4 Things New Business Owners Often Get Wrong

Building a thriving business from scratches is a bit like riding a rollercoaster – there will be many ups and downs along the way.

Business owners, like everyone else, will make mistakes from time to time, especially when they are still new and trying to find their feet. They will often get things wrong and make building their business a little more difficult as a result.

The good news is, we know what many of the most common things business owners get wrong are, so if you are on the same journey, you can learn from their mistakes and make building your business a bit easier.

That being the case, let’s take a look at some of the common mistakes new business owners make right now:

Not having a clearly defined business strategy

If you want to be successful in business, any business, you need to not only have a clear goal in sight, but also a strategy that will help you get there. If your new company registration has just gone through, and you’re starting to trade, but you have no idea what your company’s priorities are, what you plan to do to generate more business, and what metrics you will be using to measure the success of your business, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Sure, you might coast along well enough for a little while, but pretty soon the wheels will come off and you won’t know what you’re doing or how you can get back on track and that could well end in your business failing. If you do nothing else, avoid making this mistake and draw up a detailed business plan.

This business plan should be flexible enough that you can continue to use it after you begin to trade. You should stay on top of trends and research what your competitors are doing to continue their success; these findings should then be included within your business plan to direct your future growth. For example, these innovation research insights indicate that an innovation strategy can further business growth, thus suggesting that your business should pay more mind to innovative processes, rather than incremental ones. Innovative processes specific to your business can then be designed and added to your strategy.

Cutting prices

Many new businesses find it difficult to attract customers in the first instance. One strategy many company owners use to try and overcome this hurdle is to cut prices to a ridiculous before. This might sound like a good idea at first but it really is not.

Why? Because if you slash your prices in the beginning, your customers will get used to them; they will believe that your low prices are the baseline, so when you have more customers and the time comes to put your prices back up to normal levels, it will look like huge price hike, no one will buy and you will be back to square one. It’s far better to focus on improving your marketing efforts to attract customers than it is to cut your prices.

Trying to do it all

A really common mistake that new business owners make is trying to do everything themselves. From the accounts to marketing to customer service, they try to have complete control over every aspect of their business.

This, again, is a really bad idea because, not only is it likely to lead to executive burnout, at which time they won’t be able to do much if anything but it also means that lots of things are not done particularly well.

We all have our own strengths and weaknesses. As a business owner, you should be able to identify yours, work on the tasks you know you are the best person for, and delegate the rest. If you cannot do that, it does not bode well for the future of your company.

Not focusing on the brand

Something else that new business owners often get wrong is failing to focus on their brand. They spend so much time ensuring that their products and services are up to scratch that they do not take the time to come up with a great logo strapline, colour scheme, and brand ethos.

This may not seem particularly important, but for any company, that wants to attract as many customers as possible, it is vital. Customers have a huge amount of choice right now, so the deciding factor, after pricing is taken into account, often comes down to branding. If the customer prefers the colour of one product over another to likes the eco-friendly ethos of company A, then they quill choose that company.

You really, as a business owner, cannot afford to neglect branding, and marketing in general for that matter, if you want to attract customers and state growing your company as effectively as possible.

If you can avoid making the mistakes that many business owners before you have made, then your roller coaster ride as a new entrepreneur will be far less bumpy and your path to business success will be a little (or a lot) clearer. Good luck!