Neil Patel likes to say that he was born with entrepreneurship in his blood. Growing up, he was surrounded by small business owners—mostly his uncles, mom, and dad.
Starting at age 15, Patel began selling CDs and auto parts to other students at school. His first “real” company was called AdviceMonkey, an Internet job board that ultimately failed, but taught him all about marketing an Internet business.
His new skills led to several consulting contracts and ultimately to his founding of Crazy Egg, an analytics tool that created heat maps so business owners could see which parts of a webpage were attracting attention. Crazy Egg got some good early press, but took a few years to turn profitable.
In the meantime, Neil and his partner, Hiten Shah, began experimenting with other software ideas, including a second analytics company called KISSmetrics. He later went on to start QuickSprout which launched in 2008.
Some of his latest ventures have included founding Neil Patel Digital, Ubersuggest, Hello Bar, SEO Analyzer and Subscribers. He is also available for consultations and is a frequent guest speaker at high-profile marketing events.
Neil Patel has been named one of the top influencers on the web by The Wall Street Journal and he is (or has been) a contributor to several online publications including Moz.com, Techcrunch, and Mashable. Over the years he has had lots to say about running a small business (his personal blog is all about this). Here are a few things he’s said that we find inspiring:
“If you frequent a local coffee shop for example, they know you personally. They might even have your coffee order just the way you like it ready as you step up to the counter. Why is that not happening on the web? Why can’t we help businesses re-create that warm and fuzzy feeling online.”
“Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.”
“Often times in order to capture your dreams, it will require you to chase your fears.”
“Don’t optimize for conversions, optimize for revenue.”
“You can get bitter or you can get busy.”
“If your friends don’t motivate and inspire you, you’re choosing them all wrong.”
“Sometimes all we need is to be surrounded by a group of others trying to do better.”
“I started out in business to make money and I have. But I found that money doesn’t bring you happiness, doing something worthwhile for others is much more rewarding.”
“Don’t try to plan everything out to the very last detail. I’m a big believer in just getting it out there: create a minimal viable product or website, launch it, and get feedback.”
“[The biggest mistake I ever made?] I lost over a million dollars into a hosting company. It was my worst investment to date. The idea we had was great, but the people who ran it weren’t rockstars. The big lesson I learned… ideas are a dime a dozen, it is all about the people.”
“Learn from your mistakes. The number one reason I see entrepreneurs failing isn’t because they make mistakes, but they keep on making the same ones over and over again. Learn from them and avoid making the same ones over again.”
“Do something you are passionate about because it won’t feel like work. This way you will work harder and longer.”
“When I started my first business I kept trying to do too many things and expand the business even before we had a bit of revenue. This caused me to output mediocre work instead of great work. Eventually clients suffered from it and we lost revenue. If I had to do it all over again, I would just focus on one model within my business. As the revenue growth declines, I would then expand, but not until then.”
—Neil Patel, Entrepreneur and Founder of Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics
