My Top Business Tips | Mona Kattan |
Hi. Baba. Do you want to be in my video. Hi guys welcome back to my channel, today we're going to do a very important video, something that really means so much to me from the very beginning, of when i first launched my social media on, facebook. Instagram. Snapchat. Everywhere, and now youtube, the main request i always get asked about is business advice, and how to start a business, how to help your business grow if you're struggling, and because i've been a serial, entrepreneur. In the past, and now you know with my family we have our own business i would really love to share with you guys everything i've learned it's been a lot i've had a lot of, experiences. Some failures. Some successes. But a lot to share and learn with you guys, and just before we get started as always i want to remind you guys to please subscribe to my channel, and if you like this video please, like it and comment below, i love engaging, with you guys and it means a lot to me every time you guys, share this video, thank you so much for all of your support, the very first piece of advice i'd like to share with you guys is to really really figure out what is your intention, of starting, this business. What is your why like i didn't, look at my why until, years after launching our business, and i really tried to dig deep and figure out like why are we starting this brand why did we create this but i feel like if i would have started it earlier on and really question the purpose behind everything, i feel like i would have been much stronger, very early on so now, being a fan of simon sinek i'm always questioning, my why and i'm questioning my intentions, before i start anything in life whether it's a business. A project, a new hobby that i'm doing i'm like why do i want to do this so i think it's really important to understand, yourself and understand, why you want to start this new venture, is it because, you have passion, for, what this business is trying to solve in terms of the problems, it's solving, is it because you want to create something special, and you just love creativity. Is because you just want to achieve something, figure it out it's really really important, and just trust me when i say this don't just start a business to start a business because being an entrepreneur. Is cool, it's not cool. It's a lot of work it's a lot of hard times, and truthfully. For the most part, almost, every big success, took 10 years in the making, so it's not an easy, journey it's not an easy ride it takes time it takes patience, and perseverance, and that's why you really really really have to have that purpose behind you otherwise you're probably going to give up or you're probably just not going to create something special and unique, so really really try to dig in deep and find out that intention, and set your intention, if you don't know what your intentions, are start journaling, start writing your feelings, write why you love, x one of my first businesses, that i ever created was a beauty salon, and why did i do it because i loved getting pampered, and i loved pampering, people i loved making people feel better so when people used to walk into, our salon, and leave i would feel so happy i would just see them, different i'd see them with more confidence, i'd see them happy, i love seeing that transformation. Of people's feelings, and to me that's something that always, fascinated, me and that's another reason why we started huda beauty and then now kayelli, it's like that confidence, i want to give to people, is something i'm so passionate, about the next piece of advice i'd recommend. Is to do your research, and when i say that i mean it so hard, research, as much as you possibly, can make, google your, best. Friend really you'll be so surprised with what you can find on google like google everything, like if you want to start as an example, a perfume brand research like what are the steps to creating a perfume brand what are the best perfume manufacturers.
