It’s a decision that’s going to change your life. The problem is, you don’t know whether it’s for better or for worse.
This is the premise of starting a new business and there’s no doubt that it’s an almightily tough journey. It does have its rewards, but there’s a chance you are going to have to battle through mistakes in a bid to reap them.
This is why we have penned today’s article. While we don’t hold the answers for every possible business mistake, hopefully by the end of proceedings you’ll have enough knowledge to overcome some of the main ones.
You ignore your accounting
When you are employed at a company, your tax affairs are looked after for you. Suffice to say, this turns on its head as soon as you become self-employed.
It’s here where you either need to obtain software for accounting from BTCSoftware, or even turn to a dedicated professional. The last thing you need is to either be falling foul of the taxman, or being left with a great, unmanageable bill at the end of the year which your new company just cannot afford.
You don’t invest in marketing
It’s amazing just how common this next mistake is. While the “build it and they will come” philosophy might apply in some walks of life, when it comes to marketing in the modern-day world it take a lot more than building a business, or even a website.
Instead, you need a proper marketing plan. Sure, you might not have the big bucks to splash on an expensive PPC campaign, but don’t discount smaller traditional options that can help get your business of the ground.
You try to do everything on a shoestring budget
For every story of an entrepreneur going from zero to hero, there are plenty more who haven’t made a success of their budget start-up.
Sure, the “I started with £100” stories are hugely motivational. However, they can distort reality from time to time. In truth, it’s terribly difficult to start from nothing, and if you try this you are probably going to shirk investment in some crucial areas. Sure, don’t splash the cash like it is going out of fashion, but be wary about being too strict with your budgets as you need some funding to get off the ground.
You price yourselves out of the picture
No, we’re not talking to the concept of pricing your products or services too high, but the opposite.
A lot of new businesses try and steal market share by offering exceptionally low prices. Granted, this is an approach which will get your name out there, but it’s not sustainable. You are doing yourselves a disservice, and you’ll start to be known as the “cheap company” by customers.
This is great for the initial months, but as soon as you do start to increase your prices you will see that these same customers start to look away for alternative cheap offerings.
