If you’ve already started a business then you’ve probably made at least one of these new small business mistakes. I’ve made most of them. Some of them over and over again – eeek!!
I hope this article saves you some heartache and helps you to avoid making some of the mistakes new business owners make.
Spending money on all the wrong things
It can cost a lot of money to start up a business. A website can cost up to $10,000 and if you need to purchase capital and stock then you can be out of pocket quite substantially. However if you think outside the box it is possible to start a business with a limited budget. You just need to make sure you spend your money on all the right things, and don’t fall into this trap of expensive new small business mistakes.
When I started my first business I had some money saved up to get me started. I made a list of everything I needed, did a budget and got going. As I mentioned above, I certainly wasted some of that money on getting the wrong education however overall I think I did get this mostly right.
My first business was an online toy store so getting a great website with a shopping cart was top priority. Then the quotes from the website developers came in, $5,000 and then $8,000. Yikes, I only had a budget of $10,000 to set up the whole business and that included purchasing stock (and I wanted to put at least $5,000 toward that).
I’ve since learned that there are many cheap options available for setting up a website on the cheap, especially if you’re prepared to have a go at a little DIY. The cheaper the option, usually the more design and technical work you’ll need to do yourself. Just know that you don’t need to spend a fortune and there is an option out there that’s perfect for you.
As I had saved all that money on my website I was able to invest in having my branding all professionally designed. Now that was definitely worth the investment. With a beautiful logo and images for my website no-one had any idea that my website was a cheapie.
I was able to use that branding material over and over again in promotional materials so I well and truly got my money’s worth.
One big mistake I did make was spending $1,000 on a small advert at the back of a national magazine. I was convinced to make the investment because $1,000 was their mega discounted rate resulting from another advertiser had pulled out. My estimated sales that resulted from that ad? About $200. Yep, by placing that ad I lost $800!
Another right thing I did was invest in more education for myself. What did I need to learn? Marketing, marketing, marketing.
Putting marketing on the back burner
Oh, I was SO guilty of this one. I spent 6 months setting up my first business and during that time I gave only a fleeting thought to marketing. “I’ll work that out later”, I said to myself. Big mistake. BIG. Just because you build it does not mean they will come. Nope, they won’t.
The time to think about marketing is right back when you’re conceiving the idea for your business. Right back at the start when you’re thinking about who your customers will be and how you will help them.
That’s also the time to work out how you will find your potential customers, how you will engage them and how you will communicate with them. When you work that out you’ll have a better idea of what kind of digital marketing you will adopt and need to budget for.
Waiting for everything to be perfect
Running a business is a process. Your business is never finished. Your website is never finished. It will never be perfect so if you’re waiting for perfection you’ll be waiting an awfully long time.
New goal:
Do the best you can do, do something you’re proud of and then put it out into the world.
Rinse and repeat.
Ignoring your own personal development
When business isn’t going as planned it’s easy to come up with a bunch of excuses.
“My customers won’t pay a higher price”
“My customers don’t value what I do”
“People expect my thing for free”
“I don’t have the money to invest in advertising”
“I’m not a technical person”
Guess what. That’s a bunch of baloney.
Your customers don’t value what you do? It’s much more likely that YOU don’t truly value what you do.
Your customers won’t pay more? Rubbish. You’re either targeting the wrong customers or you haven’t been communicating the true value of your product or service.
Choosing your business on profits not passion
Yes, of course, when choosing your business idea you need to do your research to be confident that the business has the potential to be profitable. However equally important is to choose something that you enjoy and are passionate about.
This is just about sustainability, really. Building a business can be a long process. And working through the challenging times when you’re tired, confused and frustrated takes more than just the motivation that you might make a profit. That’s when you need a stronger drive. That’s when the passion comes in.
In Summary
I’m definitely not saying that starting a new small business is at all easy. Just that if things aren’t going well, start by looking at what YOU can do differently rather than how you can blame others.
If you want to avoid new small business mistakes and constantly improve your business, then you need to constantly improve yourself. Starting a business really is the greatest personal development course you can ever do.
