Top 4 Mistakes to Avoid If You’re a New Entrepreneur

Being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean just owning your own business. More than that fact, you need to be able to have a solid plan, complete with clear goals. And then, naturally, you need strategies on how you will achieve the goals that you’ve set. However, not all starting entrepreneurs seem to be fully aware about how business works and experience a sense of overwhelming frustration when things don’t initially go according to plan. Here are four common statements that startup entrepreneurs make that usually lead into major pitfalls for your business.

“I can manage to do everything by myself.”

When you’re starting out as an entrepreneur, you are still filled with this overwhelming bravado that makes you believe that you can do almost anything successfully. Unfortunately, it isn’t always true. As a matter of fact, most of the time, it would be more beneficial for you and your business if you hired professionals, who are experts in their fields, to help you figure out the kinks that you need for your business. Whether this has to do with SEO, PR, or good old fashioned offline marketing, you need to recognize what you can and cannot do.

“I don’t need a marketing and PR plan.”

While it’s commendable on your part that you are establishing your own business, don’t think that the effort stops there. Many entrepreneurs think that their service or product is so innovative that it will be irresistible to the public. In reality, you will need to invest in marketing efforts initially to the the word out there that your business exists. Take a look at your competitors as well and what they are doing, and then ask yourself what you can do to differentiate yourself from the competition.

“I need to focus on selling my product/service rather than knowing who my target market is.”

As a new entrepreneur, you could be too caught up with your product/service and how you could make money from it that you forget why you created it in the first place. But your reason should always go back to your target market, the people you are trying to reach with what you have to offer. Remember that having loyal clients is a huge factor in the longevity of your business.

“I can grow my business without spending a lot of money.”

At the beginning of any type of business venture, money will always be one of your biggest concerns, regardless whether you have a lot of it or not. And being an entrepreneur, thinking that you can grow your business with as little expense as possible may not always be the best business move. On the other hand, splurging your startup budget is also often unwise. The key to managing your budget properly is doing thorough market research, and investing in honest-to-goodness people and initiatives and not only on what you see are currently trending.

In the end, it’s challenging starting up a business and deciding to become an entrepreneur. And there isn’t always a guarantee that you are going to succeed immediately in your venture. You will still commit mistakes. But that also doesn’t mean that you have to commit all the preventable mistakes there are.

Oct 14, 2015