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152 quotes, page 2 of 6Starting something of your own
For the van owner, the sole trader, the first employee hired and anybody building a business from a spare room. About customers and effort, never easy money.
We say who really said each one, and where the credit is uncertain we tell you. Every card is ours to share.
“Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom.”
Sam Walton, Made in America (1992), rule 10
If every removals firm in town will not do small jobs, the small jobs might be your way in.
“Most everything I've done I've copied from someone else.”
Sam Walton, Made in America (1992). He meant he learned by visiting other shops and borrowing their best ideas.
Learning from good firms in your trade is not cheating. Watch how the best ones quote, invoice and follow up, then do it your way.
“There is only one boss. The customer.”
Sam Walton, as widely quoted. Usually given with a second sentence: the customer can fire everybody in the company simply by spending money somewhere else.
When you work for yourself the boss does not disappear. It becomes every customer, every day.
“As long as you're green you're growing, as soon as you're ripe you start to rot.”
Ray Kroc, Grinding It Out (1977)
Five years in, keep doing the course, reading the trade press, asking customers what is missing. The day you know it all is the day you slip.
“Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.”
Ray Kroc, Grinding It Out (1977)
The cleaning firm that "got lucky" with a big contract usually spent two years doing small jobs well enough to be recommended.
“If you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean.”
Ray Kroc, as widely quoted
In a quiet hour, restock, wipe down, check the van. When the rush comes, you will be ready and your crew will see why.
“None of us is as good as all of us.”
Ray Kroc, as widely quoted
The day you hire your first person, the firm stops being you. Build it so it works on the days you are not there.
“I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing: that it was all started by a mouse.”
Walt Disney, on the television programme Disneyland (1954)
Remember the first customer and the first job. Big firms that forget where they started tend to forget who they serve.
“Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.”
Walt Disney
A business is never finished: there is always a better quote form, a faster route, a new service a regular has asked about.
“I think it's important to have a good hard failure when you're young.”
Walt Disney. He was speaking of his first studio, Laugh-O-gram in Kansas City, which went bankrupt in 1923.
A first business that folds is not the end. Many owners say the second one worked because of what the first one taught them.
“Do a good job. You don't have to worry about the money; it will take care of itself.”
Walt Disney, as quoted in Pat Williams, How to Be Like Walt (2004)
Still keep the books every week. But the jobs done well are what fill the diary, not the sales pitch.
“Courage is the main quality of leadership.”
Walt Disney, as quoted in The Magic of Teamwork (1997)
Hiring your first employee takes nerve: you are promising someone a wage. That is leadership, and it starts the day you sign the contract.
“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
Walt Disney, as quoted at the end of the film Meet the Robinsons (2007). The film's closing card credits him; a firm primary source for the full wording is hard to find.
A man with a van tries one office move, then another, and finds himself running a business moving offices. Stay curious about the work you are offered.
“Telephone, telegraph, tell a woman.”
Estée Lauder, her motto for how news of her products spread. She began by selling skin creams made by her uncle, a chemist, and founded her company in New York in 1946.
Most small firms still live on people telling people. Make the first job so good the customer mentions you at the school gate.
“I did not get there by wishing for it, or dreaming about it, or hoping for it. I got there by working for it.”
Estée Lauder, quoted by the Associated Press (1985). The shorter poster version, "I never dreamed about success, I worked for it", is a paraphrase of lines like this one.
The plan for the cafe is a start. The early mornings, the stock runs and the first hundred coffees are what make it real.
“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.”
Coco Chanel, as quoted in Marcel Haedrich, Coco Chanel: Her Life, Her Secrets (1971)
If you are the only cleaner in the area who does weekend offices, or the only courier who answers the phone, you are hard to replace.
“Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.”
Attributed to Coco Chanel. Printed under her name in collections from the 1990s; we have not found it in her own words earlier.
A bit of not knowing the odds helps when you start. Just know your sums, so the optimism is backed by numbers.
“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.”
Attributed to Coco Chanel. Printed under her name in collections from the 1990s; we have not found an earlier source.
If you think the trade could be run better, say so, and then show it with your own small firm.
“If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito.”
Often attributed to Anita Roddick. Widely credited to her, and also to the Dalai Lama and an African proverb; the first source is unclear. She opened the first Body Shop in Brighton in 1976.
A one person firm can still change a street: the reliable cleaner, the honest mechanic, the cafe that knows everyone's order.
“If you do things well, do them better. Be daring, be first, be different, be just.”
Attributed to Anita Roddick
Being fair to workers and customers is not a cost of running a small firm. It is the reason people stay with you.
“Business itself is now the most powerful force for change in the world today.”
Attributed to Anita Roddick. Usually given with the words: richer and faster by far than most governments.
Paying the real wage, giving a local school leaver a start, buying from the shop down the road: small firms change places in small ways.
“I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures.”
James Dyson, interview in Fast Company (2007). He told the story at length in his book Against the Odds (1997).
Your first price list, your first flyer and your first website will be wrong. Change one thing at a time and keep the version that works.
“Enjoy failure and learn from it. You can never learn from success.”
James Dyson, as widely quoted
Write down why you lost each quote you lose. After twenty, the pattern tells you what to fix.
“It's All About the Long Term.”
Jeff Bezos, heading in his first letter to Amazon shareholders (1997)
A small firm that wins the job by undercutting itself into a loss has won nothing. Price for the customer you want in five years.
“We will continue to focus relentlessly on our customers.”
Jeff Bezos, letter to Amazon shareholders (1997)
When cash is tight, the temptation is to cut corners on the job. Cut anything else first.
“Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance.”
Jeff Bezos, letter to Amazon shareholders (2016). He goes on: then painful decline, then death, which is why it is always Day 1.
The cafe with the same menu and the same tired chalkboard for six years is having its Day 2. Change something small this month.
“Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had.”
Jeff Bezos, letter to Amazon shareholders (2016). He adds that waiting for 90% usually means you are being slow.
You will never feel ready to hire your first worker or buy the second van. Get the key facts, check your cash, then decide.
“Disagree and commit.”
Jeff Bezos, letter to Amazon shareholders (2016)
Business partners will disagree. Say your piece, agree a decision, then both of you back it fully in front of the team.
“Customers are always beautifully, wonderfully dissatisfied, even when they report being happy and business is great.”
Jeff Bezos, letter to Amazon shareholders (2017)
"Fine, thanks" from a customer is not the same as "I'll book you again". Ask what would make it better and listen.
“High standards are teachable.”
Jeff Bezos, letter to Amazon shareholders (2017). He wrote that people learn them mostly through exposure, by working where the standard is high.
Your first hire learns your standard by working beside you. Show them what "done properly" looks like on the first day, not in a handbook.
Other sections
- Work and keeping going (189)
- Starting a business (152)
- For leaders (41)
- Working with people (22)
- Mindset and habits (144)
- True stories of people who started small