1. Undervaluing what you’re selling.

Whether you’re selling a product or service, set the price at what it needs to be to make a worthwhile profit.

Cynthia Salim, the founder and CEO of Citizen’s Mark, a line of ethically-sourced professional blazers for women, set the starting price for her product at $425 after considering the labor and material costs for her line. “The price is what it needs to be,” Salim says. Patel also points out that “as your business evolves continue to adjust your price points.”

2. Waiting too long to launch a product/service

When you start blogging or podcasting to build an audience, it’s easy to get stuck on the content “hamster wheel” for months or years without ever offering something for sale.

There are a few reasons this happens.

Some people are waiting for some magic audience size “1,000 subscribers” or maybe “10,000 visitors” or whatever your number might be.

Some people just can’t find the time to blog or podcast or make videos AND to build a product at the same time. It’s tough.

Some people simply talk themselves out of creating a product because they’re afraid no one will buy it. They don’t want to fail after putting in so much time creating content.

Whatever the reason, this is a fatal trap. If you’re building a business, you need to address the biggest risk head-on. The biggest risk you’ll face as a business is in creating something no one will pay for.

Plus, you need practice at building and launching products. Your first one might not be all that good. The sooner you put something out there, the closer you get to sustainable revenue.


3. Focusing too much on the little stuff.

“First, you need to get your business off the ground,” says Steve Tobak, founder of Invisor Consulting, a business strategy firm, and author of Real Leaders Don’t Follow: Being Extraordinary in the Age of the Entrepreneur. While this directive may seem obvious, new business owners can get really bogged down by the details. Don’t do this.

By getting sidetracked focusing on things like how your business cards look or the design of your logo, founders are wasting valuable time. Instead, concentrate on tasks that will help propel your business to the next level.

4. Not listening to customers

How do you know if the problem you solve is important enough?

Listen to your customers. Really listen to them.

Don’t just listen to the customers who provide validation. Listen to the ones who ask for refunds or buy your product but don’t use it. Listen to the people who tell you they won’t buy, and find out why.

Don’t just pay lip service to your customers. You don’t have all the answers, they do. There’s a reason why “the customer is always right,” because without customers you don’t have a business.


5. Ignoring customer service.

With so many of our business transactions happening over the Internet, it’s easy to forget that customers are people who are way more likely to return to your website if they have a good experience.

“Make sure you have some way of interacting with the people visiting your site,” Tobak says. “Whatever domain -- through live chat, survey, email or phone.”

Also, monitor social-media sites for brand sentiment and check out review sites like Yelp to see who isn’t happy with his or her experience and reach out.

6. Choosing a topic you don’t care about

Whatever you choose to focus your business on, you’re going to need deep subject knowledge, fresh creativity, and unwavering stamina.

There will be competition who cares more about the topic than you do. How can you compete if the gap between your love of a topic and your competitors’ is wide?

This doesn’t mean your business has to be your #1 “passion” or life’s work (most of us don’t have one single passion in life), but don’t make things impossible by choosing something you don’t care about.

If you love your topic, stamina won’t be an issue. If you love your topic, creativity will flow, and influence will be easier to build.


7. Spreading yourself too thin on social media.

When you’re starting off with marketing and building your brand, test out one or two main social audiences where you know your audience is and can build a customized audience with a small budget. Don’t blow your advertising budget at the start.

As a general rule, Facebook and Pinterest tend to be better for product sales. LinkedIn is a better field for a business personality trying to build his or her own brand, explains Widmer. LinkedIn is also a good place for repurposing content.

8. Starting with vastly wrong expectations

This won’t be easy, and it won’t be quick.

Building a successful business is a massive undertaking. You probably can’t do it while traveling the world. If you have a full-time job, it will be much, much harder.

If your plan involves four-hour workweeks, or if your timeline is measured in weeks or months, you will probably fail.

These are the hard truths that people rarely talk about. Overnight successes don’t exist. Your original plan will probably have to be completely re-written, maybe multiple times.

Ask yourself: will building this business still be worth it if it takes years to get there? What if building the business is harder and more stressful than your current job?

Talk to some entrepreneurs who have achieved something close to what you want to achieve. Ask them what it really took. Ask them about stress and timelines and giving up. Ask them not to sugarcoat it. Really listen. Then ask yourself if you’re prepared for your own version of that.

9. Spending too much time thinking and not enough doing

Not much to say here that isn’t perfectly summed up in this quote:

Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.
-Thomas Edison

If your ratio of thinking-to-doing is anything less than 80% doing, think again do more.

As Chase likes to say, entrepreneurs have two modes, CEO mode and worker-bee mode. In a one-person business, you have to be both.

10. Going it alone

The only reason my business exists today is because other entrepreneur friends wouldn’t let me quit. Seriously, I tried to throw in the towel and start over with something else, but they wouldn’t let me. They talked me out of it.

No one can succeed in business alone. You need people to make it work. Your customers are people, your suppliers are people, your service providers are people.

Most importantly, you need support from other entrepreneurs who are at similar stages as you are, and from others with more experience.

The more connected you become with other entrepreneurs, the more normal your quest becomes. You’ll no longer feel crazy or alone, and you’ll realize that we all face obstacles just like you’re facing.

The entrepreneurs who talked me out of quitting were part of a little group that met weekly to hold each other accountable. It didn’t cost any of us a thing, other than an hour of our time each week, but it turned out to be the most valuable resource I ever used in my business.

Reach out to another entrepreneur or two, and ask them to meet weekly. Share your struggles and goals, and review your progress each week. This simple process is so powerful.

11. Confusing “blog” with “business”

A blog is an incredible platform for sharing your ideas, connecting with people and growing an audience. The same is true of podcasting, YouTubing, or any other place you might publish content for free.

Giving away free content isn’t a business. It’s a tool for building influence.Don’t count on turning that influence into sponsorships or advertising dollars. You’ll need a more direct plan for earning an income if you want your blog or podcast to pay off.


12. Underestimating the obsession and drive it takes to succeed.

You’ve read a lot about the importance of work/life balance -- forget about it. (At least for the first year or two.)

“Don’t worry about time,” Tobak says. “Big ideas do not come when you are trying to manage every minute of your time. They don’t come when you are multitasking. They come when you are focused on one thing. Let everything else fade to black.”


13. Thinking that everything is one size fits all.

Just because a product or strategy has worked for one company doesn’t mean it will work for you. Have a healthy degree of skepticism about what you read and see successful elsewhere, Patel recommends. If you can test your product using minimum financial and resource risk, then do so.

http://www.standontech.com/2016/04/13-mistakes-in-online-business.html?m=1