5 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Starting Your Own Business

Entrepreneurs are smart people, but there’s a difference between succeeding in the classroom or a corporate job, and succeeding in running your own business. When you’re in charge of everything, there are a lot of moving parts to keep track of, so it’s no surprise that some of the smartest entrepreneurs still get tripped up and find themselves making these five common mistakes when starting their own businesses.

Not Putting Agreements in Writing

Every time you go into business with someone, you need to set out the terms in writing. Whether it’s a client, a vendor/contractor, or an employee, you always need to make sure you lay out everyone’s expectations in writing. That way there are no surprises, and it gives you something to reference if there’s a dispute or someone can’t remember a certain part of the agreement. Allison Cychosz of AMC Legal is the attorney I go to whenever I have questions about these types of things. She also does free consults so I find myself referring her to clients a lot for advice in this area.  

Failing to Plan

In an earlier blog post I talked about the old saying that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Unfortunately, a lot of entrepreneurs make the mistake of failing to plan before jumping into their business with both feet. The result is they spend a lot of time doing things that don’t generate income for their business, and they fall into a lot of the traps their predecessors fell into because they didn’t see them coming, or they didn’t take the time to figure out how they would react if something came along to interrupt their business.

Not Doing a SWOT Analysis

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and it’s important to identify all those things before you start trying to sell your product/service in order to avoid spending time and energy on things that don’t get you the results you need for your business, and ignoring the things that could help get you where you want to go. If you want to know more about how to conduct a SWOT analysis, we covered that topic in depth over here.

Underpricing Your Products/Services

I cannot stress enough the importance of knowing the value of what you provide and insisting on only working with people who are willing to pay the price you set. I know it can be tempting to take a lower dollar amount when you’re just starting out and struggling to make ends meet, but it’s not worth your time or effort, because doing so can mean you end up getting stuck with clients who are only willing to pay bottom dollar. People who only want to pay bottom dollar don’t hang out with the people who are willing and able to pay you what you’re worth, so they’re not going to be able to connect you with better clients.

Trying to Go it Alone

It’s common for small business owners to feel like they can do it all on their own, but doing so is a mistake. Maybe it’s because we have to do everything for our business, so we feel like we should have all the answers. The truth is no one has all the answers, and the times we think we have it all figured out are the times we are most likely to mess up because we missed something someone else could have pointed out to us. If you’re tired of trying to go it alone, why not reach out to someone who has been where you are and has led other small business owners through the process? You can schedule a call now to see if it’s time to hire a Strategy Rockstar to help you grow your small business.