It’s not easy being your own boss.
There are a lot of things to think about, from business development and fundraising to accounting and tax. But for many people it’s still better than being at the mercy of the job market, as Daniel Defoe writes in Moll Flanders (also available on Audible):
As covetousness is the root of all evil so poverty is the worst of all snares.
For more advice, here are some of my favourite Seth Godin quotes from his 2024 blog posts, together with a recommended title from Blinkist.
As in all things, getting the systems right is the foundation for everything else that follows. ~ Unforced errors
Learn more: Management 3.0
Being known for lowering the standards of discourse, cheating, or whining is a choice, but why would you trade your reputation to become infamous? ~ Infamy
Learn more: Executive Presence
Call it what it is. Say what it’s for. Describe what you do. ~ The marketing department
Learn more: Speak Like a CEO
Choose your customers, choose your future. ~ Market pressure
Learn more: Endless Customers
Coordination can only happen when we’re in sync with our peers, and coordination is the result of the peers we choose. ~ Calendars are a choice
Learn more: Good Team, Bad Team
Don’t show up because you feel like it. Show up because you said you would. ~ On the way to professionalism
Learn more: The Leadership Moment
Great customer service is expensive, but it’s also free. It’s free because delighting a customer who has an issue is the single cheapest way to not only keep that customer, but have them spread the word. ~ Customer service is a choice
Learn more: The Service Organization
Having a smaller part of a more vibrant market is far better than dominating a moribund one. ~ Misunderstanding bigness
Learn more: High Growth Handbook
Pick your team with care, invest once you do. ~ Practical approaches for more effective teamwork
Learn more: Brave Together
The best time to explore is before you scale your investments, your commitments and the size of the team. ~ Velocity and possibility
Learn more: The Venture Mindset
The first principle of risk reduction is to figure out if you can stop it later. If you can’t, don’t start. ~ Stopping a runaway train
Learn more: Strategic Risk Management
The secret way you do the thing isn’t what keeps your clients coming back. It’s the part you do in public that matters. ~ Secret recipes
Learn more: Real Artists Don’t Starve
Well-earned trust might go out of style for a while, but it’s always going to be a useful tool. ~ The fame/trust inversion
Learn more: Leadership from the Inside Out
When people expect you to act a certain way, you have a brand. And that expectation is worth understanding. ~ Cats and dogs
Learn more: Talent Wins
When the bar is raised, it challenges each of us to do what we already had the power to do–exceed the minimum. ~ Did we give up before AI arrived?
Learn more: Accelerating Performance
When we identify and embrace the smallest viable audience, we’re moving up. Up the quality hierarchy. Up in responsibility. Up in the likelihood that we’ll make an impact. ~ Niching up
Learn more: This Is Strategy
You can start a company to make an impact and surround yourself with people on a similar journey, or you can seek to maximize the stock price and profits. ~ Putting up the big numbers
Learn more: The Ethical Imperative
(If you found this valuable, please subscribe below for monthly updates!)
