But first I’m going to share with you the 5 biggest mistakes I see entrepreneurs making, and how to avoid them. 

These mistakes will slow you down and hurt your progress. They’ll damage your confidence and your wallet, if you let them!

They can make the difference between time and money lost with painful failures, and reaching success more quickly in your business.

I’ve worked with a lot of new business owners over the years, and I see the same mistakes being repeated over and over. I’ve also made them myself. Sadly, these mistakes can lead to solpreneurs getting deeply into debt where they’ve over-invested in their business, trying to make it work. Sometimes without ever making a sale or becoming profitable.

It’s heartbreaking. That’s why I decided to write this post.

I want to save you from the pain of making these mistakes in your business, so that you can grow your business with more ease and less pain! If we learn how to put the horse before the cart, to build solid business foundations, much of the suffering can be avoided.

Mistake Number 1 When You’re Trying to Grow Your Business

Jumping ahead and trying to scale your business before you’ve built the foundations.

I see this happening so much in the entrepreneurial world. I was guilty of it too with my first online business.

This is where we’re trying to implement more advanced business strategies, such as setting up sales funnels or affiliate marketing, before we’ve even made our first sale or proven our concept.

You need to be able to make at least 1 sale, preferably more, online or in your business before you even think about implementing any funnels or more advanced strategies.

This might look like bringing on one client for the service you’re offering, or making your first sale online.

Once you’ve done that, go do it again. When you’ve done it several times over, then you’re ready to progress to some of the more advanced business techniques.

You may wonder where your leads will come from if you’re not using Facebook ads, affiliate marketing or funnels. Your first few leads can come from you getting out there, both online and in person, networking and sharing value.

Do this first.

See if there’s interest in what you’re offering BEFORE you go and create a funnel, website and business around it.

Only once you’ve tested your idea should you consider building websites, funnels etc.

Market research is super useful and I recommend it to all my clients. However the real proof is when someone actually puts their hand into their pocket and pays for your product or service. That’s the ONLY thing that counts.

The amount of times I’ve heard of people say they would buy it at the market research stage, but then fail to do so when the product actually launches for sale!

Business Mistake Number 2

Spending a ton of money & time on a fancy website with all the trimmings, before you’ve proven your concept. Not leaving any money in the budget for promoting your business.

This mistake can also look like hiring a team or Virtual Assistant (VA) too soon (although this can be a smart move once you’ve proven your concept and if you’re time poor but have money to invest in your business).

I’ve noticed that this seems to happen a lot in the coaching world. There’s a perception that to be successful you have to have all the ‘trimmings’. When in reality, you need to create the success first, then add the other stuff later once you’re ready to grow and scale.

I’ve worked with clients in the past who were Coaches and who were paying out for a VA even when they weren’t making consistent sales every month.

I remember one client who used to post in her Facebook feed about her ’50K months’, and one month didn’t have enough money to cover her Leadpages subscription (about $25 per month). She also used to frequently be late paying me due to cashflow issues.

That’s insane! 

I stopped working with her, for our mutual benefit.

My point is you need to get your foundations in place and start making consistent income before heavily investing in the bells and whistles for your business.

When I launched my second business, offering my services as a VA and Online Business Manager, I didn’t spend out tons of money on a website. I had a very simple 3 page site that I didn’t really even use.

Instead I ‘got out there’ networking, both offline and online. I met people. I interacted in Facebook groups and answered questions.

I also let my network know what I was up to and asked for recommendations.

I grew my business to the point where I doubled my income from my job at the time and was able to leave employment and go full time freelance. 

I’ve also seen people spend thousands of pounds on websites for their business, with no thought to how they are going to actually promote the website once they’ve created it!

Essentially they’ve left no money at all in the budget for advertising and promoting their business!

But the world of business dictates that we must advertise, market and promote. 

I’ve learned that marketing and promotion needs to be about 80% of what we spend our time and money on in the beginning stages of business. The other 20% of your time and money is used for the website, software etc…

Build it and they won’t come!

It’s important to realise that in the world of online business ‘build it and they will come‘ unfortunately, doesn’t work!

You need to invest either significant time, or money (preferably both) on promoting and marketing your business. Everyone’s looking for a ‘quick fix’ these days.

However when it’s comes to building an online business that can truly make a difference…

Well, let’s just say Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Following the ideas I share here can significantly cut the timeline to success, but there’s no magic bullet. You still have to do the work. And that involves investing time, and usually money too.

However I recommend investing your money into educating yourself and getting support from a Business Coach, rather than plowing it all into a fancy website at the beginning.

The amount of websites, online courses and online businesses that languish away on the internet, without ever seeing much traffic or making any sales is astounding.

Simply because the business owner didn’t realise that even if you create the most amazing website in the world, people won’t come and buy from you unless you spend significant time promoting it and get good at selling.

You need to know your target market inside out and be able to attract them to your website.

Even once they’re on your site don’t assume that people will automatically see the value in what you’ve created. They won’t! It’s your job to demonstrate the value to them… to sell to them. 

