As a new entrepreneur, you need to get ready for various types and levels of challenges and obstacles you might encounter when you’re starting out. You might have problems getting the right customers, or sufficient funding, or even cutthroat competition. But these may mainly be external problems. What you are likely to find most frustrating are those business mistakes that might arise as a consequence of your own direct action or inaction.
And while you might be filled with inspiration and excitement for finally starting your own enterprise, it’ll most likely be anything but easy. It’s therefore paramount to prepare for any potential risks you might face to shield yourself from business mistakes that many entrepreneurs tend to face as they launch their new venture.
This is not to say that you will have a smooth sail all the way. It just means that you will have the best advice to equip you with skills to help you deal with the most common business mistakes first-time entrepreneurs face.
And here is something to remember, building a business isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon.
Take a deep breath and let’s get started!
14 Small Business Mistakes to Avoid
Not Defining Your Target Audience First
One of the most common mistakes new business owners make is not identifying exactly who their customers are. Hence, effective marketing requires that your message lands on the right audience and in the best way.
This means that before you even launch your product, you have to identify who you are targeting and the best method to reach them.
A business makes few costly mistakes in product introductions into foreign markets if they have identified customers who would need the products or services the business is offering. And, therefore targeting doesn’t stop at your local geographical zone.
You have to find a granular approach by looking at what influences their purchase decisions, their needs, and what they’re trying to solve as well as their budgets. Then fit your pitch and product branding in a way that a potential buyer will resonate with your product and easily move down the sales funnel.
By identifying your right target audience, it gets easier to capture their attention because the solutions they will be looking for will be at their front and center.
Not Tailoring Your Product to Real Customer Issues
Another common mistake new business owners make is the failure to tailor their products or services or business idea in a way that solves real customer problems.
“If one has a hammer, every problem starts looking like a nail”.
According to the most recent statistics, over 50% of small businesses fail because of a lack of demand.
You need to use the problem-centric approach by identifying your customer’s problems and using them as the foundation of your business offer. It’s important to have this understanding early enough in your business launch to avoid making this common business mistake.
Have in mind that every customer has a different way of viewing their problem. It’s important to ask a few right questions and do a bit of customer research before launching your product in order to create tailor-made solutions for them.
Not Setting Clear Expectations and Lacking a Business Plan
Setting clear expectations about your desired outcome in this business venture is uber important. And this goes in tandem with having an elaborate business plan. Such a plan will guide you in managing your projections, revenue, working capital, expenses, and so on.
A good business plan will help you manage all the available resources. It will save you from making business mistakes such as dealing with finances, hiring staff as well as working within a time frame.
With a good business plan in place, your expectations will be clearer and more realistic. It will keep you rolling the wheels because you will know exactly what to do at what time.
Falling in Love and Launching Your Product Without Testing
To avoid inadvertently build obstacles that will lead you to the ground, it’s important that you first test the viability of your product with your intended target audience to ensure there is a need and willingness to adapt your offer.
Test with different groups of interest to get deeper insights. All this will not only show the viability of your offer, but it will also give you insights into how you can tweak your idea to better suit your ideal client and avoid common small business mistakes.
It’s also important to note here that testing is not a once-off activity. It’s a continuous process that ensures the growth of your product as time and customers’ desires evolve.
This is one of the most common business mistakes new business owners make. They think once the product is out there, the work is done. Well, bad news, the work has just begun.
Not Considering the Holistic Product Journey
One of the most common mistakes to avoid when starting a business is failing to understand the entire business ecosystem that includes your customers’ final experience.
When creating your marketing strategy, remember your aim is to create a lasting impression on your customers. It’s not just about selling, it’s about ensuring they come back later for more. This will mean creating the right image and having an elegant online presence through the use of stellar images that will give a great first impression for your business.
And seeing as getting the right images is something most new entrepreneurs are not very savvy at, you can reduce the amount of time and money you spend attempting to get quality images by using these quality professional biz styled stock photos.
You will not have to think about lighting, setup, or even the time for photography; this has already been professionally pulled together for you. The right image will enhance your holistic message of value and worth that you want to deliver to your customers. It’s what will make you stand out and gain trust and loyalty from them.
Not Being Consistent
The importance of consistency in a business cannot be overemphasized. Your brand is the most important asset, and you can consider it your business personified. The way you look, your online presence, sound, and actions heavily impact how your existing and potential customers will perceive you.
Many small business mistakes include not being consistent with your online presence, including social media posting, your response to your customers, or even replying to emails. It means not having a consistent tone and style of conveying your message.
Beyond your voice and tone is also your blog content. You need to keep a uniform tone and still give regular consistent content. It will go a long way in marketing your business.
Consistency helps offer a better customer experience. It helps build credibility because you come off as a stable brand and people generally want to associate with a brand that is grounded and credible.
Not Tracking Results
This is one of the most common business mistakes for new and experienced entrepreneurs alike. It’s easy to forget tracking your marketing efforts, whether online or on other media such as TV or even magazines.
But granular tracking of your efforts is necessary to determine whether there is any return on that investment. Digital tracking is much simpler because there are various tools you can use to measure, but whatever marketing method you use, track your results regularly.
Placing the Market Before Your Product and Customers
One of the most common mistakes new business owners make is to put their customers and products right after the market. There is a direct relationship between how you treat your customers and growth. In the core elements of marketing, price, product, place, and promotion, your customers must always come first. Finally, aren’t they the reason why you are in business after all?
