Getting Advice on Your MVP
As an entrepreneur, you're blazing a new path. This is definitional. If it's been done before, you wouldn't be needed. You have the responsibility to curate your influences and the things you want to effect your actions. Where should you seek advice? This is what I'd like to explore in this article.
Everyone has an opinion, and most are willing to share. All advice is not created equal. Far from it, the right mentor will guide you to reach your potential, but the wrong advice and influence can brainwash and lead to self destruction in the worst case. The test I use when choosing advisors: has this person been where I am, is this person where I want to be? Basically, have they walked a path from here to success? They also have to be willing and able to communicate clearly, but firstly, they have to have found the success you seek. This is hard enough to find. A great example of this is young men taking dating advice from well intentioned girls. There are many differences between the genders, and without first hand experience and success, it is hard to trust the validity of generic advice. If you want to catch a fish, ask a fisherman. Ask a man who has the abundance you want. Do you want a wife? Ask a man in a healthy marriage of 5 years.
For startups, this is difficult, because you are doing something novel. But a lot of businesses rhyme. You can find a mentor who has operated in the same industry or operated in a similar model. Are you building an agency, a marketplace, a store, an analysis tool? Talk to someone who has done that in a different industry. What is your price point? If you're selling $5 per month subscriptions, a high ticket $50k contract software sales expert isn't going to be someone to emulate. Finally, find someone with industry experience. Are you in the health and fitness space, personal productivity, events and hospitality, music? It's important to get each area covered to get a holistic view of your business and get advice in many areas.
For tactical advice, a site I love is Clarity. My fractional CTO profile.. But I use it as a customer as well. Minute to minute advice from experts at a particular method. If you need an SEO expert, sales coach, wordpress developer, or MVP advisor, you can find him there. Intro is another similar marketplace for higher profile mentors, though I love the minute to minute guarantee of clarity.
Actively seeking advice and the right advice is so key for all success. Message me and we can build out your A list team of advisors and mentors for your success.
Original article posted at https://mvpengineer.com/getting-advice-on-your-mvp