What Are the best perfume, brands, research the history, of the top performing brands how did they get started how did they create their best, juices, you know research, everything, about that business. And we're so lucky, we are born in an age where information, is everywhere. The access, to, other people's information, is so easy you know back in the day in our parents time they had to read books they had to go to libraries they had to read newspapers, like we are so fortunate, we have, so much, amazing, valuable, knowledge at our fingertips. And it's, insane, so really there's no excuse, to not be informed, you need to read, research, as much as you can, take notes and create like excel sheets like i had an excel sheet on everything, when we got started i used to reach research, every single factor of the business you know whatever it was if i was looking for a supplier, for our softwares, that we needed to use i would research, top, erp, softwares, and i would research all of them and then weigh the pros and cons of each one look at people's, feedback. Customer, reviews, before picking that supplier, and this is just very important you know the more research you have the less mistakes, you're going to make, most likely, and you learn from other people's mistakes, which is amazing, and you're going to be saving so much time it'll take time to read i'll take time to organize your research but the amount of time it will save you is definitely, worth it completely worth it another thing that's really important before you get started, is to create, a plan create a business plan the same way you would if you were in university, or if you're working in a company whenever you have a new project a new idea it's really important to create a step-by-step, plan or at least a tentative, step-by-step, plan you don't have to follow it but having it written out is so important, it really helps you you'll be surprised so many people get started and they don't have things written out and then they wonder why they're lost you need to write things down have a plan have contingency. Plans, have alternatives, like if that doesn't work out then i have these three options, just keep writing down different ideas, and different, steps that you can take in order to make your business succeed, in all different areas so whether it's in the marketing. And the product, development, the supply, chain, hiring employees, hr like every single area have plans, in place and have it written down please write it down it changes, everything. Another piece of advice, and this is, super. Super crucial, is, you have to be your own boss and what i mean by this is you need to manage yourself, a lot of people when they decide to be self-employed. Or they decide to become an entrepreneur. They're like oh i'm gonna wake up at 10, and start working at 11 or 12, and then you know i'll work till 10 pm, no you need to be your own boss if you don't want to have a bus you've got to be your own boss and that's something i strongly, believe in if you don't want someone to micromanage. You you manage you and that's a big mistake i see with a lot of entrepreneurs, and this goes back to why are you being an entrepreneur if it's to take it easy and relax, trust me, it's not going to last very long you're probably not going to go very far of course there's very few people who are the exception, and there's a few people who took it easy and you know were lucky and they had some great successes, and their great ideas worked for them without them really putting in the hard work but that's, very rare, most people need to work super super hard to make something, out of their idea and to make it last, it's very easy to create, an idea a new business and make it last for the first, six months the first year the first three years but beyond, that, it's, super hard to take a business from year three, to year 10 and on, that takes a lot of work and it takes the team it takes building an incredible team so you cannot take it easy create a good routine, a very solid, routine.
Have A schedule, in place i'm a big believer in waking up super early pre corona, time i was waking up about 5 30. now i wake up typically at 6 15, and i train first thing in the morning and i'm starting to work from 8 am i'm on my emails and i'm trying to catch up before anybody else because i want to be ahead of everyone, and that's super important so manage yourself, have a very strict routine even if you're a one-woman, show or a one-man show and you're on your own and, you're self-employed. Take it seriously, and give yourself office hours give yourself working hours, and treat your time, very preciously, because it is super precious it's your biggest, commodity, and the most valuable thing you have, so please make sure to discipline, yourself, i've had that experience in my life when i first was self-employed. For the first, year, maybe year, two years even when i first started, a pr agency with a friend i took it very lightly and very easy, and i didn't discipline, myself i used to wake up at 10 a.m, and start working, here and there and it was all over the place and i was like no no i'm a night person, i want to work at night and i want to do my thing and trust me i didn't get very far you know i did well but not very well it wasn't, something that was built, to, create, and sustain, and grow, and hire people it was it was like self-employed, one-woman, show type of thing well two people show is me and my partner but i didn't go very far and you wouldn't you know if you want to create something really incredible, you really have to be disciplined, and take it seriously, and create, an amazing, routine, another important area we have to talk about, is having, the right finances. This kind of combines, research, and planning together, because you never really know you never, are spot on it's really difficult to anticipate, how much financial, capital you need for any business, and trust me through all of my experiences, and i've had, a lot from small projects to big projects i've done so many different things that you're never, like right with your forecasting, you've got to leave about, 50. To 100. Contingency, planning, depending on how big the project is but it's hard it's really hard to to understand how much you need but research. Really saves, a lot of that, room for error like the more research you have the closer you're probably going to be to the amount, of capital you need but plan well, and, definitely, plan, to have enough finances, to cover, the first six months, without having any income