37 Small Business Tips I Wish Someone Had Told Me
Most articles with small business tips are useless, feel-good garbage.
“Follow your passion” doesn't always pay the bills.
Success isn't about motivational quotes; it's about mastering brutal fundamentals.
This isn't a list of platitudes.
It's a strategic breakdown of the 37 unsexy but profitable principles that work, from managing cash flow to building a repeatable sales process.
- Focus on solving problems, not just following passion; competency leads to business success.
- Write a business plan as a living document to clarify thoughts and assumptions.
- Identify your target audience and your brand's enemy for a strong, focused strategy.
- Monitor cash flow diligently; it's crucial for survival and operational success.
- Delegate tasks and prioritise self-care to sustain long-term business growth and personal health.
The Foundation: Mindset & Strategy Tips (Get This Right First)
Everything starts here. If your thinking is flawed, your execution will be, too. These aren't just mindset hacks; they are strategic imperatives.
1. Stop Chasing Passion, Start Solving Problems
The idea that you must be passionate about your business idea from day one is a myth. Passion doesn't pay invoices; solving a painful problem for a specific group of people does. Competence creates confidence, and winning creates passion. Find a problem you can be the best at solving. The passion will follow.
2. Your Business Plan is Wrong (But You Still Need One)
No business plan survives contact with the first customer. It's a work of fiction. But the act of writing it is invaluable. It forces you to think through your numbers, market, and assumptions. Write it, know it’s wrong, and be ready to adapt it daily.
3. Define Your Enemy (and Your Niche)
You cannot be for everyone. A strong brand knows who it’s for and, just as importantly, who it is not for. Is your enemy complexity? High prices? Poor customer service? Defining an enemy gives your brand a purpose. Warby Parker's enemy wasn't just other glasses companies; it was the idea that glasses should cost $500.
4. Don't Be a Secret. Tell People What You Do.
Too many founders suffer from “founder shyness.” They're afraid to tell their friends, family, and network what they're building. Get over it. Your first customers, partners, and employees will almost certainly come from your existing network. Announce your mission clearly and often.
5. Learn to Love the Word “No”
As a new business, you'll be tempted to say “yes” to every opportunity. This is a trap. Saying yes to a bad-fit client, a distracting side project, or a pointless meeting steals resources from what matters. “No” is your most powerful tool for focus.
6. Get a Mentor, Not a Cheerleader
Your mum thinks your idea is brilliant. That's lovely, but useless. You need a mentor two or three steps ahead of you and can point out the landmines before you step on them. Seek honest, critical feedback, not just encouragement.
7. Obsess Over Your “First 10” Customers
Don't worry about scaling to 10,000 customers. Worry about making 10 customers ridiculously happy. Talk to them. Understand their problems better than they do. Manually do things that don't scale. The insights you gain from these first 10 will be your business's foundation.
8. Your Competition is a Goldmine of Data
Don't copy your competitors, but you must study them. Read their bad reviews to find gaps in the market. Analyse their pricing to understand how the market perceives value. See what they're doing well and decide if you can do it better or differently.
The Engine: Financial Management Tips (This is Non-Negotiable)
A business is a machine for making money. If you are allergic to numbers, you will fail. It's that simple.
9. Cash Flow is Your Oxygen. Don't Run Out.
Profit is an opinion, but cash is a fact. You can be “profitable” on paper and still go bankrupt because you have no cash in the bank to pay salaries or suppliers. A 2023 study by U.S. Bank found that 82% of business failures are due to poor cash flow management. Monitor it weekly, if not daily.
10. Know Your Numbers Cold (CAC, CLV, Margin)
If you don't know these three numbers, you don't have a business; you have a hobby.
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): How much does it cost you to get a new customer?
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): How much profit will that customer generate over their entire relationship with you?
- Profit Margin: What percentage of revenue is actual profit?
11. Separate Your Finances Yesterday
Get a dedicated business bank account and credit card from day one. Do not mix your personal and business spending. Co-mingling funds is a nightmare for accounting and can expose your personal assets if your business runs into legal trouble.
12. Use Accounting Software (Seriously, It's 2025)
Running your business from a spreadsheet is asking for trouble. Use modern accounting software like Xero or QuickBooks. They connect to your bank, automate invoicing, and give you a real-time financial health dashboard. It’s the best £30 a month you’ll spend.
13. Price Based on Value, Not Your Costs
Your customers don't care about your costs. They care about the value of the problem you solve for them. Stop pricing using a “cost-plus” model. Anchor your price to the value you deliver, and you can often charge significantly more.
