10 mistakes I made during my entrepreneurship journey
Entrepreneurship is an upside-down journey, filled with obstacles and driving forces that are encountered along the way. And the fact is that many entrepreneurs make mistakes…but not so many speak about them openly.
To encourage other young entrepreneurs, I have decided to list several of those that I made in my journey so far!
1.Spending too much time and focus on planning
Planning is an important part of every entrepreneurial journey. But, as in every other sphere of life, too much planning can have rather negative than positive impact on entrepreneurial execution.
I would never advise that you start without a plan – but you should ensure that the plan you are creating is a suitable and executable one – and that it focuses on quality of actions over quantity of actions. The overall aim of the planning is to lead to the right decision.
You can avoid creating a bad plan by 1. not addressing all potential problems and issues – but rather focusing on the most important ones.
To me it happened that while I was trapped into planning, someone else with similar idea like mine was focused on executing small and concrete steps that brought success.
2. Aiming for perfection
During my entrepreneurial journey I realized that entire idea of perfection is imperfect itself. I was one of many that didn’t want to launch product, website or simply undertake any business activity until it gets perfect and ready to be launched! But reality is that it never was, and it never will be perfect…because such thing does not exist in entpreneurhsip.
Even when something looks great, and you think that it is perfect…it is not. If you accept it and consider that it is ok to always keep improving…you will realize that nothing must be perfect before it goes out. Furthermore, being trapped into entire idea of perfection can lead to time wasting – and I felt it on my own skin several times! Try to avoid it.
3. Not keeping focus
To me, focus is the keystone of every business / entrepreneurial idea.
I know it is not easy to stay focussed once the wheel of challenges turns around. Every indicator seems to you like an ‘’opportunity you should take’’ but in reality…it is totally different.
The entire idea of focus is to find a niche in the industry and the target group – and to keep stuck to it if the real indicators occur and guide you further in terms of strategic development.
Lack of focus is painful and has negative impact to your business – and once you face it, you will realize that it impacts not only the business, but as well relation with the clients and partners…which are the core of your development.
4. Not documenting internal processes from day 1
Internal processes are very important for the organization and uninterrupted development of the company / idea. Development is followed by the series of internal processes which must be defined to kick-start and run the company successfully. But the mistake happens when the processes are not documented.
Documenting processes matters more than you think, and it will make your life easier later. Have this in mind.
5. Selecting a wrong partner
Doing a business with a partner can be a double-edged sword. And it can easily happen that your business partner is a wrong one. I passed through it…and drew following conclusions: 1. Once you realized the partner is wrong – don’t push and force it – change the situation and exit the partnership 2. Partnership is like a marriage – fights are necessary to grow together – but be cautious and try to realize when the fights are not progressive anymore 3. Friends and family members can hardly be a good fit as a business partner – of course, there are several occasions when this works out…but it is very rare.
In a global business scene, partnerships are common, and partners are very often needed for a progressive growth – so do not run from them, just choose them wisely.
6. Doing everything on your own and not getting an assistant
Huh, when I am writing this one, I am recalling the sentence of a great business partner of mine who said ‘’Bojana, you should get an assistant.’’ and he was right – at that moment I really needed it. But guess what…I didn’t listen to the advice – and ended up being trapped into doing everything by myself and not progressing further.
This lesson I learned it a hard way. My business’s existence was in jeopardy. And it was hard for me to admit that the mistake is all mine.
However, I faced the mistake and moved forward by trying to change the way I look at the hiring and assistance and I implemented following:
1. I created the Organizational Structure Chart – and listed all departments and positions of my company – even if they would not be existing at that moment…I made it very clear how I want it to be structured. This helped me a lot to decide on whom I will be hiring next and to plan from the operational side on how to distribute HR funds further.
2. I created a list of activities I should focus on that will bring my company forward – only through it I was able to understand what I should really do and what I should delegate to other team members
3. I created an operational funds allocation scheme with special focus on investment into HR development of the company – through it I was able to track when I can afford to hire new people – and I look at it as an investment.
