Seth Shares Startup Survival Tips

Entrepreneurship requires commitment and resilience, with a truthful look at the challenges that often go unspoken. Success in this realm hinges on embracing chaos, focusing on customer solutions, and understanding that personal problems may be amplified through business pursuits.

• Accept overwhelming work hours in the beginning 
• Prioritize understanding customer needs and offering solutions 
• Consider scalable business models for long-term success 
• Confront personal problems rather than expecting business to solve them 
• Use practical strategies to maintain daily focus and productivity 
• Recognize motivation as a practice of persistence, not just feeling good 
• Prepare for the challenges of entrepreneurship as a means to personal growth 

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Realities of Entrepreneurship
• 8:25 Navigating the Challenges of Entrepreneurship

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back to the Seth Sedditt Show, where we talk about business, life and everything in between. I am your host, seth Mills, and if you're here looking for a feel-good, everything-is-easy type of podcast, you're in the wrong place. Today we're talking about the real side of entrepreneurship, the part that isn't sugar-coated, the part that nobody wants to talk about, but the part that will make or break you. So grab a coffee, an energy drink or whatever keeps you going and let's get into it. If you're starting a business thinking that it'll be an easier route than a job, you're already setting yourself up for failure and disappointment.

Speaker 1: 0:34

In the beginning, you're working more than a nine to five. It's a 6am to midnight kind of grind, and sometimes it's even longer. When I first started, there were days that I'd be up 20 to 22 hours at a time just between work, owning my own business and trying to get it started, schoolwork and trying to maintain what little personal life I had. And it doesn't just stop because you're tired. Your business doesn't care if you're sick. It doesn't care if you're going through personal problems or if you just don't feel like it. Today, when you crawl out of bed, it will take as much time and energy as you're willing to give it. And then some, the ones who make it. They all generally accept this. The ones who don't well, they quit when reality hits them. A lot of people talk about balance, but when you're starting out, there is none. You'll miss events, you will lose sleep, you'll have days where you wonder if it's even worth it. But here's the truth If you commit now, you can create balance later. In the first few years, your business is like a newborn baby. It needs constant attention and eventually, if you build it right, you can step back a little. But in the beginning, forget about work-life balance and accept the chaos.

Speaker 1: 1:47

I've noticed that a lot of people go into business trying to sell whatever they can to whoever will buy. That's a mistake. You don't sell the product, you sell the solution. But in order to do that, you have to understand who your customer is. What do they actually need? What problem are they trying to solve? How does your business fit into their life? If you can answer that, you don't have to push the sale. The sale will come to you.

Speaker 1: 2:10

I was asked if I had to do it again, what would I do? And I personally, I would think bigger and maybe not even do a service-based business. Looking back, I'd tell my younger self think bigger sooner. Service businesses are great. They make money, low startup costs and they give you freedom, but they also have limitations. If I could start over, I'd consider a product-based business with scalability, a business that makes money without directly needing my time, or something that you could use per se as a passive income, right, or even this is a big one for me because I was originally a computer engineering and cybersecurity major. I would even look at tech, because the growth potential is nearly unlimited, especially with AI and all of these different technologies coming out. So I guess what my point is don't just start a business for today. Look ahead and start a business that will make sense five years from now. Again, service-based businesses are great.

Speaker 1: 3:19

I personally love doing what I do and engaging with the customers that I engage with, but at the same time, the scalability is I don't want to say limited, because there's so many franchises out there that, like fish window cleaning, for example, they have locations everywhere, they have so many employees, but the possibility of getting a service-based business to that level, it takes extreme dedication and it also takes cutting your prices to the customer If you can get that much volume, you're able to scale your prices down a little bit. But I personally have a hard time doing that because I don't like joining a bidding war. That's the race to the bottom, and I'm pretty sure nearly everybody who is listening to this. If you're an entrepreneur even if you're not you can kind of agree with me on that concept of not wanting to do a bidding war with competitors. What I've noticed also is a lot of people think that business will solve your problems, and to that I'll say business doesn't solve your problems, it will amplify them. If you're thinking about being your own boss and thinking that it's going to fix your problems, it won't. It'll make them louder. If you have money problems, running a business will make them much more large in concept. If you have self-discipline problems, running a business will expose them. If you have emotional ups and downs, running a business will push you to your breaking point. But the good news is, if you face those problems instead of avoid them, business will force you to grow. And that's where the reward is, because if you are rewarding yourself by growing, you are learning more, you're increasing your knowledge in the landscape and it is going to ultimately help you succeed.

Speaker 1: 5:26

One thing that I've started doing very recently and that I would recommend everybody who is listening to this to do would be to write three things down every day that you have to get done before sleeping. I learned this from Robert Herjavec. He is a very well-known entrepreneur and y'all might know him from Shark Tank but he said to do this and he said when things get crazy, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. And he said when things get crazy, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. And that's why I took that, and I took what he said about writing three things down, and I keep it simple Every morning, I write down three things that I have to get done before the day ends Not 10, not 20, just three. I don't want to flood my day with things because at that point, it's just tasks and it's not real actionable items. And, with that being said, it doesn't have to be on a piece of paper. That's how I do it. I have a little notepad that I use for business and I would take notes on, and that's how I do it. But you can put it in your notes app on your phone. You can put it on your calendar app. I don't know if any of y'all do time blocking, but put it on your time block app. It will keep you focused, it'll keep you moving forward and when you hit those three, you'll build momentum to keep on going day after day.

Speaker 1: 6:45

And finally, the truth about motivation. It is the biggest lie people believe about business. Successful people are always motivated. They are not the difference. They keep going even when they don't feel like it. Real motivation isn't about feeling good. It's about taking action when everything feels like it's falling apart. If you can wake up on your worst day, the day when everything's going wrong, when you feel like a failure, when nothing's working, and still do what needs to be done, that right, there is motivation. Business isn't about enthusiasm. It's about persistence and the ones who succeed. They go from failure to failure without losing momentum. What I mean by this is they can have a day where nothing goes right. They'll go to sleep, wake up the next day again, nothing goes right. They'll wake up the next day and something will go good, and that's their win. They don't focus on the losses. They don't necessarily focus on the wins either. They just know that if they can repeat the task as much as possible and keep on working on it. Eventually it will work out.

Speaker 1: 8:03

This episode was not meant to scare you away from business. It was not meant to scare you away from going and opening a business. It was meant to prepare you. The ones who hear this and say I'm still in, those are the ones that will make it. If you're still listening to this and you're feeling overwhelmed good, that means that you're thinking. That means that you're still listening to this and you're feeling overwhelmed good, that means that you're thinking. That means that you're processing what it really takes to open your own business.

Speaker 1: 8:25

But here's my challenge to you Don't let the difficulty stop you. Let it shape you. What I hope you guys take away from this episode is that business is not easy and the time commitment is massive in the beginning. Forget work-life balance at first. Grind now balance later. Don't focus on selling the beginning. Forget work-life balance at first. Grind now balance later. Don't focus on selling the product. Focus on the customer. If I was starting over, I'd think bigger sooner. Business amplifies your problems. It doesn't solve them. Write down three must-do things every day and real motivation is pushing through, even when everything feels like it's falling apart. If this episode hit home, share it, leave a review and let me know what topics you guys want next. Until next time, I'm your host, seth Mills, and keep on grinding.