14. Chase Invoices Relentlessly
A sale isn't complete until the money is in your bank account. An unpaid invoice is a donation. Set clear payment terms (Net 15, not Net 60). Send automated reminders. Have a process for chasing late payments. Be polite but firm.
15. Build a “Sleep at Night” Cash Buffer
Aim to have at least three to six months of operating expenses saved in a separate bank account. This buffer allows you to survive a slow month, an unexpected expense, or a global pandemic without panicking.
The Megaphone: Marketing & Sales Tips (How People Find You)
Having a great product is useless if no one knows it exists. But marketing doesn't have to be complicated.
16. Stop Trying to Be Everywhere
TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Ads, SEO, content marketing… It's paralysing. You don't need to be everywhere. You need to be where your customers are. Pick one or two channels, and go deep. Master them. Ignore the rest until you have the resources to expand.
17. Your Website Isn't a Brochure; It's a Sales Rep
Your website has one primary job: to convert visitors into customers or leads. It's not an art project. Every page, every button, and every word should guide the user toward a specific action. Is it clear what you do within three seconds? Is the next step obvious?
18. Build an Email List from Day One
You don't own your social media followers. An algorithm change can wipe out your reach overnight. Your email list is your asset. It's a direct line of communication with people who have explicitly raised their hands to hear from you. Use tools like Mailchimp or Kit to start collecting emails immediately.
19. Content Isn't King; Solving a Problem with Content is King
Don't just create content for its own sake. Every blog post, video, or social media update should answer a specific question or solve a particular problem for your target customer. Be useful. Generosity is the best marketing.
20. Your Brand is What People Say When You're Not in the Room
Your brand isn't your logo or your colour palette. It's the gut feeling people have about your business. It’s your reputation. Every interaction—from a sales call to a support ticket—builds or erodes that brand. A strong identity that is expertly crafted can make this process intentional.
21. Ask for Reviews. Systematically.
Social proof is incredibly powerful. Most happy customers won't leave a review unless you ask them to. Create an automated, simple process to request a review after a successful purchase or project completion.
22. Learn to Sell Without Feeling Slimy
Selling isn't about manipulation but diagnosing a problem and prescribing a solution. If you genuinely believe your product or service can help someone, you must sell it to them effectively. Focus on listening more than talking.
23. Make it Insanely Easy to Pay You
Reduce friction at every step. Offer multiple payment options. Use simple checkout forms. A clunky payment process or a confusing user experience can kill sales at the final hurdle, which is why it's a core part of effective digital marketing.
The Factory: Operations & Productivity Tips (Getting Things Done)
Great ideas are worthless without execution. Systems are what separate amateurs from professionals.
24. Document Everything (Create Your Business Playbook)
How do you onboard a new client? How do you handle a refund request? How do you publish a blog post? Document the process for every recurring task in your business. This creates consistency and makes it possible to delegate later.
25. Automate the Boring Stuff
Identify repetitive, low-value tasks and find software to do them for you. Scheduling social media, sending invoice reminders, and onboarding new email subscribers can and should be automated. Your time is for thinking, not for clicking.
26. Hire Slow, Fire Fast
A bad hire is cancer for a small team. The cost of a wrong person—in lost productivity, team morale, and your own time—is immense. Take your time with hiring. Check references. But if you know you've made a mistake, act decisively. It's kinder to everyone involved.
27. Outsource Your Weaknesses
You are not good at everything. Stop trying to be. Are you terrible at bookkeeping? Hire a bookkeeper. A design novice? Hire a designer. Focus your time and energy on your unique strengths—the things that actually grow the business.
28. “Work On Your Business, Not Just In It”
This classic advice from The E-Myth Revisited is timeless. If you spend all your time fulfilling orders or serving clients (working in the business), you have no time for strategy, marketing, or system-building (working on the business). Block time for strategic work every week.
29. Time Block Your Day
A to-do list is a wish list. A calendar is a plan. Instead of listing tasks, schedule them into specific blocks of time on your calendar. This forces you to be realistic about what you can achieve and protects your deep work from distractions.
30. Good Enough is Better Than Perfect
Perfectionism is procrastination in disguise. It will kill your momentum. Ship the project at 80% perfect instead of waiting forever to reach 100%. You can iterate and improve based on real-world feedback.
31. Use a Project Management Tool
Don't run your business from your inbox or sticky notes. Use a simple project management tool like Asana, Trello, or Notion to track tasks, deadlines, and responsibilities. This creates a central source of truth for you and your team.