maybe even the first year because you just never know and trust me one of the biggest issues, is not having enough capital that's the main reason most businesses, tank it's not because they don't have great ideas and sometimes it's not because they don't have customers, it's because they just don't have the right funding, and cash flow and cash flow, is like the oxygen. For your your business you know if you don't have it you just can't you can't continue, or have a backup plan switch your banks in advance, try to get lending try to find a seed investor, try to create a gofundme, account do something to where you have access to funds and at least you have at least, researched, again researched, five to ten options, of what you will do if you need to get cash fast because, time flies, when you're running your own business, and, it's really difficult, to, get this done fast enough so have a plan, so it can go a bit faster, and another thing super important, to note, is, make sure when you first get started, not to pay yourself a crazy salary keep it super minimal because you want to reinvest. Everything that you're earning into growing your business, a lot of people will will, start doing really well early on and they'll jack up their salaries, and then they'll end up spending all their money and then their business needs money and they're screwed that either have to go to banks and get, loans at crazy, interest rates or they have to find other partners to invest and lose equity in their business early on so it's really important to be mindful, and just try to limit your spending, you know try to take care of your own finances. Because, truly your business is a reflection, of your own, behaviors, if you take care of your finances, you're probably going to take care of your business finances, and vice versa it's not always the case but usually that is the situation. And if you do have a team just try to teach them to be very mindful, of they call it like pinching pennies, everywhere you can be mindful of every single invoice, check every invoice. Make sure that you are really coming through every single thing early on because, when it grows, really big you're going to lose track and you're not going to be able to check everything very thoroughly, but if you start it from the very beginning you're going to have a great idea of where your costs, are and where you can save, and you'll just have a better grasp, on the business.
And Another thing with finances. Is try to stay very, very very scrappy. You don't need to spend a lot of money most of the time, and that's something that you know hood and i have talked about before, is just like when we first got our investors. And when our business kind of took off and things, became a little bit more comfortable, we lost, our scrappiness, for a short amount of time we started hiring, agencies, for things that we could have done in-house, things that we would have never, done before. And we realized we were wasting a lot of money, and to be honest i hate to say this but a lot of times, you're overpaying, when you hire agencies, majority of the times especially if they're big fancy agencies with like big titles, and like they're really well known you're most of the time overpaying. A lot of money just to have this agency, work on your things and you don't get the value so be scrappy, put your thinking cap on even if you have investors and you have big budgets, think scrappy, don't be wasteful, like question, every dollar you spend, in your business make sure you have the right return, it's so easy to, run out of cash when you have your own business trust me like you just don't understand, how many finances, how many expenses, come up that you don't anticipate. So be prepared, the next. Tip i have is to make sure that you keep, every single thing documented. When it comes, to, keeping an email chain of everything that you do, keeping records of everything, when it comes to your finances. If you're still starting out and you're very new you can keep things in excel but i do recommend, investing, in a financial, software, and accounting, software. Get great lawyers to review, all your contracts early on and this is something that i highly, recommend. There's this quote i love, and it's i can't remember exactly. How it said or who said it but it's if you think a professional, is expensive, hire an amateur. And i strongly. Believe in that and i think when it comes to, your legal documents, like that's the one thing that you should invest in more than anything because, when you're signing contracts whether it's a partnership, agreement, whether it's a big business contract with like a supplier. Whatever it is this is something, that could, make or break you in the future if you don't know what you're signing so have, a good lawyer on hand, and, interview, lawyers like something that i didn't realize you can do very early on is like you don't have to go with the first person you meet like i would meet people and then feel bad for wasting their time so i'd end up working with them but you can't do that every time you want x whether it's a lawyer an accountant, firm, whatever it is interview, three or four people get proposals, get rates and if they don't want to give you the time to interview, to spend time with you to share like how they are and how they're going to be with you when they work with you they're not the right partner just, you don't need people like that if they're not willing to invest, half an hour just give you a background, of like how they work just forget about them but interview people, find the right partners, and get the best, lawyers if you're going to invest in anything when you start out invest in a good lawyer, keep records, keeping your invoices, keeping receipts, keeping track of your expenses, that's another thing that a lot of people don't do and it bites them in the butt in the future whether it comes to like their taxes, that they run into, and they haven't kept receipts, to show, what they've actually spent on their business or whether it comes to investors, in the future who want to see how did you invest this money and you don't have proof it's very important so keep everything, documented. If you have meetings with people, either you send them the meeting notes in an email, or you have them send you it vice versa like talk about what you discussed, and put it in an email that's also something that i didn't do early on which i do regret but now i do it so make sure you always send either a message or an email that documents, what was discussed.
