3 Small Business Pitfalls All Entrepreneurs Should Avoid
When beginning your foray into the world of entrepreneurship, your enthusiasm levels will be at their optimum. You now have the chance to take your fragment of an idea and morph it into a fully fledged money making business venture. You have waved goodbye to your cushy salary, your promotion prospects, and your job title, to be greeted by the unfamiliar world of self employment. Being your own boss can be exhilarating, exciting and yet a little daunting. Your safety nets have disappeared, and you are now on your own. Take a look at these pitfalls that you need to avoid if you want your startup to be a success.
Money
Without finances, your business idea is already dead in the water. Funding your ideas are the most crucial aspect of your startup so investigate sources of investment and ensure that your cash flow remains buoyant. Although the temptation may be to secure as many orders for your custom made t-shirts as possible, this could be a poisoned chalice. How are you going to fulfil so many orders if you have just started out and you don’t have enough readies just yet. Make sure that you walk before you can run to avoid your business failing at the first hurdle.
Sources of funding don’t have to come from the bank manager. You may want to give the twenty first century crowdfunding a go. Or you might want to look at the business line of credit rates to determine whether this form of revolving credit is viable for your startup.
Being Precious
Your business is your baby, and you will be eager to protect it. This means you might become a little too precious over your business vision and be unwilling to delegate tasks even to those people more qualified than you to undertake them. If you are a numbers bod, don’t attempt to oversee your online marketing campaign if you already have an expert in your ranks.
Consider the joys of outsourcing to offsite experts rather than taking every single business task upon yourself. If you do the latter, you risk a mediocre standard of work at best. By outsourcing, you are tapping into specialists that you otherwise would not have access to in house, and you will enjoy the highest quality of work.
Working From Home
For some people, working from home is a blessing. Duvet days, hours spent in your pyjamas, your favourite coffee on tap and TV breaks are something of a dream. This is perfect if you can motivate yourself to remain on task and stay productive. For other people, working from home quickly descends into a nightmare as they can’t help but procrastinate and become anything but productive. You need to be working on your business vision at all times and not scrolling through your Twitter and Facebook feeds to pass the time.
The world of entrepreneurship can be rocky but is ultimately satisfying. By using this simple guide, you can avoid three pitfalls that could prevent your business from thriving.
Featured Image Credit
