Business Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Business
There are so many articles on how to be successful when starting a business. I am a millennial future entrepreneur who did research on what to avoid when starting a business. In this blog post I’m bringing you a few mistakes that people make when starting their own business.
So here it is, for all you nuevo go-getters like me, a list of the biggest mistakes when starting a business.
Please don’t make them.
1. Not making a business plan
Why write a business plan?
Simple: The business plan is the blueprint for your business. If you wanted to build a house, you wouldn’t walk over to an empty lot and just start nailing boards together. Starting a business without a business plan is just as risky.
Unless you write a business plan, you won’t have idea about your business and your business goals.
“Too many businesses start without a basic plan, and if you fail to plan, you are essentially planning to fail. A startup should map out a business plan, even if it is just one page. It should include how much it costs to operate, how much they anticipate selling, who would buy their product and why.”
– Deacon Hayes, financial expert and founder, WellKeptWallet.com
2. Not being organized
If your business is not properly organized, tasks can pile up, and valuable time is spent on finding information that should be readily available. However, good organizational skills can make or break a business owner, ultimately saving you time and reducing stress.
“Being organized is key. Running a small business is like being a circus ringmaster. It’s normal to have dozens of things happening at once. So, I have a daily task list, things that I need to do. And I list them by their priority. It sounds simple, but it works, and makes me far more productive.”
– Tara Langdale-Schmidt, founder, VuVatech
3. Don’t be afraid to fail
How can you break your paralysis and get past being scared of failure? You have to do two things:
- Prepare to succeed
- Change your attitude towards failure.
The first thing you need to do to prepare to succeed is to learn how to do it. You already know how to fail. You can fail by doing nothing or you can fail by doing stupid things.
But how do you succeed? By finding out exactly what you would need to be successful and ensuring that those needs are met. Arming yourself with knowledge is the path to success.
“The biggest mistake you can make is to be afraid of failure. Failure is key to your success, and jumping into your fear is very positive for your future business. How you pick up after failure and learn from your mistakes is the key to great success.”
– Audrey Darrow, president, Righteously Raw
4. Understand your market and target audience
Before you can start listing your target audience demographics or browsing through the types of target audience, you need to understand why you’re segmenting your list of would-be traffic in the first place. A target audience profile is simply a specific group of customers most likely to respond positively to your promotions, products, and services.
Often, your target audience analysis will be based on specific factors like location, age, income, and so on. For instance, if you’re a makeup company, there’s a good chance you’ll want to appeal to women who can afford your products and live in an area you can ship to.
So, why is a target audience important? The simple answer to that question is that the channels, language, and information you use to connect with your audience might not be as effective with one demographic as it is with another. Finding your target audience definition will help you to create a tone of voice that really speaks to your customer.
A common startup mistake is not taking the time to understand the market or customers you’re building for. For technical founders, writing code can seem easier than talking to customers, but there’s no way to know if you’re on the right track unless you’re constantly getting feedback from current or prospective customers. It’s important to recognize that building a great product often doesn’t translate into a successful business. Many companies find themselves focusing on a market that’s simply too small to build a big business in.”
– George Deglin, co-founder and chief executive officer, OneSignal
5. Don’t try to do everything yourself
You can’t. It’s that simple and that aggravating. Running a small business, even if it’s a one-person business, involves so many different tasks that no one person can do them all well. Even if each of us was perfect and had all the skills to do an outstanding job at whatever we set our hands to, each of us is still constrained by time. Most days, you’ll be lucky if you even get done what you planned to get done when your day started.
“A big mistake that entrepreneurs make is thinking they are all alone, and they try to operate independently without surrounding themselves with wise counsel. Don’t try to run a new business by yourself. Find and onboard trustworthy seasoned advisors to discuss your business ideas, strategy, challenges, and progress. Wisdom and power exist in the multiplicity of counsel. Incentivize four to six people to join your company as advisors in order to receive continuous feedback so that fewer mistakes will occur.”
– James Zimbardi, chief executive officer, Rent Items
6. Don’t waste money
Most of the entrepreneurs, always overlook another golden rule of business. That rule is not to waste money unnecessarily and make a budget-friendly plan based on your business size. All businesses have to work with less capital so they can save as much as possible. Even if you try hard, you will come across a plan which is capitally raised up and that’s not how you save money. Even with your ambitious goal, there are chances that you might fall into a close trap just like most of the other entrepreneurs.
“Handling money incorrectly and being irresponsible with cash flow is a death sentence for startups with limited access to capital. I’ve made the mistake of hiring too many people instead of the right people, and spending money to fill the top of the funnel without having a well-defined process to manage the bottom of the funnel. Putting good money to bad use and trying to be everything to everyone instead of being niche-focused is a sure-fire way to waste valuable time and money, which are the lifeblood to any startup.”
– Thomas Aronica, founder and chief executive officer, Biller Genie
7. Not Bothering With Any Online Marketing
One way or another, your small business has to be online. You may or may not need a website (many individuals who provide services use other “homes” on the web, such as Facebook or LinkedIn pages or Etsy sites) but your business needs to be able to be found by and promoted to the ever increasing number of people who use the web to find the products and services they want. If you’re not going to do anything else, establish some sort of home base for your business online and be sure that your small business is listed in various online directories. Actively marketing your small business online is even better and will give it a far better chance of reaching your customers.
“Content is fire; social media is gasoline.”
– Jay Baer, Bestselling Author, Marketing Expert and Founder of Convince
If starting a business is in your future, understand that starting a business is a process, not an event.
If you take the time to do the thinking and the research and avoid the business mistakes discussed above, you’ll hugely increase the likelihood of your new business succeeding.
Don’t be afraid of failure, instead, learn from your mistakes and pivot your business model as needed. Test new ideas and acquire feedback so you can tweak your product to better meet customers needs.
