Top 10 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make Before They Even Start

By: Cherilyn Lester

So you want to start a business. You have an idea. Let’s say you
want to be a carpenter. You print some brochures, some business
cards, and take out an ad in the Yellow Pages. You pay $600 for
a website and a domain name that tells everyone about your
amazing credentials and experience. You distribute your fliers
at a local grocery store. And then you wait. And wait. And wait…

Nothing happens. But, that’s what everyone does, isn’t it? Print
out some brochures, tell everyone how great you are, and wait
for the money to roll in.

Stop right there. You have just made the top 10 mistakes
entrepreneurs make.

Mistake # 1 : First, being a “carpenter” is too general. There
are a million carpenters in the world, but the only successful
ones have something to concentrate on. Wood carving, house
renovation, specialized pieces. Like the old saying goes, “Jack
of all trades, master of none.”

Mistake # 2 : If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. An idea is
not a business plan, or a marketing plan, or even just a goal.
It is simply an idea. Although the planning process may seem
long and tedious now, it will benefit you more than you could
imagine in the future. For example, when you are seeking
funding, when you are joining an association of professionals,
when your goals change, when your business changes, or if you
take on a partner or investor. Your plan should guide you, but
not constrain you. If something in your plan doesn’t fit just
right, change it. Your business plan will never have a final
draft.

Mistake # 3 : Brochures and business cards are GARBAGE to
start-up businesses! You will spend far more producing them than
they will produce for you. Ignoring the high cost of printing
these materials, and the costs associated in designing them if
you aren’t proficient yourself, most start-up businesses change
too quickly for these materials to be effective for more than a
short period, sometimes as little as days. If it costs $1000 to
print these the first time, and $1000 to design them the first
time, imagine how much you will pay if your brochures beat
statistics and last 2 months. If alterations to design cost
$500, it costs $1500 every time your business changes. If your
business changes every 2 months, you can expect to spend at
least $9000 that year on brochures and business cards. Yes, that
is NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS in lost revenue, over something that is
less effective than graffiti. Don’t waste your time, or your
money, on brochures and business cards until you can keep your
typical sales presentation the same for at least 6 months.
Otherwise, these things aren’t worth the trouble.

Mistake # 4 : Okay, the Yellow Pages. Let’s take a look in the
Yellow Pages and see how many other trillions of carpenters
there are. Which ones stand out? Definitely not the tiny ad in
the corner. Probably not the one-liner. And as a start-up, that
is all you would be able to afford. For the one or two clients
per year this would bring you, it is better to wait until your
marketing budget can afford to buy large, extravagant and
eye-catching ads.

Mistake # 5 : $600 for a website and domain name? A website and
domain name before a marketing plan? This scenario is already
causing headaches for those of you “in the know”. Best idea,
design your own website for free if you can. Second best, get a
friend or relative to design it for free. Third best, pay a
minimal fee for the complicated stuff and the rest can be done
by yourself and a relative. Only if no one in the world can help
you, do you want to hire a professional to do the whole thing
for you. And when you do, try and get it on 30 or 60 days post.
That way, their new website will be generating money for you
before you pay. If you do pay upfront, and can’t get around it,
ask if they do free updates. You are guaranteed to change a
thing or two, probably at least once a week as you test out your
new site. If you pay $600, it had better be a good website –
because your entire marketing budget just paid for it.

Mistake # 6 : Wow! A carpenter who went to John B. Doe Carpentry
Academy! Is that what your customers say? Most likely, they
won’t even think that. Most customers think “Wow! Look at his
work. It is just what I need.” And that is what you want your
customers to think. Don’t promote yourself, promote your
solutions. Everyone who comes to your website has a problem they
need solved. If you figure out that problem, and can tell them
how to solve it using your website, you have just hit a
marketing gold-mine.

Mistake # 7 : What is a carpenter doing at a grocery store? And
why is he handing out fliers anyway? If you do hand out fliers,
do it where it counts. A carpenter should hand out fliers at a
lumber yard or furniture store. Even a department store that
sells nails would be a better location for a carpenter when
handing out fliers. Think about it.

Mistake # 8 : This is probably the biggest mistake. You stopped
marketing. Even if you do exactly the opposite of everything you
have read so far, if you keep doing it you are bound to get at
least minimal results. If you stop when you run out of new
ideas, you probably won’t get much. The key to marketing is
repetition. Make sure people think of your name when they have a
problem. If they have only seen your name once, but your
competitor just sent them a third flier, your competitor will
get their business. We’ve all heard that it takes more than once
for a customer to buy, and it has never been more true. With the
information available to your customers today, you want your
name to be in front of them as much as possible.

Mistake # 9 : When nothing happened, you didn’t try again.
Nothing says failure like someone who quits. Motivate yourself!
Get up in the morning and say “I’m going to get hits to my
website.” Or “I’m going to get a client this week!” If you build
it, but nobody knows its there, nobody is going to come. You
have to try, make mistakes, learn, and try again. If you try,
make a mistake, and give up, you will never be the success you
know you can be.

Mistake # 10 : You assumed that what everyone else does will
work for you. WRONG! What everyone else does took them a long
time to figure out, and they have been tweaking it all that time
to make it work right for them. If you copy part, but not all,
of what they do, you will never get the same results. People
strive for individuality, and business should too. If you copy
your competitor in every aspect, your prospects might as well
flip a coin. Do you want 50% of the business you could be
getting? No, you want it all!

The bottom line is to stay motivated. Starting a business is one
of the hardest things anyone can ever do. The uncertainty, the
lack of a support structure, the complete and total disregard of
your typical safety zone. It is all part of starting a business.
But the rewards are far greater than the sacrifices. And in the
end, when you are financially secure, and independent from the
corporate world, it will be more gratifying than you could have
ever dreamed.

Cherilyn Lester:
Cherilyn R. Lester is an entrepreneur in her own right, and the
proprietor of Novus Life