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Lessons for the Entrepreneur and Future Business Owner

Instead of focusing on a specific topic within marketing, music, or tech, I would like to talk about the big lessons I have learned in my seven years of running a business.  This list will best apply to you if you are in a service-based industry.  I don’t know if any amount of school or training would have prepared me for the rollercoaster ride of running a boutique marketing services company.

Just a bit of background on me.  Being totally transparent, I fell into the marketing/music field by complete accident.  I was fortunate enough to know the members of LA jam band kings, Particle, well before they even played their first gigs.  I was their first fan, first street team member, and first employee (marketing director).  I parlayed my experience working with Particle into starting my own marketing business called FanManager in 2005.  This was only after a mutual friend of the band kicked me in the butt and asked me why I wasn’t starting my own company. He helped me build a great starter website for just $500 and off I went…

Here are some of the lessons I have learned over the years, having made plenty of mistakes and learned new tricks every day on the job.  Some experiences were difficult, but they made me stronger and more prepared for adversity over time. Instead of hitting you with all of these at once, we’ll do one lesson a day for the next 18 work days.

Lesson #1 – You only have a few seconds to make a great first impression

Today people are FULL.  In today’s digital age, we are bombarded by so many advertisements, social media updates, online news, text messages, emails, and other media that we simply don’t have much room left in our brains.  If you don’t get your point across in your presentations, website design, or email communication in a few seconds, you have immediately lost your connection with the other person you are or could be doing business with.

By: Erik Koral - President & Founder of FanManager