Costly mistakes to avoid when starting a business

Though some mistakes seem to be inevitable when starting a business, but there are some costly mistakes that need to be avoided by every means possible. These mistakes don’t just cost you money, but also valuable amount of time that you’d have put into good use. Most of these mistakes are unnecessary and would’ve easily been avoided, but made due to ignorance or negligence. It is also very easy to overlook these mistakes when you’re starting a business.‘’ A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them and strong enough to correct them’’ – John C Maxwell

Failing to plan

This is one of the biggest mistakes to avoid when starting business. An idea is not a plan, a plan is a plan. After you’ve gotten the idea, the next thing is to set-up a measurable, achievable, realistic and timely business plan. You must remember that ‘’failure to plan is itself a plan to fail.’’ – Winston Churchill

A good business plan is essential to guide you on the idea that you’ve got. Don’t get too excited and jump into starting a business without a clear and achievable business plan either written by you or someone else.

Lack of focus and concentration

Avoid being jack-of-all-trade. Tony Robbins said that ‘’one reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.’’

Concentrate your energy and focus all your resources in mastering a single area of your life.

If you want to start a blogging business, focus on a specific niche, create one blog and then focus all your energy on it until it becomes productive. When it’s time to monetize, also focus on one monetization means. When it starts yielding good returns on investment (ROI), you can now consider diversifying your attention.

Failing to research and explore different options

This is another mistake you need to avoid when starting a business. It is very essential that you research on your target market, find out what they need and provide that only. Don’t just create a new product because it’s a fresh and interesting idea, find out if it’s capable of meeting a need or not.

You should also be creative and imaginative and avoid sticking to one specific option when there’re different options available to explore. Most entrepreneurs make this start-up mistake when it comes to advertising and marketing their product

Making assumptions

‘’Don’t make assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.’’ – Miguel Angel Ruiz

Avoid crazy assumptions that;

▪ what works for others will also work for you.

▪everybody is going to like this product.

It is costly to make these kinds of assumptions when starting a business. You can wisely substitute your crazy assumptions with asking questions and doing all the necessary research to ensure that you’re ‘’in the know’’ to avoid silly start-up mistakes.

Failing to market your business properly

It is essential that you find an effective marketing strategy. Adopt new and effective marketing techniques and expose new people to your business. Develop a sales goal, sales activities, target account and timeliness. Sell directly to end users and you’ll gain confidence that there’s demand for your product.

Failing to try again

Try again when you make a mistake, do not quit. John Wooden said that ‘’if you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes. Starting a business can be tedious and hectic and you’re bound to make some start-up mistakes. Scott Adams even considered creativity as allowing yourself to make mistakes, so you shouldn’t give up because you made one. No matter how costly it may seem, keep trying after all Thomas Edison tried almost a thousand times before the electric bulb came into existence.

‘’The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.’’ – Dale Carnegie

Consider your mistakes as a stepping stone to success because that’s what they’re, learn from them and move on. You’re not yet a failure unless you refuse to try again.

I’m sure that there’re other mistakes that entrepreneurs make when starting a business, you can share the ones you think that I’d have included using the comment box below. Kindly share this article with any of the social media button below so that your connections can benefit from it too.

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