Mistake 1. Not thinking like an entrepreneur
Business owners get into trouble when they have not learned to think from the point of view of an entrepreneur. Here are some of the qualities of entrepreneurial thinking – innovative, creative, willing to take risks, motivated, and decisive. An entrepreneur puts these qualities into action for the good of the business and can almost think about the business as a living entity. Business owners that are struggling in the area of entrepreneurial mindset often take certain actions such as trying to do everything in the business themselves, not spending time on developing business systems, and spending too much time or money on skills training as compared to business development. A typical result of this mistake is the business owner feels constantly overwhelmed and out of control.
Mistake 2. Uncertain of what you have to offer
To build a successful business, you must know yourself very well. If you are a solopreneur, you are the business and understanding yourself becomes even more critical. You will have a difficult time developing a business, describing it to others and gaining customers or clients if you are not certain of exactly what you are offering. The key pieces that need to be clear to you are –
- What are your own beliefs, skills, interests and how each affects how you structure your business
- Why you and your business are different than everyone else in your field
- How to talk about your business including your products or services
- What are the results that you provide to customers
- How are you contributing to the world
Mistake 3. Lack of Vision
Far too many people start up a business with only a general idea of what the business will be like and what their lifestyle will be as a business owner. They have difficulty with self motivation because they do not have the clear dream pulling them on when times are tough and the work is hard. You must have certainty about what you are building – specific and detailed clarity. This vision may change over time as you and the business grow, but you risk your success if you do not spend time to craft the vision carefully and document it thoroughly. Then you must be able to translate this vision into an action plan to build the business.
Mistake 4. Fear of marketing
There is no worse mistake than allowing this one to continue in your business. Everything you do in your business is marketing – every time you touch someone else by talking, writing, or sending info, you are marketing. You cannot be afraid of it and succeed. Marketing is the vehicle that helps the world know what it is that you do, why it matters, how it might help them – it is spreading the word about this thing that fires you up.
There is nothing but good in that! The hard news is that you must be able to market and to have sales conversations in order to stay in business. There are a dozen possible fears hiding behind the fear of marketing and you need to find ways to face and address those fears in order to have a successful business.
Mistake 5. Not understanding business world
Would you fly an airplane without flight instruction or drive a car without learning how? Of course not. You also shouldn’t expect yourself to run a business without learning how the business world operates. Know what to do and what you are getting yourself into. Find the areas of business in which you are least skilled and learn more about them. Study copywriting, marketing, computers, bookkeeping or whatever area you do not know about. It is only when you have facts behind your decisions that you will be able to make choices that help your business thrive.
Mistake 6. Having to get all your ducks in a row
This is the syndrome of having ideas without action. The entrepreneur is stuck in perpetually waiting until one particular thing is right. And there is a never-ending list of what that one thing could be. There are several ways this can show up in your behavior – perfectionism, rigid ideas, pursuit of information and inattention to details are typical ways. When one or more of these traits show up in a repetitive pattern, usually ruthless honesty will discover a lack of confidence at the root of this mistake. Sometimes this mistake weeds out people that do not have the right personality mix to be an entrepreneur. At other times, it becomes a simple barrier that can be worked through and overcome.
Mistake 7. Having only one product or service
You never want to have only one thing for sale. That is why hair salons also do nails and sell hair products. It is why your veterinarian also boards pets and sells leashes and flea shampoo. When the item that you most want to sell is high priced like web design or coaching or event planning, having lower priced lead-in items becomes even more important. Having a variety of products at different prices allows your customers to get to know you as a business owner before trusting you with a lot of their money.
Mistake 8. Not having a niche
If your business tries to be all things to all people – you end up being nothing to nobody. You must have a niche!!! Your niche defines where and how you are spending your marketing resources. If you try to market to everyone, you are being inefficient and wasteful. Your niche focuses your efforts. This is a marketing issue not an issue of who your customers are. A niche does not prevent you from providing products and services to whoever is interested in purchasing, but gives you a focus for your planning.
Mistake 9 – Doing it Alone
There are two important reasons why this is such a big mistake. First, is that you can’t run a business well if you are isolated. You must be connected with colleagues to stay current with trends, ideas, information and shortcuts and to keep yourself and your business invigorated and fresh.
The second reason why doing it alone is such a big mistake is that in any viable business, one person cannot do all there is to be done and do it efficiently. You probably could do whatever needs to be done yourself by study and application, but you really need to be focused on those tasks that no one but you can do. Think from the start of your business about having a team, even if there is only one other person on the team and he/she does only one thing for you occasionally. As your business grows, your team will need to grow as well.
Mistake 10. Thinking small
This mistake is a combination of all the others. Your success is limited only by your capacity to think big – to dream big, plan big, work big, share big, contribute big. Every single one of us has the ability to impact the world. One of the reasons that we go into business is to provide something to the world and somewhere inside we know we can make a difference. It is vital that we nurture and feed that big dream in ourselves – that part of us that wants to impact the world – because this is the root of success. When you remember that you are connected to something bigger, you will flourish.
Don’t make these mistakes or others in YOUR biz. Get more information about success as an entrepreneur from Janet Slack of Solopreneur.Biz. You can receive her free ebook “Biz Tips – Entrepreneur Edition” filled with more than 50 ideas for business success here.