Trust me on this one and save yourself a lot of heartache.

This is Mistake Number 3 Which Can Stop Your from Growing Your Business

Waiting until everything is perfect to grow your business.

AKA – The curse of the perfectionist!

Oh we’ve all been there. The trouble is ‘perfect’ never arrives (it’s a bit like ‘tomorrow’ in that way).

if you have tendencies towards being a perfectionist, you may struggle with this one.

One way it plays out is for entrepreneurs to be forever in ‘learning mode’ taking more and more courses and training, but never producing anything.

I’ve been in this position myself. After my first online business ‘failed’ I hid away for quite a while and licked my wounds. It felt too painful to put myself out there again and risk (perceived) ridicule.

However the truth is that people simply aren’t watching you as much as you think! They’re too busy with their own lives. No-one cares if you ‘failed’, except for you. Get yourself up, dust yourself off and try again (only you’ll be smarter this time).

Look, people are going to judge you whether you sit in your bedroom and dream about building your business or you actually do it! So you might as well do it.

The most successful small business owners know that you learn by doing. They roll up their sleeves and get stuck in. The launch before they feel ready.

Had a failed launch? So what… who hasn’t.

The question is, are you going to let it stop you?

Don’t wait till things are perfect. Dive in and make a start, today. 

If you’re not sure where to start, check out this article about getting clients. It can help you get going.

Mistake Number 4 – Trying to ‘Do It All’ Will Prevent You From Ever Growing Your Business

Trying to do EVERYTHING? You won’t grow your business like that.

I always talk about simplifying your business. In this video I share about choosing just 2 strategies only to market your business. This prevents overwhelm, which is a business killer.

This is a core concept that I teach my clients for marketing their businesses. There’s a tendency to think you need to do EVERY marketing strategy and be on every platform to grow your business. However it’s simply not true and will harm your progress if you try.

Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+.

SEO, blogging, Facebook lives, content marketing, webinars, selling from the stage…

Etc, etc.

Those are just a fraction of the social media platforms and marketing strategies that exist, and it makes me tired even just typing those out! 

If you’re trying to hit all those platforms and cover all strategies you’re going to be like an octopus on roller skates.

You’ll ‘dabble’ but you won’t do any of them well and you’ll find that you’re not getting traction anywhere.

This isn’t how to grow your business.

A far better approach is to pick just TWO marketing strategies only to focus on. You’ll work them until they work. It’s hard to whittle it down to just 2 I know, and when I did this I got forward movement. The same has been true for my clients.

Pick two marketing strategies to focus on and grow your business with more ease.

Mistake Number 5 Is a Doofer! Want to Grow Your Business? Don’t Do This…

Prioritising technology over people.

We all love a funnel, who doesn’t!

And for those of us who are introverts the idea of getting our message out there into the world, whilst simultaneously hiding behind our laptop screens, can feel appealing.

Yet I don’t recommend it exclusively when you’re looking to grow your business.

There’s nothing wrong with selling online. I love a good, profitable blog and ‘passive’ income from products. 

However it’s vital not to lose touch with why we’re doing it in the first place, and that’s for PEOPLE.

It’s because we want to help people. Very few of us here just want to earn piles of cash for the sake of it, without ever making a meaningful difference (well OK, the piles of cash are pretty nice too, but meaningless without a mission in life).

Here’s What You Absolutely MUST Do To Grow Your Business

So now you know the mistakes to avoid if you want to grow your business.

So let’s summarise what you should be doing. It’s actually really simple:

Know your target audience inside out. Be in conversation with them. Conduct market research interviews regularly and whenever you launch a new product or service.

Narrow your focus if you want to make an impact. Don’t try to serve everyone or you’ll end up helping no-one because they won’t connect to your message. Trust me on this, niche down and your people will come.

Learn to sell. As heart centred business owners we can find selling ‘icky’ to begin with (I sure did). However the sooner you realise that selling is serving, the sooner you can get over yourself and get to the business of helping your clients.

Listen to your peeps. If something isn’t working in your business. go back to your target market and ask them for their feedback. What do they want? Listen to them about what the need and design your products accordingly.

Tell a story, both visually and in words. But it’s not yours! Story telling is VITAL in today’s marketplace. If you try to promote or advertise without using stories it will feel uncomfortable and will miss the mark. Businesses that don’t know how to market through stories are going bust!

However beware, although you can share your own story to inspire and connect with your ideal clients, it’s actually not your story they’re interested in. It’s theirs. So the stories you tell are really about them and what they can achieve by working with you.

I hope this article has been useful to you. If so leave me a comment below.

With Love

Julie. x

PS – I’d like to thank Megan Huber for inspiring this post. Some of the teachings here are based on the content she shared in her video series, combined with my own learnings and experiences. She’s a thought leader and the wisdom she shares for entrepreneurs in this video series makes it an absolute MUST WATCH.

Related post: How to Get More Clients