If you are a budding Steve Jobs with a fantastic business idea and a vision of a successful organization that one day becomes a household name, this is an exciting time.
The conservative business guru would likely advise you to wait a year or two until the markets settle down, but hey, fortune favors the brave! If you’ve done your market research, crunched the numbers, and have the money, there’s nothing stopping you from setting your plans into motion.
Here are a few common mistakes that novice entrepreneurs make, which should lead to you avoiding them.
No business plan
Table of Contents
It matters not what sector you are entering; no business should start without a comprehensive business plan in place. The odds of you just happening to be hugely successful is somewhat akin to winning the State Lottery – success doesn’t just happen, it is planned and a good business plan is one that answers all a potential investor’s questions.
It should include a general overview of the business, an organization flowchart that shows who does what and a comprehensive marketing plan that details how you will reach your target audiences.
Lack of IT structure
If you’re not making the best use of cutting-edge digital tech, you will find it hard to reach your fullest potential. Google ‘IT consulting in Baltimore’ and let the experts migrate your business to the cloud.
As your organization grows, your IT needs will increase and forging an alliance with a local IT support company will make sure that your business enjoys the next level of digital connectivity.
If you are still using cellphone networks for business calls, you are literally throwing money away; switch to VoIP and enjoy real-time video for a fraction of the cost of using regular telecommunication networks.
Running out of money
Life is full of uncertainty and a few bad months is all it takes to put you in the red; you might face a lawsuit not having done anything wrong! Or a big customer goes under leaving you with a massive unpaid invoice; these things can happen, so you need some money set aside for emergencies.
If you have limited capital, it might be best to wait and try to secure a business start-up loan, which can be repaid over a couple of years. If you have equity in your home, this can be liquidated if you talk to a mortgage broker, indeed, many entrepreneurs rely on their property equity to get their venture off the ground. Click here for how to optimize your Internet marketing strategy.
Ignoring digital marketing
Do this at your peril; every business has a monthly budget for SEO and this isn’t an optional extra if you can afford it, rather ongoing SEO is crucial if you want a strong online profile.
Talk to a leading SEO agency and they will check out your online profile, ask a few questions and get back to you with a dynamic, on-point digital marketing plan that will deliver results. Sure, you could hope for the best and tell all your friends to share your website URL, but that isn’t going to drive any traffic to your platform.
Once you have a good business plan in place, you can start to set the wheels in motion and hopefully, your new venture will be the start of something special.