Super Important, another tip i have, is if your business, is consumer, facing like a consumer, good or service. Get a lot of research. And, become. That founder of the business that can, create content, and become, a community, leader, in that industry, now we're so lucky again you know being, born in this digital, age and having our businesses, born during these times it's so amazing, how we can create a community, so fast so if you really become an expert in your field and you build that authenticity. Can't talk today. Authenticity. Around the product, you're probably going to build a great community, that's going to trust you a lot faster, to buy into your products so it's really important, to really have that amazing, authentic. Knowledge. And community, around you to really become, that authority. In your field whatever it is that you're passionate, about like for me it's you know perfume. So, i think a lot of people have followed me throughout my journey and they know this is like not something i'm doing for business, at all it's like considering how much perfume i bought i probably haven't made money off of it yet. Like i probably haven't even broken even but it's a passion, i'm like i'm doing this because i love it so much and i believe in creating something special. And that shines through people can tell when you're just doing things to make money it's very hard to hide, your truth, these days it's very easy to see people's intentions so if your attention, is just to make money, don't waste your time, get into finance, and banking, and just stocks. Not entrepreneurship. So another piece of advice i'd recommend, is to take yourself. Not too seriously, where you're just frigid, and, rigid, but just remember that you are a representation. Of yourself, so represent, yourself in a way that you want to be, treated if you want people to take you seriously, be early to meetings if you want people to respect your time, respect, their time don't be like oh, i'll be there, at like you know seven and then you show up at like 7 30 eight like for me people treat me that way i'm like done i'm not gonna ever consider, them as someone i take seriously, with work you also need to think about that you've got to be there early.
You've Got to be prepared. Come with notes come with questions, like take things very seriously, and represent, yourself and you lead by example, so even if you're a one person, show, just pretend, you have a team and that you're leading, by example. So you do what you'd want other people to do don't be like oh well i'm the boss so i don't have to like do things properly, no that's not the right mentality, to have you have to set the standard, and you set the standard by the way you act and the by the way you perform, so keep your standards, really, really high another, piece of advice, is to really focus, on your network, they always say like your network, is your net worth right so, it really, is important to have, the right contacts, in your industry and even out of your industry but first i would focus on your industry, find out like research who are the important players, that you need to associate, yourself with like people that you can get in contact with for future business, try to network, join, groups, join, forums. Join, talks, and conversations. Go to, business talks there's so many amazing talks happening all the time obviously. Not during, corona, days join them try to find any that you can be a part of and just try to find people that you really, like to connect with and learn from them ask questions do not be afraid, that's another thing like never be afraid to ask questions, you'll be so surprised, how much people love to talk, when you ask people questions they love to answer, so if you find somebody who's been in business, of the industry, that you, are trying to go into, ask them about it say what was your best, experience, you've had what is the thing you're most proud of what was your biggest mistake, you know and nice people will share there's some people who won't which is fine but nice people will be like you know what this happened and it really sucked, don't do that try to follow my advice. You'd be really surprised how many people are willing to help, and another thing that i really recommend, is having.
