5 Mistakes That Entrepreneurs Make
Almost everyone who has sufficient funds can open a business. However, the question is how many actually succeed and see profits. Being an entrepreneur is not an easy task and one has to look into numerous business aspects before actually embarking on a business venture. Many who enter into a business are often inexperienced and this can lead to their downfall.
Expect Immediate Success
One common mistake made by new entrepreneurs is that they expect immediate success and want to see profits as soon as their doors are open. If you are expecting success right away from your business, then you are setting yourself up for disappointment. You need to be realistic about your expectations and try to be patient. One of the many reasons that so many businesses fail so early on is because entrepreneurs expect they can open their doors and just like that they will start making money. Many times these companies go out of business because the entrepreneur can’t afford to pay the rent anymore, they were expecting to earn money right away to cover their expenses. Also, delegation of tasks is important for long term sustainability. Though it is your business, you cannot expect to do everything yourself. A good entrepreneur knows how to delegate, plain and simple. If you try to do everything yourself, you are only setting yourself up for failure. You need to know how to outsource. Doing everything yourself will only cause you to burn out or draw focus away from the tasks that actually need your expertise and attention.
Capital
Capital is the fuel that allows businesses to grow. Without capital, businesses fail. With capital, early-stage companies can begin to grow, and mature companies can achieve even greater scale. For early stage companies, particularly those with little or no track record of success, the challenge is to find the capital they need. Because the vast majority of businesses fail, banks, venture capital firms and other lenders and investors are often highly skeptical and not willing to part with their dollars unless significant conditions are met. As a new entrepreneur, money is likely to be one of your biggest concerns. Pre-launch cash flow is likely to be close to nil, so making and saving money will usually take priority over everything else. There are two mindsets among new entrepreneurs: Either “You have to spend money to make money” or “I’ll spend the bare minimum until I have some decent cash flow.” Both of these attitudes, when taken to the extreme, can be harmful. Spend your startup cash wisely, but don’t be afraid to invest in good people and quality products.
Realistic & Attainable Goals
You must also set realistic and attainable goals in order to succeed. Make a point of setting both short- and long-term goals, and make sure they’re specific. Set a reasonable goal, and then determine what specific steps you need to take to reach it. Having a healthy profit margin will be critical to your success. Setting it too low now will make life infinitely more difficult for you in the future — your customers likely won’t be thrilled when you need to raise your prices later on. Take a look at your production and operating costs, and determine how much flexibility there is. Can you reduce these costs in the future if necessary? If not, choose a higher profit margin now to accommodate these costs. If you aren’t passionate about your business and the field you have chosen to open a company in, then you will never be successful. One of the biggest mistakes that any entrepreneur can make is ignoring their true passion and just opening a company to make money.
Entrepreneurs who do this get no fulfillment out of life, even if they are successful. Money alone will not comfort you in the way that feeling fulfilled can. Some entrepreneurs manage to achieve success without using online technologies. But more and more, these entrepreneurs are becoming the exception. By understanding the core online marketing tactics, and knowing the right tools to use, successful entrepreneurs can literally run pieces of their business on autopilot.
Social Media & Email Marketing
Social media platforms are a great tool to use to build your following and let people know about your business. But, it is not the tool that we should be depended on to turn followers into customers. Social media is only the gateway to bringing people into your sales funnel. Email marketing is how you convert interest into actual customers. Social media should only be relied upon for building your traffic. Email marketing is how you generate money through your online marketing activities. If you are not utilising email marketing, then your business is not bringing in the money it could actually be generating from being online. All the six-figure and millionaire online entrepreneurs rely on email marketing to make their money.
The Customer Is Always Right?
There’s an adage in business: “The customer is always right.” That simply isn’t true. Yes, it’s important to focus on customer satisfaction, but not at the expense of your company’s greater good. Look at every customer service complaint independently and create a process for tracking repeated complaints or flagging frequent complainers. The sooner you realise you can’t please every customer, the more stable your customer service will become. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur in today’s ever-changing market, then you need to learn to be adaptable. If you are not adapting and you are putting too much expectation on one product or service, you will never succeed. You are putting all of your eggs in one basket, so to say. Instead, you need to test, test and test again. Try various products and solutions. Explore new options. Go with what is working now, but always be ready to make changes in the future.
