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The 8 Mistakes New Entrepreneurs Make – Part 1

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The DC Ladies- Career Corner- The 8 Mistakes New Entrepreneurs Make – Part 1I meet so many entrepreneurs who have a brilliant business idea, a ton of passion, and serious dedication to making their business a raging success. But they’re making one (or more) of these eight mistakes, which is holding them back from getting big results and discouraging them from pressing on. I want to help all of you have thriving businesses, so in part one of this two-part series, we’ll dive into four of these eight mistakes … and what to do instead.

When they’re first starting out, many entrepreneurs…

1. Try to Appeal to Everyone

When you’re first starting a business, you may want to target anyone and everyone who might be interested in buying your products or services. It’s tempting to market to everyone because you don’t want to exclude anyone who might possibly pay you. But doing this creates more problems than it solves. First, you’ll spend tons of marketing dollars trying to reach a huge audience. Second, if your message is vague in order to appeal to everyone, it won’t actually connect with anyone. It’s much smarter to narrow down your target audience, especially when you’re just getting started. Decide on a target age range, gender, profession, interest, location, education level, family status, or anything else so you know where to find your prospects and how to talk to them.

2. Don’t Charge Enough

This is a tough one, and almost every entrepreneur struggles with pricing. Even if you love web design, or jewelry making, or accounting, or whatever you do, it is a business and the goal is to make money. And you deserve to be compensated for your skills and expertise. Here’s a good rule to live by when you’re deciding on prices: If no one is complaining about your prices, you’re not charging enough. If, on the other hand, most people are willing to pay your prices without blinking an eye, that’s a sure sign that you should be charging more.

3. Lack Confidence

What many entrepreneurs lack, especially at the beginning, is confidence – not necessarily in their idea, but in themselves. If you’re at a networking event or meeting with a prospective client, they can sense your lack of confidence. This might go against other advice you’ve heard, but I’m not a fan of the scripted “elevator speech.” Instead of trying to impress someone or sell them on your idea, simply share your passion with them. I promise that will be far more authentic (and attractive) to prospects than robotically reciting a 30-second memorized spiel about your company because you’re nervous. As Timothy Ferriss says in The 4-Hour Work Week, “If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.”

4. Quit Their Day Job Too Soon

Don’t get me wrong: I’m all about quitting your day job to pursue your passion. What I don’t want to happen is for you too quit too soon, and then get discouraged and give up if you have to pick up a part-time job or go back to work full-time. So before you quit, make sure…

1)      You have several months of living expenses saved up,

2)      Your business is already profitable,

3)      You’re confident in your plan for increasing your number of clients/customers once you’re fully self-employed, and

4)      You have a strategy for what you’ll do if things don’t go according to plan.

 

Check back in two weeks for the rest of the list!

The post The 8 Mistakes New Entrepreneurs Make – Part 1 appeared first on The DC Ladies:.


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