4 Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Getting Started

You know how they say hindsight is 20/20? When it comes to mistakes entrepreneurs make, it’s absolutely true. When I first became ‘an entrepreneur’, I had no idea what I was doing. And even with numerous coaches over the years, I have still made some pretty spectacular mistakes. But there are a few things I wish I knew when I first started, that would have shortened the road by quite a bit I think, had I known then what I know now.

1.

Stop being afraid to niche down. You are not preaching to the masses. You are having a one-on-one conversation with your avatar. Think about this….. We all want to listen in on the private conversations. We all eavesdrop at some point. We all want to know what advice is being given and get “insider secrets”. But nobody gives a shit about what the crazy guy on the corner is screaming about. They walk by without even noticing. Think about that movie with Angelina Jolie. That street preacher was relatively famous in the city she lived in. Everybody knew his name, but nobody really stopped to pay attention to him as they walked by. Or if they did, it was only for a few moments and then they’d be off again without really getting the message. But when A.J. did her interview segment and he predicted her death, she heard him. And she listened. And he made an impact. That is the power of niche-ing down to the one-on-one conversation. Niche Down!!

2.

Don’t buy one online course and think that is the only coach or coarse you will need. First, starting a business will take some serious investment in your education. And second, no one can be the expert in all things. And they can only give you their version of what worked for them to achieve success. This one course will not be the last thing you invest in if you want to see real success in your new business. There are some coaches that don’t deliver what they advertise. There are some that are trying to serve outside their lane. There are some that have incredible content that serves its purpose perfectly, but we make the mistake of thinking it is something else entirely. Buying one course and thinking it is THE answer, is like reading one book on a subject and then declaring yourself an expert on the entire subject. How would you like your college professor to have only read one textbook before teaching your class?

3.

Stop throwing spaghetti at the wall. And building from there. I’m gonna just put it out there…spaghetti is not something to build your foundation on. This one has lots in common with #1 and is a good way to find yourself a few years in (if you make it that long) and a few thousand dollars later with no return except a few people that showed up for the free meal and then either left again or are still hanging out waiting for another free helping of spaghetti. You need to start at the other end and niche down to find your people and then you can find out right from them what they want from you. For all you know they might be waiting on pizza night. This one takes time!! And it will go much faster by niche-ing down and then really, REALLY getting to know them. 

4.

Don’t get caught up in all the Hows instead of the focusing on the Whys. How keeps us playing small and getting caught up in ‘how to’ is one way that we end up sabotaging ourselves because getting stuck in how to do it all, keeps us from actually doing anything. How has us taking course after course learning HOW to do this and HOW to do that and never quite getting the to-do list, to-done. It has us on Facebook all day asking question after question because it is easier to ask for surface how to do it answers, than it is to really digging deep into our hearts and find our souls calling and then have the courage to share that with the world. Why is where the answers hide.

Because the truth is, my coaches told me all of this stuff and I either didn’t listen. Or I did, and realized that the advice I was getting wasn’t going to work for me or my business. But when you are just getting started, you don’t know what you don’t know. And sometimes you just can’t see the forest through the trees when you are being inundated with what feels like a whole new language called entrepreneurship. Starting your own business is a long game journey, but that doesn’t mean it has to take a long time. And, it’s probably not going to happen over night either. At least with these 4 mistakes entrepreneurs make out of the way, you can shortcut your own journey from getting started to full time in no time.

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WHAT IS HOLDING YOU BACK FROM SUCCESS