Tyler Perry Shares Entrepreneurial Advice

Friday afternoon American Express hosted a forum for small business owners with Atlanta-based mogul Tyler Perry. The event, titled ‘Tyler Perry: The Entrepreneurial Mind‘ drew about 100 guests to the Fox Theatre‘s Egyptian Ballroom to hear what Perry, who owns his own studio, had to say.

His #1 piece of advice? ‘Oprah taught me to own everything, never sell,’ he said. Also, ‘Social media is everything. I didn’t even know what a Facebook was six months ago, until they called me up. I had about a million people on my email list from TylerPerry.com, but there were about six people calling themselves Tyler Perry on Facebook. So Facebook called me up and asked if I would have a page. When I started seeing that people would like it then their friends would like it then their friends would like it, I was like, wow.’

Perry also shared that all of his first projects were bombs. ‘My first play, I was expecting about a thousand people. 30 showed up, and I knew all of them. But out of that 30, there was one who wanted to invest.’ Perry said one of his secrets to final success was finding local church people who already had a following to star in his plays. ‘People are always trying to get the big fish, when there are so many other fish you can get.’

Here are some other nuggets from Tyler Perry: The Entrepreneurial Mind:

• Always touch people coming into your business, whether it’s with a thank you note or a phone call.
• Super serve your niche. Give your customers more than they’re expecting, and do it again and again and again.
• Everyone comes into your life to teach you a lesson. If you don’t learn it it will show up again as as another person and you’ll have to go through all the hard stuff again.
• Never feel like you know it all and never give up control.
• Hire people that have your spirit. Never give people too much too quickly or they’ll go crazy with people. Give them a little power at first to see how they handle it.
• You can’t get anything with your hands closed.
• Some things (charitable) should be done in private so God can reward you in private. Some should be done in public because it inspires others.
• There are things you cannot be cheap about (financial advice, attorneys, etc.)
• You have to know that you deserve it. Say to yourself, ‘I deserve good things, good health, and for my business to prosper, because God said I deserve it.’

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