and help and never return them, BIG NO-NO, don’t trip over the same stone twice. Run away from negative people too, the ones who put obstacles in the way of everything. Look for people with whom you can have a win-win relationship.
10- Hire self-employed professionals: from a secretary to a finance or marketing person, always proactive people who don’t drown in a glass of water. People who have complete autonomy in their area or department, who pull their weight and suggest new things and improvements for your company. Don’t be afraid to let go of people who aren’t up to the job.
And you, what mistakes have you made or lessons have you learnt?
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