Have in mind that you can as well get easily trapped into hiring too soon – so the best time to hire someone is not when you experience the growth in income – but once you calculate it and confirm that this income is sustainable and that you can afford a full-time employee with all taxes, contributions and insurances covered.
7. Not paying attention to finances from day 1
I know that when you hear ‘’finances’’ you think about complex procedures and excel sheets. But this is not what I would like to emphasize.
What I am referring to here is a very simple excel Profit & Loss monthly report which can be adapted to your needs…and even if there are not many figures to be added to the report from the very beginning, I encourage you to start creating and monitoring it from the day 1.
Having this report each month will make you:
1. Disciplined to review financial segments monthly
2. You will create habit of having it … and once the company grows it would be easier for you to monitor all financial segments
3. You will be aware of all your finances – and it will help you plan further
8. Underestimating importance of legal structure and standards
Organization and base of your business activity should cover all aspects financial, legal, hr, marketing…from the day 1. And this is particularly important for the legal segments and organization.
Mistake I did was that I developed legal structures and forms as the business was developing – hand in hand with the new opportunities or needs. But this was not the best way to do it.
Now, after the lesson learned – I firstly write down main activities and processes and then list all legal requirements and supporting documents needed, even if the process is as simple as possible and the company is just at its beginning.
Starting from the standard contracting forms, internal and external decisions…everything that can be templated and standardized for the very beginning.
If you approach it this way – once the company starts growing and new opportunities appear, you will be ready because you already have your legal processes set-up and in place.
Takeaway: do not leave legal structure for later – no matter the size of your business activity + consult legal expert if needed even for the basics
9. Treating branding as a secondary matter
Branding is as important as your great business idea is! It is simply a foundation of your business / entrepreneurship idea’s culture, communication, and visual existence. And it should not be neglected! More precisely, it should be taken as a foundation of your business / idea from the day 1!
Your customers are humans…and they are visual being. They remember, feel, and react using all their visual senses. Thus, many people remember some global brands by the tone of communication, or maybe by the fact how their ad made them feel…Just think of for example Coca Cola and their Christmas ads, or maybe Nike and their slogan ‘’Just do it.’’…or any other brand you love!
The brand says a lot about consistency – and consistency is foundation of trust. Once it is lost…it can hardly be returned. Thus, your primary aim is to define your brand elements according to the standards which can keep your brand consistent and recognizable.
Do not regret any euro spent on branding – and try to define as much branding elements and collaterals as possible at the very beginning!
10. Not spending enough on marketing and not analysing marketing activities
Marketing is an investment – no matter how big the amount you allocate to it is.
It is understandable that the early entrepreneurs at the very beginning do not have a lot of funds to allocate to marketing or that maybe they have decided to allocate funds they have to some other activities that seem to be priority. But any investment into marketing is better than none. And this is the biggest marketing mistake I have made and learned from.
Marketing is closely connected to growth of business and brand. And what brings results within marketing segment are not the funds allocated at once, but the funds allocated consistently…and the results analysed.
The size of the budget and the company does not matter at all – what matters is that you create habit to invest into marketing even if it starts with only 10eur investment per month. Because to see results – you need to make all marketing activities consistent.
You can start by defining that 10% of your yearly profit or investment operational funds goes directly to marketing.
Other important thing to focus on is to analyse the results and data of marketing activities. Why? Because it will navigate your further marketing investments and will help you to understand where the core of your business growth is and how marketing can work in the benefit of sales.
At the end, do not be discouraged by the failure and mistakes you made along the way. We all did it – but not all speak about it. I encourage you to spread the word and share experience, because only that way we will break that silent stigma that mistakes are not acceptable – and move forward toward progressive future!
Author:
Bojana Minic, Founder Lifestyle Montenegro