Small Business Trends: In the Trenches: Entrepreneurial Lessons From The Experts

By Lisa Barone

One of the best ways to grow your business is to learn from and be inspired by those who live in the same trenches. The people who exude what you want to be, who have fought the struggle, and who continue to excel regardless of how times change. I’m just a few months into my baby startup, so I thought I’d get some pearls of wisdom from folks I look up to. I was lucky enough to get Copyblogger’s Brian Clark, John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing and Atlas Web Service founder (and renowned troublemaker) Michael Gray into a short email interview.

Here’s a bit of what I asked them, what I learned and lessons I think we can all benefit from.

Most entrepreneurs are unemployable: Both Brian and John noted that the reason they work for themselves is that they simply can’t work for anyone else. Brian called himself ‘literally unemployable’, saying it was either this or begging on the street. Similarly, John commented he has some control issues (don’t we all?) and spends his life on the hunt to innovate and try new things – something that’s hard to do when working for someone else. Having just started my own company back in January because I was tired of other people’s rules and conditions, I sympathize with the pangs of John and Brian. Entrepreneurs want more. (more)