

Advice for Selling Online From Ecommerce Entrepreneurs - danwyd
http://www.shopify.com/blog/13910901-how-to-sell-online-the-single-best-pieces-of-advice-from-41-successful-ecommerce-entrepreneurs

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edoloughlin
There are some nuggets in here, like 'do stuff that doesn't scale' early on.

Coincidentally, I listened to a podcast episode on survivor bias this morning:
[http://youarenotsosmart.com/2013/05/23/survivorship-
bias/](http://youarenotsosmart.com/2013/05/23/survivorship-bias/) where the
main takeaway for business is that "success boils down to serially avoiding
catastrophic failure while routinely absorbing manageable damage".

Essentially, even successful companies don't know the secret of their success.

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allsop8184
"even successful companies don't know the secret to their success" \- so true.
I speak to successful online entrepreneurs almost every day and am constantly
surprised by the lack of strategy used and the lack of awareness of what
_actuallY_ moved the needle for them. Sometimes the cherry picked 'best
practical advice' is just a shot in the dark (though still very helpful).

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allsop8184
I think the best piece of advice for ecommerce entrepreneurs is: "My apartment
doubles as our office. Keep your costs as low as possible." I've seen a lot of
new online store owners see a big jump in success early on due to the
excitement of a new product launch or kickstarter campaign (or PR, viral on
Reddit, HN..etc...) and they assume that success will continue so they double
down on infrastructure. 2 weeks later, or a few months later things die down
and they're locked into an office lease of 3 years.

