You’ve gotten past the starting-up stage and you’re feeling
good, but keep in mind there are still plenty mistakes to be made,
and most of them are going to be made in your make-or-break year —
the first one.
Here are the top five things you
should avoid.
Waiting for Customers to Come to
You
Too many people wait for their customers to
phone, or beat a path to their door. They get one or two customers
through a lucky break, but never enough to even begin paying their
costs. These people sit back and watch their competitors doing lots
of business, and wonder what they're doing wrong.
You don’t
want to be one of these business owners. You have to get out and
actively try to find customers. Talk to people, call them, meet with
them — whatever you do, don't just sit around waiting for the world
to come to you!
Spending Too Much on
Advertising
So everyone tells you the only way to
get ahead in business is to advertise. Well, that's somewhat true,
but you need to make sure that you stick to inexpensive advertising
methods you can really afford when you're starting out. Spending
hundreds of dollars for one ad in the local newspaper might get you
very few new customers, and you’ll have spent your entire
advertising budget on this one shot ad.
It’s important that
you make your advertising dollars go further by utilizing leaflets,
direct mail or email — easily targetable campaign methods with high
response rates and low costs. Remember that it’s always better to
spend money on an offer than on an ad, and always better to spend
money on an ad than on a delivery method.
Being Too
Nice
When you're running your own business, it can
be tempting to try to be everyone's friend, always giving discounts
and making sure you don't hassle or inconvenience anyone. That’s
well and good, until you find that your ‘Good Samaritan’ act has
just reduced your profit margin by half without lowering the cost to
your customer by very much at all.
Sometimes, you have to
realize that you've got to be harsh to make a profit. Give people
discounts to encourage them to buy or to come back, not because you
like them or feel sorry for them. Don’t be afraid to be ruthless in
your pursuit of home business success. Nice guys don’t always finish
last, but they’re running in a different race — one with much less
prize money. If that doesn't bother you, of course, then feel free
to go for it.
Not Using the
Phone
You'd be surprised how common phone fear is —
if you’re afraid to use the phone, you’re definitely not. Many
people are terrified of making phone calls, and avoid them wherever
possible. I’ve seen more than one home business owner reduced to
tears on the phone while trying desperately to hide it from the
customer.
If this is you, then you must overcome your fears,
because talking to customers on the phone is almost as good as
meeting them in person. Letters and emails are not nearly as
effective by comparison. The best way to overcome phone fears varies
from person to person, but it can often be as simple as making the
phone fun, by calling friends and relatives until you get used to
it.
Alternatively, you could try working in telemarketing centre for
a while — if that doesn't make normal phone use look like a walk in
the park by comparison, then nothing will.
Hiring
Professionals for Everything
It can be tempting to
think that, since you're starting out, you should just find a
company or person to do every little thing for you. People seem to
especially overspend on design services.
You might think it’d
be great to have fancy graphics all over your website, but will it
really increase sales? Likewise, a slick brochure often fails to say
anything more than ‘I'm going to charge you a premium to pay for my
expensive brochures’.
Don't hire someone unless you can demonstrate the service they're
going to provide will increase your profits by more than the amount
you're spending — if you’re not sure, try it yourself first because
you can always upgrade later.