The Human: Personal & Growth Tips (Don't Implode)
Your business is a reflection of you. If you burn out, so does the business.
32. Celebrate Small Wins
The entrepreneurial journey is a long, difficult slog. You'll be miserable if you only wait to celebrate the massive milestones. Did you land your first paying client? Launch your website? Finish a difficult project? Acknowledge it. Celebrate it. Then get back to work.
33. Protect Your Physical and Mental Health
Sleep deprivation is not a badge of honour. Working 100-hour weeks is not sustainable. You will make worse decisions, and your creativity will plummet. Prioritise sleep, exercise, and proper nutrition. They are not luxuries; they are business requirements.
34. Learn to Delegate (Even When It's Scary)
“If you want something done right, do it yourself” is the mantra of a bottleneck. Letting go of tasks is scary, but it's the only way to grow. Start small. Delegate a low-risk task and provide clear instructions. Build the muscle of trust.
35. Network to Learn, Not to Sell
Don't be the person who shoves business cards in people's faces at an event. Go to networking events to learn one new thing. Ask people what they're working on and what challenges they're facing. Be interested, not interesting.
36. Schedule Time to Do Nothing
Your best ideas won't come when you're staring at a spreadsheet. They'll come on a walk, in the shower, or when you're staring out a window. Schedule “white space” into your calendar—time with no agenda—to allow your brain to connect ideas and think creatively.
37. Your First Version Will Be Terrible. Launch Anyway.
The first version of anything—your product, website, podcast—will be embarrassing in hindsight. That's a good thing. It means you've made progress. Launch the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and get it into the hands of real users. Their feedback is more valuable than your theories.
Running a business is not a mystery. It's a series of problems to be solved. Stop looking for the magic bullet and master these brutal, unsexy, and effective fundamentals.
The only question left is: which one will you implement this week?
Frequently Asked Questions About These Small Business Tips
What is the most important tip for a new small business owner?
Master your cash flow. You can survive a bad marketing campaign or a slow product launch, but you cannot run out of money. It is the oxygen of your business.
How do I find my first customers?
Start with your immediate network (friends, family, past colleagues). Tell everyone what you do. Then, identify where your ideal customers gather online or offline and go there to be helpful, not to sell.
Should I write a business plan?
Yes, but don't spend months perfecting it. The value is in the process of thinking through your idea, not in the final document itself. Keep it short, focused, and be prepared for it to change.
How much money do I need to start a business?
It depends entirely on the business model. Start as lean as possible. Test your idea with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to get feedback before investing significant capital. Many successful businesses are started with less than a few thousand pounds.
What is the difference between profit and cash flow?
Profit is the money left over after subtracting all your expenses from your revenue on paper. Cash flow is the actual money movement into and out of your bank account. A business can be profitable but fail if its cash is tied up in unpaid invoices.
When should I hire my first employee?
Hire your first employee when you consistently turn down profitable work because you lack the capacity or spend most of your time on low-value tasks that someone else could do.
What is the biggest marketing mistake small businesses make?
Trying to be on every platform at once. They spread themselves too thin and make no impact anywhere. The better strategy is to identify one or two channels where their target audience is most active and dominate them.
Do I need a logo and a brand before I launch?
You need a “good enough” name and a professional logo. You do not need a perfect, expensive brand identity before you've validated your business idea and acquired customers. Brand evolves.
How do I price my product or service?
Price is based on the value you provide to the customer, not your costs or competitors' charges. If your service saves a client £10,000 in fees, charging £2,000 offers immense value.
How can I avoid burnout as an entrepreneur?
Set firm boundaries between work and life. Prioritise sleep and physical health.—Delegate tasks you don't have to do yourself. And schedule downtime to disconnect and recharge—it's essential for long-term performance.
What software is essential for a small business?
At a minimum, you need accounting software (like Xero), a way to communicate with your team (like Slack), and a tool for project management (like Asana or Trello).
What is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?
An MVP is the simplest version of your product that you can release to solve a core problem for your initial customers. It's designed to gather feedback for future development, not to be a perfect, feature-complete product.
Stop Theorising, Start Building.
Reading tips are easy. The hard part is implementation. If you've identified that your brand or marketing is the fundamental holding you back, that's a problem we solve. We help businesses build credible brands and effective marketing systems.
Explore our digital marketing services to see how we put these principles into practice, or browse the Inkbot Design blog for more no-nonsense advice.
