One of the best things about video games is the ability to restart – you can use your learnings to move faster and avoid obstacles. We often think about what we would do differently if we were starting over in business and we figured others probably think about this as well and so we asked the community to share their thoughts with us.

Chris Bible

It’s a catch 22 because you don’t want to feel like you would change too much otherwise you feel ungrateful for what’s transpired to get you to where you are now. Truth be told, we all have to reflect in order to grow. The few things that stand out would be nurturing my inner belief system, clear visualization on how I want my business to feel vs look and putting a heavy focus on obtaining customer feedback. Read more>>

Mackenzie Wasner

This question really stood out to me. Recently, I have had a real “breakthrough” or so it’s felt like it. Ha! I am a singer/songwriter and have been in the music business for a solid 10 years now. It’s crazy and amazing and thrilling and… HARD. Sometimes I have wished to start over, or to “go back”… But the truth is, I wouldn’t really ever wish that upon anyone. Now, I am starting to realize and SEE the BEAUTY in the failures, the set backs and the successes. Read more>>

Sarah Dunn

Lately I’ve been thinking about the Pareto principle and how I can use this concept to build my business. The Pareto principle says that 80% of our outcomes come from 20% of our work. In other words, 20% of our efforts produce 80% of the results. The converse is also true: 80% of our efforts only products 20% of our results. With this in mind, it’s important to hone in on what 20% produces the greatest results. When I started my business, I spent the first month or two building my website and writing blog posts. Read more>>

Shantel SolE’

There are several things that I would do differently if given the chance to start over again. But most importantly, I would have started much sooner. For 5 years, my goal as a singer/songwriter was to be successful as a performing artist. I knew I wanted to make a career doing what I loved, but I had no idea how to make it happen. I do believe in God’s timing, but had I viewed my voice for its full potential sooner I could have gotten here alot faster with less capital. Read more>>

Dennis Chiu

If I were starting over, I would create a plan that involved a series of short-term objectives. When we started our business, we only focus on how to accomplish big things with long-term plan. For example, we wanted to become a big marketing company in our community that could encourage our customers to have more consumer-brand interaction by personalizing products. However, without balancing short-term needs with this long-term goals, we almost ran out of our startup capital in the first year. Read more>>

Kevan Sharperson

If I had to start over I wouldn’t change a thing about my journey. The path to success is tough and challenging. However, without going through those highs and lows, I wouldn’t be as appreciative of my craft as I am today. Did I make mistakes?? Yes, a lot of them to be specific. But all those sleepless nights spent sacrificing time with family and friends helped develop my relentless determination to succeed. Read more>>

Stephanie Laurancy

If I were to start over, I would do two things. One, get a mindset coach earlier on and two, keep my “blinders on” and not stop moving the needle at all! What the greats always tell you is that mindset is the key to all success. The power that solely believing has is immense and when your mindset is right, there truly is nothing you can’t do. I also so I would “keep my blinders on” because when you are just walking in your own lane, you are focused on your own journey no matter what. Read more>>

Celeste Purdie

Believe it or not we opened a retail store in the midst of a pandemic and never approached a bank for capital. In hindsight, we would have slowed down a bit, done a bit more market research, created a 3 – 5 year written business plan and sought out more financing options. Starting a business is an exciting time and you just want to run into getting it off the ground and when you look back you know you could have done a few things differently to get yourself further down the road, faster. Read more>>

Merlyn Colbert

As I am actually starting over, I am currently doing a number of things differently. First, I would not limit myself to one source of income. Building out a beauty salon brought on many distractions that I did not anticipate cause of course, it was my first business. Secondly, I would have planned out my expansion before even opening. I knew I wanted to expand but had no real game plan as to how I would get there. Read more>>