Most of the mistakes come down to a lack of confidence and uncertainty.
- Undercharging – you don’t know how much to charge and aren’t confident of your value
- Taking any client with a pulse – you’re desperate to build that million pound business and you don’t know what a good client looks like and who is ideal for you
- Not choosing a niche – you don’t need to have a niche but it helps. It may be that you can’t choose a niche or that you have chosen the wrong niche for you.
- Buying too much software – those vendors promise the earth but do the maths, how can even the best software save one person 3000 hours per year? Not knowing what software you need from day one and what comes later
- Avoiding marketing – ‘build it and they will come’ doesn’t work unless you tell people about it. You may even need to tell them before you’ve finished building it.
- Trying to do everything themselves – you may be trying to bootstrap but some things are worth investing in.
- Waiting until everything is perfect – paralysis by perfectionism. Bryony Thomas says it best when she suggests that you start when things are ‘functional but not embarrassing’. Minerva is my second practice and it still isn’t perfect.
We cover all seven of these areas on our StartUp Bootcamp (next live course is 11 September) I share ‘how to’ set up your business from my expertise gained through running two firms (first one sold for 32% above average) that will remove some of the uncertainty and give you confidence that you can have the business you dreamed of.
And for established practice owners, The Numbers Business Online is becoming a live two-day event on 15 & 16 October. Based on the award-winning book and refined over the past eight years, it’s designed to help you build a more profitable, sustainable practice. Reply if you’d be interested.
Looking forward to helping you take the next step. Let’s do better business.