3 Times Entrepreneurs Need to Say No to Be Successful

Below are three cases where you should say no instead
of yes:
1. Hiring too early
A common problem with entrepreneurs is spending way
too much money too fast. Today, there’s an ability to get
a seed round of funding with relative ease. But when
founders raise money easily early on, they start taking it
for granted.
The first pitfall comes when they hire people before they
need them, as they think by doing so their startup can
now be deemed a real company. They think they must
have employees and that somehow validates they have
a successful business. In reality, you should push as
long as you can before hiring anyone else. Hiring people
is expensive, not to mention the risk of them not fitting
in with your culture can be devastating. This is a perfect
instance where you want to say no until it really hurts
not having someone to help you.
2. Taking meetings
The most precious resource you have is your time. As
you start building your business, you’ll notice that
everyone wants to try and use up the precious 24 hours
that you have in a day. Your team will ask you to have
meetings that run two to three hours, not to mention
other entrepreneurs who want to get together. Don’t be
mistaken, there’s definitely a time and place to grab
drinks with fellow founders and go over war stories
about your companies. But you need to limit the time
waster meetings that kill your productivity.
Related: The 3 Biggest Obstacles to Entrepreneurial
Success
Every day you should have a list of tasks that need to be
completed. When people ask to meet with you, refer to
that list as a guide. Ask yourself if by taking that
meeting, will it cause you not to get a task done. If the
answer is yes, you’ve got to say no or risk becoming
unproductive and inefficient.
3. Starting new ventures or strategies
It’s surprising how many entrepreneurs I’ve met with
who are starting three or four companies at the same
time. To make matters worse, they all seem to be first-
time entrepreneurs. What happens is because they can’t
focus on one idea for too long, none of their businesses
end up panning out. Also, when you are invested in too
many things, it comes easier to let one go. Great
entrepreneurs dig deep when things get hard, because
they’re all in. Having a safety net of other businesses
makes it hard for you to stay when things get tough.
Also, entrepreneurs tend to execute on too many
strategies at once. An example is when founders start
putting money into projects for their company that aren’t
important, like spending money on PR when they are still
in the founding stage. Getting into a major press outlet
before you find product-market fit does you no good. So,
don’t try building everything at once. Start with what you
need to do to get to the next company milestone and say
no to everything else.
Related: 10 Traits All Successful Entrepreneurs Share