My brother in law is a smart, educated guy—definitely capable. But right now, he’s in that “I want to start something, but I have no idea what” phase.

On my side, I’m your typical college dropout turned entrepreneur. Nothing fancy, nothing over the top, and I’m definitely not some guru making instagram posts from Dubai. I’m 26 and built a local equipment rental business that I’ve grown into five locations across a few states. I definitely don’t know everything, but I’ve been in the trenches long enough to know a thing or two.

Since his decision, he’s been asking me big-picture questions like: “How do I even get started? “What should I focus on first? “How do I know if my business idea is actually good?” “What’s the biggest mistake most new business owners make? “How do I start getting customers if I don’t have a network?”

I really want to put something together for him. Basically a word document with a bunch of advice on it. Personally, I think cold outreach is one of the best ways to jumpstart a new business. Find an “adjacent business” in town, someone that isn’t a competitor but shares the same customer base, then reach out about some sort of partnership. It worked wonders for me, but it may not for him, so I’m curious about what others think. I want to help out as much as possible, but knowing myself, I’ll just hyper focus on what worked for me and I don’t want to feel like I’m just telling him what to do. I want to offer a safe, unbiased little advice sheet.

So here’s my question:

If you could go back to when you were just starting, what advice do you wish someone had given you?

Note: I am not necessarily trying to solve his problems with reaching out to others for additional advice. My question here is what is something that you wish you heard when you first started. Not “what does my brother-in-law need to hear”. I hope that makes sense, and all current comments are appreciated. Just trying to put a nice gesture together for someone just starting out.