This is one of the mistakes to avoid when starting a business irrespective of whether you’re in B2B or B2C. You must learn to maintain relations with your existing customers and not only with those you’re hoping to acquire.
Any business’ success is attributed to how your customers understand your unique nuances and culture. This is what makes your business stand out against the competition. and it’s what delivers a great experience that will make them come back for more.
Not Familiarizing Yourself with the Laws That Concern You
To avoid any legal tussles, what should you do when starting a business? It’s really simple; ensure that you’re in compliance with the state law before getting up and running.
This is never an easy task even for seasoned entrepreneurs because it may require you to know and understand an overwhelming number of laws, which are constantly changing. And it is most often a herculean task, to be honest.
But here is how you can save yourself. Ensure you establish your business in compliance with the necessary laws from the beginning. It’s true there will be constant changes in the law, but these will only need a few tweaks on your part; stay updated by visiting the state websites to check for any new changes.
This also means that a business makes fewer costly mistakes in product introduction into foreign markets if they have familiarized themselves with the laws in the respective foreign market.
Not fully understanding the laws relating to your line of business is one of the most common mistakes to avoid when starting a business. Get familiar with the rules around taxes, licenses, trademarks, copyrights and more depending on your line of business. Also, ensure to keep check of deadlines for business-related costs such as renewable licenses, taxes, etc. Always seek guidance from a trusted legal professional when you’re still unsure.
Not Having Good People Management Skills
This is one of the most overlooked business mistakes that most starting entrepreneurs make. As a business owner, it’s important to demonstrate a solid level of competence in your business. This will definitely earn you the respect of those you work with and this respect will cascade through to your peers in the industry.
But with this said, how well do you handle people around you?
Remember your aim in business is growing. Growth means a larger group of people to work with on various levels, and some of these people are directly responsible for how you accomplish your expertise. If you have not learned how to manage work relationships, at the start of your business would be a good time to learn.
Forming productive relationships means you’re making your employees, business partners and even customers want to come day after day and transact all over again.
Thinking Huge Spend Means Huge Results
It’s easy to think that the more you spend on big ad campaigns the more revenue you will get. It is one of the most common business mistakes entrepreneurs make. But it’s not necessarily true. It’s possible to get more money without the huge spend. How you may ask?
Branding is how.
This cannot be overstated.
Think about it: big brands like Nike or Louis Vuitton. These are some of the biggest brands in the world of business. How did they get to where they are? Is it a huge marketing campaign? Not quite.
These brands learnt how to establish their core values when they started, and they have ensured that these values stick over the decades. When people buy an LV product, they’re not just buying an item, they are buying value. And it’s about how these products make them feel.
The quality of what you’re offering your customers is important. But consumers consider more than that when they’re buying. The two brands mentioned above make people feel great about themselves each time they “reward” themselves with their products.
High perceived value is in the brand. For this reason, Nike and Louis Vuitton spend less on their marketing costs but sell more items at a higher cost thanks to the power of their brand.
You are just starting, how can this work for your little-known brand? The answer is brand building. Which is a continuous process throughout the life of your business. But it starts with the use of a perfect visual strategy and use of the high-quality professional images that resonate with your brand message.
If you don’t have a budget for expensive photo shoots, fret not. Join Biz Styled Stock membership and gain access to thousands of photos created by world-class professionals who had the end-user in mind.
When using such professionally taken images, you have the option of customizing them further if you need to. To harmonize all your online branding elements such as color palette, logo, typography for that elegant look your brand needs.
When avoiding common business mistakes, branding should be the one to make sure you get right.
Expecting Your Story to Be Told by Others
One of the common mistakes new business owners make is not telling their story. A brand story when told well will give a compelling reason for your customers to purchase from you. It can inspire trust between you and the customers and even key stakeholders as well.
A good story tells people about your journey and it sparks confidence in the value you’re offering the customers.
But you have to learn to tell your own story and tell it right until others begin to tell it for you. One way you can achieve this is by involving your audience and making them part of the characters in your story.
This will encourage them to spread the word and increase credibility and loyalty. But whatever you do, you must start distributing that story yourself first.
Trying to Do Everything Yourself
One of the most common business mistakes new entrepreneurs make is trying to be everything. So, they do it all without any help or break. What this will eventually do is drain you. And most often you will not deliver at your optimum because you will not focus enough on one activity.
You will be spreading yourself too thin and you will end up being unproductive. This is one of the easiest business mistakes to be oblivious about. What you should do instead is to identify the activities that are most important and have a likelihood of bringing the highest return on your investment. Then, focus on these first and slowly build a productive momentum.
Giving Up After One Setback
You had your first fail. Congratulations, you just discovered one method that doesn’t work. You have a couple more to go, one of the mistakes to avoid when starting a business is getting discouraged upon the first failure.
Most success stories start with a few fails, you’ll soon turn into a diamond. And if you believe that you have something really valuable to offer your customers, take a step back and re-create it using all the branding tips given above. Sometimes a good online presence is all you need.
Final Advice
Starting your own business can be easier than picking the scarf or tie you will wear. As such, it can be very easy to find yourself caught up in some common business mistakes that can set you back or block your success entirely.
These 14 common business mistakes are easily avoidable, and with the branding tips above, you can successfully propel the right image and message to your customers and be among the percentage of new businesses that score a success story.
