Business lessons from Warren Buffett

Do not wait for the best time to start your own business. The perfect time to start is now. Warren started selling gums, Coca-Cola, and weekly newspapers as a child. He also started investing in stock market at age 11 after visiting the New York Stock exchange at age 10. You easily get rich in business if you know when you are wrong. Warren started his Hedge Fund at age 17. It is good you start early, make all the mistakes early and correct yourself early. Tomorrow is not the best time, NOW is.

For your business to grow, you need to continually reinvest your profits. Most entrepreneurs are always tempted to spend their first business profits. This is not a good idea if you wish to grow better than you were. Warren knew about this early enough. In high school, he and a pal bought a pinball machine to put in a barbershop. With the money they earned, they bought more machines until they had eight in different shops. When the venture was sold, Warren Buffett used the proceeds to buy stocks and to start another small business.

Whatever decision one take in business has its implications. If you sell bad ideas to make gains, you lose friends and future business contacts. For one to be very successful in business, one must consider what happens after today (sealing business/transaction). Be sincere in all your business dealings. Integrity gives you and your business a good name.

Though it is advised you get enough information about any business you wish to venture into, you have to be swift in taking decisions. Warren Buffett prides himself on swiftly making up his mind and acting on it. He calls any unnecessary sitting and thinking “thumb-sucking.” When people offer him a business or an investment, he says, “I won’t talk unless they bring me a price.” He gives them an answer on the spot.

Understand the conditions attached to any business before venturing into it. If you are doing work, know your pay; if you are combining to startup a business, know your ownership percentage/shareholding. Warren Buffett learned this lesson the hard way as a kid when his grandfather Ernest hired him and a friend to dig out the family grocery store after a blizzard.

You can never be very rich when you continually work or run your business on credit. It is like working for your creditors. Limit your borrowing, by re-investing your profit and reducing the amount you borrow.

Be determined to achieve your defined goal. Do not allow the success of your competitors and your slow move affect your confidence.

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