A Mentor, or mentors. Like you can have quite a few, i have a lot of people in my life who i go to for advice, for different reasons, and i think it's important to have multiple, ones because you don't want to just have one person who you rely, on because then you might kind of be one-sided. I think ask multiple, people who you trust and who you look up to for advice, and they can be your close friends they can be family, or even not i kind of prefer them not to be because, i think your family and your friends will always have a more personal relationship, with you so it's kind of hard for them to switch off and take you, seriously in a professional, way so i think finding somebody who has experience, in your field, can learn from everyone and again another thing is like, youtube. Youtube, is like amazing. I am such a big, content consumer, on youtube i always, youtube search, questions that i have and it's so crazy how many amazing, videos, are here online. For free, it's just incredible, then if you have more questions you can go through the comments and you see people kind of go back and forth and like discussing, things such a great resource, just incredible. Use it to your advantage, another piece of advice i'd have to say is trust your intuition. And your gut, i'm a big believer in this more than anything because i think it was kind of the reason behind majority of my mistakes that i've ever made were from not trusting my intuition, so i think it's really really important to listen to yourself. And journal as much as you can, a lot of being a successful, entrepreneur. Comes from having a really great balanced routine, like taking care of yourself, mental work that you do the journaling. Speaking to great life coaches, great therapists. Having, all of that, work done, actually really helps your business, too so, you should take it seriously even if you're not an entrepreneur, but if you are an entrepreneur, you need to take it more seriously, because, you have impact on so many people's lives so you really need to make sure you're at the best state to make sure that they have the best. State as well. I do think it's really important, to, trust your intuition. Because sometimes. What happens, is you'll go to meetings, and especially when you start hiring, people who, have a lot of experience. They'll tell you the way things were done, before. And, you do second guess yourself sometimes like as a entrepreneur. Or a founder, who doesn't have a lot of experience you think oh well this person, has worked in this industry, for five ten years they must know better, a lot of times when we when we listen to other people, in certain things not everything of course, it was a mistake. Because we didn't go with our gut feeling, of of innovating. And being a challenger. And, innovation, takes courage. It takes risks. But if your gut is telling you to do something or explore, something, try to channel that it's talking to you for a reason, and you're probably onto something, so trust yourself. Another piece of advice, i would say, is to really, be, patient. And trust the process, and i know it's like a cliche. And people probably, hate hearing people to tell them to be patient when they're so, ambitious. And passionate, and when you're really really working so hard on something for so long and you don't see the results you want it's so easy to be like oh, you know fed up and you want to give up but, you cannot, if you never give up you will eventually get there you got to keep trying and really majority, of the inspiration. I got before even, venturing, into entrepreneurship. Was reading about, amazing. Stories, of people who, created, amazing empires, for themselves, but a lot of those times, it took them, 10, sometimes, 20 years, but isn't it worth it isn't it worth it if you're following your dreams and your passion, and you really want to create something incredible. It's worth it. Trust me it's worth it a lot of people, can be short-sighted, and it makes me sad when i see people say you know oh if i have to dedicate, five ten years that's too long no, what is the alternative, living a life of no passion, and not following your dreams, and being just average or even below average, of what you could be you've got to be your best self and to be your best self you need to live authentically.
And Passionately. And you need to follow your dreams don't give up count every single blessing along the way like every time something good happens, be grateful for it send that gratitude, to the person who helped you like when you get a customer. Send them gratitude, if you get a client, send them gratitude, let people know how grateful you are for, their business and let them feel it genuinely, and it will show again it all shows like when you are grateful it shows when you're not it also shows, treat people with kindness, respect, and gratitude. And be patient, and trust me everything, will eventually, come together, you just have to trust the process. That's my quote for today. So i really hope you guys enjoyed, this video, it's something that i've been wanting to do, forever. And if i've left anything out and you guys have more questions, please comment below, i would love to help you guys as much as i possibly can and i really want you to, hopefully avoid a lot of the mistakes, i made so please, whatever you could learn from today's video please implement, it it will definitely save you time, and probably money so please take it very seriously, and if you guys have any advice for me as well if you have any tips that maybe you've experienced, please share it as well i love learning from you guys also, love you so much, until next. Time. You.
2020-09-17 00:52
