Small Business Advice for 2026 from Successful Entrepreneurs

Founders Share the Lessons They Wish They’d Known Starting Out

If you’re planning to launch or level up your business in 2026, there’s no better guidance than hearing directly from entrepreneurs who’ve already navigated the challenges ahead. From securing funding and choosing the right location to surrounding yourself with experts and managing the emotional highs and lows of ownership, these founders shared with ICSC’s Small Business Center the lessons they wish every new owner knew. Here’s their best advice for starting — and staying — strong in the year ahead.

Believe in Your Product Before Anyone Else Does

“You have to be your own biggest fan. That sounds crazy, but you have to believe in yourself, almost to an unhealthy degree,” said Brianna Cannon, founder and CEO of her eponymous lifestyle brand. “You have to be able to look at your product and be like: ‘This is awesome, despite what everyone says.’ There were ladies that saw my product in my very first and second markets ever and went: ‘Oh, how funny. Do people wear these?’ You have to know that what you’re doing is good and know that not everybody is going to understand it or care about it. If you do not believe in what you’re doing, then it’s going to be real tough.”

MORE FROM CANNON: How Brianna Cannon Built a Nationwide Brand

Start Before You Feel Ready

“I’ve always felt like people who want to do things find good reasons to talk themselves out of doing things,” said Bonn Rassavong, co-owner of Doinks Burger Joint in Cleveland’s Waterloo Arts District. “That’s something that I personally have done in the past, but if you just start tackling tasks instead of overthinking, you’d be surprised at what the outcome will be.”

Get Clear on Your Costs Before You Ask for Capital

Before asking for financial support or investment, it’s important to be clear about what you need the funding for and what it will cost. As Vincent Vicari — former regional director of the New Jersey Small Business Development Center at Ramapo College and now a partner and consultant with the Franchise Consulting Company — explained: “There are loans for property. There are loans for capital. There are some loans that take care of quick and easy expenses and other loans to consolidate debt.” Before you start looking for general funding, nail down what exactly you need the money for — and “general growth” doesn’t cut it. When coming up with a dollar amount, he advised that you have 40% cash down on whatever you’re asking to borrow. “If you want $100,000, you better have $40,000 [in cash already]. Funders need to see you have skin in the game.”

MORE FROM VICARI: A Primer for Financing Your Small Business

Don’t Overlook Unsexy Location Factors Like Parking

“There is one very, very important point that we missed,” said Kelly Makker, co-owner of Avatar Coffee Roasters in Santa Ana, California, about the process of choosing a location. “We have huge challenges with parking. The streets around that complex — none of them have parking. And in the complex itself, the parking is very limited. Customers are constantly asking: ‘Where can I park?’ So we lose a lot of sales due to that. If we go to open another cafe, the first thing I’m going to ask is about parking.”

Match Your Location to Your Real Customer Base

“I did not challenge myself enough on the demographics in our area,” said Ryan Lindquist, co-owner of Shakopee Brewhall. “Shakopee is a lot of single-family, 30- to 60-year-olds,” he said of the city located about 25 miles southwest of Minneapolis. “It does not have a university nearby. We don’t have the 20-somethings coming through. It’s husbands and wives, business groups. That equates to more of a responsible drinker: people who have two, two-and-half beers per transaction. It means that we are not open until 2 a.m. because we don’t have the clientele for that.

I’ve traveled and I’ve done enough market research to see that if you’re a brewery that’s adjacent to a college, you are going to get the people that are going to probably start having a beer by noon versus punching out [of] work at 4 o’clock and then thinking: ‘Let’s have dinner at home, and then we’ll go grab a couple of drinks afterwards.’ Our sweet spot is 3 to 9 p.m., and I’m happy with where we are. And if were to be dropped next to college, maybe I’d hate it. I don’t know, but as I look on the other side of the fence, I can’t help but wonder.”

Hire Experts Early — You Can’t Do Everything Yourself

Elijah Campbell, NFL player and co-owner of the Nautical Bowls franchise in Marco Island, Florida, knows he and his wife can’t manage it all themselves. “Thank God for [certified public accountants] and bookkeepers,” Campbell said. “We tried to do that ourselves for a little while, and that’s impossible. One key piece of advice I would give to business owners is to pay people to do things like finances, bookkeeping and inventory. A lot of people [try] to save every penny, but you need to think at least 10 years down the line. In the beginning, it’s going to suck, but once you have systems and processes set, the business starts to run itself.

Expect Delays in Construction and Permitting

“We originally thought [construction] would be a small project, something we could finish quickly. But it unravel[ed] into something much bigger than we expected,” said Jennifer MacRobbie, who recently opened Gotta Have Heart studio in Saverna Park, Maryland, with her sister, Christine. “For example, we originally had just one bathroom, and now we’re required to add another. That wasn’t part of our initial plan. The space is only 1,600 square feet, but once you get into the codes and requirements, there’s a huge learning curve.”

Protect Your Business From Cyberattacks

More and more, small businesses — not big corporations — are the primary targets of hackers. “Over the last six to seven years, there has been a major, major shift from bad actors. They really don’t go after extortion from the enterprise clients: IBM, Google, Facebook,” said cybersecurity expert Patrick Wright. “Those guys aren’t going to pay it. When they attack them, it’s usually a political statement. They know the small and midtier companies absolutely will pay it because if they don’t pay it, they’re out of business.”

Lean on Your Local Small Business Community

“You don’t have to be on an island by yourself,” said April Peterson, co-owner of River Rock Outfitter, an outdoor-recreation retailer in Fredericksburg, Virginia. “I’m here 10 years because I’ve been willing to work with people and not look at and think about my competition on a daily basis. If there’s another outdoor store moving in the area, fantastic. We can work together, we can partner, we can grow our audiences together, we’re stronger together than we are individually. I know sometimes that’s hard, when you’re looking at the numbers every day and your revenue is struggling. But that’s exactly when you should open up your arms. Because we all need each other as small business owners to survive.”

Expect Highs and Lows To Be Part of the Journey

“It’s easy to become discouraged,” said Jackie Wachter, co-founder and creative director of Fount, a brand that specializes in leather bags. “But the longer we’ve been doing this, the more comfortable I’ve become with [the idea that] we’ve been through hard times before and we’ll get through this, too. I think I am just getting more comfortable knowing that [having ups and downs] is just part of it.”

MORE FROM WACHTER: How Leather Bag Maker Fount Reached Its Audience

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