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152 quotes, page 3 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.
“Failure and invention are inseparable twins.”
Jeff Bezos, letter to Amazon shareholders (2015)
Trying a new service, a new area or a new way of quoting means some of it will flop. Keep the trials small enough to survive.
“The world wants you to be typical, in a thousand ways, it pulls at you. Don't let it happen.”
Jeff Bezos, his last letter to Amazon shareholders as chief executive (2020, published 2021). The letter has a dash after "typical"; the section heading was "Differentiation is survival and the universe wants you to be typical".
Every agency website says the same five things. Say the one thing that is true of you and not of the others.
“Let everyone else call your idea crazy... just keep going. Don't stop.”
Phil Knight, Shoe Dog (2016). He started in 1964 selling imported running shoes from the boot of his car.
Friends will ask why you are leaving a steady job to run a van. Answer with a business plan and then with your first year.
“The cowards never started and the weak died along the way. That leaves us.”
Phil Knight, Shoe Dog (2016). He uses an old saying about the pioneers who crossed to Oregon.
Most people talk about starting a firm. If you have actually opened the doors, you are already further on than you think.
“Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”
General George S. Patton, quoted by Phil Knight in Shoe Dog (2016). Knight says it became his way of managing.
Hire well, explain the result you want, then leave space. The first employee who is micromanaged is usually the first one to leave.
“We are not in the coffee business serving people. We are in the people business serving coffee.”
Howard Schultz, as widely quoted
Running a cafe, a cleaning firm or a garage, you are really in the people business. The product is just how you serve them.
“Victory is much more meaningful when it comes not just from one person, but from the joint achievements of many.”
Howard Schultz, as widely quoted. Often linked to his book Pour Your Heart Into It (1997).
Landed the big contract? Tell the crew it was theirs too. It was.
“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.”
Reid Hoffman, as he has often said
Your first flyer can be home printed and your first website one page. Get the first customer, then make it pretty.
“An entrepreneur is someone who will jump off a cliff and assemble an airplane on the way down.”
Reid Hoffman, as widely quoted
Most small firms are built mid flight. Just make sure you have three months of costs put aside before you jump.
“Make something people want.”
Paul Graham, the motto of Y Combinator, the start-up programme he co-founded in 2005
Before buying the kit, find five people who will pay for the service. If you cannot, the idea needs work, not a bigger advert.
“Do things that don't scale.”
Paul Graham, title of his essay (2013)
Hand deliver the first leaflets, ring every new customer after the first job, write thank you notes. That is how small firms win.
“You can't wait for users to come to you. You have to go out and get them.”
Paul Graham, Do Things that Don't Scale (2013)
Knock on the doors of the offices on the industrial estate. Nobody searches for a cleaner they have not heard of yet.
“Your first users should feel that signing up with you was one of the best choices they ever made.”
Paul Graham, Do Things that Don't Scale (2013)
Over-deliver for the first ten customers. They are your references, your reviews and your next ten customers.
“You can provide a level of service no big company can.”
Paul Graham, Do Things that Don't Scale (2013)
The national firms cannot give a customer the owner's mobile number. You can, and it is worth more than their advertising.
“The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas.”
Paul Graham, How to Get Startup Ideas (2012)
The best small business ideas come from work you already do: the job your employer keeps turning down, the gap customers keep asking about.
“Live in the future, then build what's missing.”
Paul Graham, How to Get Startup Ideas (2012)
Electric vans need charging, older people need help online, new estates need cleaners. Look at what is changing near you and fill the gap.
“The verb you want to be using with respect to startup ideas is not 'think up' but 'notice.'”
Paul Graham, How to Get Startup Ideas (2012)
Keep a note on your phone of every time a customer says "I wish someone did...". That list is a business plan.
“Startups rarely die in mid keystroke. So keep typing!”
Paul Graham, How Not to Die (2007). His point: most new firms do not fail in one blow, the founders give up.
A slow month is not the end. Keep quoting, keep answering the phone, keep doing the jobs you have.
“Better to make a few users love you than a lot ambivalent.”
Paul Graham, Startups in 13 Sentences (2009)
Twenty regulars who would not use anyone else is a stronger start than two hundred one-off jobs.
“Customers are used to being maltreated.”
Paul Graham, Startups in 13 Sentences (2009). It is his reason for the rule: offer surprisingly good customer service.
Answer the phone, ring back when you said, turn up when you said. In many trades that alone makes you stand out.
“Cofounders are for a startup what location is for real estate.”
Paul Graham, Startups in 13 Sentences (2009)
Choose a business partner as carefully as a house: you will live with them for years and it is costly to leave.
“Nothing kills startups like distractions.”
Paul Graham, Startups in 13 Sentences (2009)
A second side business, a new app every week, a rebrand in month three: protect the hours that go into actual paid work.
“Every moment in business happens only once.”
Peter Thiel, the opening line of Zero to One (2014)
Copying the busiest cafe on the high street gives you a second busiest cafe. Ask what your street does not have yet.
“Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius.”
Peter Thiel, Zero to One (2014)
Plenty of people know how to run a better haulage firm than their boss. Very few hand in their notice and try.
“What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”
Peter Thiel, Zero to One (2014). The question he asks in job interviews and asks founders to answer about their own business.
Maybe you believe people would pay more for a cleaner who always sends the same person. If you are right, that is your business.
“A startup messed up at its foundation cannot be fixed.”
Peter Thiel, Zero to One (2014). He calls it Thiel's law; he means the people, the ownership and the agreements made on day one.
Sort the boring things at the start: who owns what, the right insurance, HMRC registration, written terms. Fixing them later costs far more.
“Competition is for losers.”
Peter Thiel, title of his essay in The Wall Street Journal (2014). His argument: find something nobody else does well, rather than fight on price in a crowded market.
A price war with five other van firms has no winner. A niche (pianos, art, students' rooms) can keep you busy at a fair rate.
“What have you failed at this week?”
Sara Blakely, recalling her father's question at the family dinner table. She has told the story in many interviews; she started Spanx in 2000 with $5,000 of her savings.
Ask yourself on Friday: what did I try this week that did not work? If the answer is nothing, you did not try much.
“Failure for me became not trying, versus the outcome.”
Sara Blakely, interview with CNBC (2013). She says her father taught her this.
Ringing the big local firm for a contract and hearing no is not failure. Never ringing is.
“To me success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection.”
Soichiro Honda, as quoted in Paul Callister, What Creates Jobs? (1989)
Try, look honestly at what happened, adjust, try again. That loop is most of running a small firm.
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