Warren Buffett has one piece of advice to anyone starting a new business.
He gave that advice to a group of small business entrepreneurs at the 20th graduation of the Goldman Sachs “10,000 Small Businesses” program:
“Tomorrow morning when you look in the mirror after you’ve gotten up, just write — in lipstick or whatever you want, on the mirror — just put: Delight my customer,” Buffett said.
“Not satisfy my customer, delight my customer.”
He pointed to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as a “classic example” of an entrepreneur who has always focused on delighting customers.
“Any business that has delighted customers has a salesforce out there that you don’t have to pay, you don’t see them, but they’re talking to people all the time,” Buffett said.
“Whenever I bought my last car — a few years ago — I don’t remember how much I paid, but I remember the experience I had.”
Buffett’s own Berkshire Hathaway started as a small company and over the course of the last five decades has grown to a market capitalization of $350 billion.