Starting your own business can be exciting, but also overwhelming. You are pumped up and motivated and you want to get things started and move things forward. At some point though, you may find yourself stuck in a situation or undecided on what’s the next thing to do. And that is fine, it’s all part of the process. 

But wouldn’t it be great if you know about these sticky situations so you can avoid them? Well, you are just in luck because I’ve made some mistakes of my own and I am sharing them with you so you don’t have to be in the same challenging situations.

Remember though what’s more important when these things happen – don’t give up!

Here are the common mistakes startup business owners make:

1. Expecting for fast results and success.

Setting the right expectations matters. You may have heard of success stories from successful entrepreneurs. And you’ve got yourself thinking that can be me as well. Keep in mind that every success has its own share of roadblocks, problems and breakthroughs. Your story is different. It’s great if you’re able to pivot your business in a matter of months or even a year. But if this is not the case, be patient and don’t give up easily. It may take 2 to 5 years before you actually hit your goal. That’s totally fine because great things take time to happen.

2. Selling to everyone.

One of the foundations you’ve got to build for your business is having a solid clarity of who your ideal audience is. Targeting and selling to everyone will not bring you a good source of leads in the long run. Spend time to do a market research to really understand who your audience is. Focus on finding what affects their buying decisions. Align your marketing efforts to create content that will make sense to them so that they may see you as a trusted authority in your industry. This will also help you to connect and work with the right audience.

3. Underpricing your products or services.

Don’t fall into the temptation of underpricing your offers just to get a client. Know your actual worth. Spend time and sit down to calculate your pricings. Consider all your expenses and your take home earnings. It is important to have a good profit margin so you can keep running your business. You don’t want to find yourself providing services in exchange of low or no profit at all because you charge so little.

4. Working alone and not delegating.

Yes, you can do everything on your own at the start but time will come that you can’t. You have to accept that. Tedious tasks such as answering emails, social media management, customer service, content creation, etc. is eating up your precious time. These are the daily tasks you need to deal with. You might want to consider hiring a freelancer or a team that can help get things done for your business. Learn to leverage other people’s expertise to your business’ advantage. Get things done without sacrificing quality of work. Most of all relieve yourself of unwanted pressure because of these tedious tasks. Focus on the more important actions you need to do to achieve business goals.

5. Being scared to fail.

While you plan to succeed, prepare a back up plan for failure as well. Failure is an inevitable part of every business. Even successful entrepreneurs make wrong decisions and take risky action because they want to achieve success. Good news is, failing means you now know what not to do in the future. You can learn from them and re-route your plan. You can always charge every failure to experience. After all, experience is the best teacher of all.

6. Not marketing your business online.

The Internet is the fastest way to get in front of your audience nowadays. Build a strong online presence to spread awareness about your products and services. Use the online space to get the most out of your marketing efforts. Build a user-friendly website. Optimize search engine marketing so people can find you when they search on Google. Create Social Media accounts where you can actively engage and provide value to your audience. Putting your marketing efforts online can have a remarkable impact to your business growth when done right.

7. Not having a systematic process in place.

Setting up early a systematic process for your business will allow you to remove yourself from the operations side of your business. Which will give you more time to focus on the sales and development side. You need to put more effort and time on this side of your business to grow and scale.

As you do things, document your process and decide which actions bring you the most efficient and effective way of getting things done. So next time, you wouldn’t need to figure out these things. By incorporating these in your everyday routine,  you’ll know where and what needs to be done. 

8. Not having a business plan

While some businesses have survived and have managed to start their business without one, trust me, they’d tell you they wish they had a plan before starting out. 

Yes, a business plan can be a tedious, time-consuming process but in the long run it will serve you well. It will provide you with an overview of what you will need – finance, marketing, manpower, operations. This gives you the opportunity to organize your resources, analyze the market and competitors, evaluate business feasibility, find your strengths and weaknesses, and strategize well in advance. 

I hope this gives you an idea of what can come your way as you build your business. Establishing a business is a continuous process of learning, innovating, taking action, failing, and moving forward. This is the reason having a clear expectation, clear goals, and setting up a system for your business is important.

These may be a bit overwhelming, especially if you are doing things all by yourself. I know how it feels, I have been where you are right now. 

There are promising entrepreneurs and business owners that have a great product and services to offer. They just need a team to help them pivot their business to success. If you are that person, I would love to talk or chat with you so we can share notes and I can give you a tip or two that can help you and your business.