Let me share the views from some of the great thinkers of all time to analyze what digital age online entrepreneurs are doing wrong.
Mistakes are part of life. But it doesn’t make you a bad online entrepreneur unless you are doing something wrong.
I am no guru to judge what today’s online entrepreneurs are doing wrong. Let us take a leaf our of great thinkers to see if there is something that we can pinpoint to understand what we as online entrepreneurs may be doing wrong.
1. Lack Of Non-Financial Motivation
New entrepreneurs fail because of four things: lack of self-discipline, dedication, patience, and time-bound.
They don’t have a concept that it takes time to take the business at a new height.
Besides, if a business touches new heights, it essential to move the business further with more possibilities. And entrepreneurs lack at moving the business ahead with motivation.
They are happy standing right there with a minimal profit of the business. So, every new entrepreneur needs to have the motivation beyond making more money and scale up the business.
For example, Steve Jobs never stopped exploring new products for the growth of the company. The financial aspect of Apple didn’t motivate him to make better products, but he cared for the customers of apple and making their life easier.
2. Time Mismanagement
Time is money. But somewhere, a new entrepreneur is not able to set time. It happens that being in a new business will be tough.
You gotta set up business meetings, strategize marketing, plan your budget, and monitor the sales.
Lots of duties are on you. But one crucial thing is to set up a time for everything.
But sometimes entrepreneurs fail at managing time. They are waking up late, talking too much on the phone, doing some unproductive meetings, and wasting time on unimportant things.
A successful entrepreneur and a businessman Warren Buffett wakes up early in the morning. Take up his jog, breakfast, and reads and do business meetings.
Later on, he takes lunch and some interviews, and he ends his workday quite early, like around 6.00 pm.
Managing time is very important in life. You could lose millions if you are starting your day late.
3. Not Being Clear About Goals
One huge mistake that most entrepreneurs do is not having clear goals. The vision is not clear about how the business will grow, not giving thoughts to any implications, and they don’t know what they want to achieve.
Anything you start as a business has one important rule: is your services or products are helping others or adding value to their lives?
If the answer is yes, go ahead and plan your business.
And if not then, write your about page, list down your expertise (products/services), explain the USP of the business, and list down products/services.
Write the vision and mission of the business.
When the base of the business is clear, you will be able to set clear goals.
4. Lack Of Social Skills
You will think about how do social skills play a role in doing business? But it’s a significant factor. Any online business is based on networking. How many people you know decides your monthly sales.
You cannot sit in the office seeing your computer screen and get business.
Every day make at least five calls, meet at least 3-5 people a day and join some business groups available in your city. It will help you get in touch with other businesses.
If your business is online, do interactions with people on social media.
Get mingled with people and share your ideas. Sometimes help them without considering your benefits. Your business relations will take you to new heights.
Create a bond with people so that they also become your business ambassador.
5. Not Reading Enough Books
Reading gives wisdom and knowledge. Warren Buffett uses 80% of his time reading books. He gets every idea and skill by reading. So, you can understand why reading is so essential.
For example, you are a digital marketer, and your business provides digital marketing solutions. But you don’t know what trends are going on in the social media market. You don’t know anything about analytics
So, how you are going to stand for long?
Client needs results, and when the results are not there, you will not be able to survive for long in the business.
Keep learning to make better products or services.
6. Not Developing New Skills
Just like reading books gains your knowledge, it also helps in developing new skills. You have to go with trends in any business, and for that, you need to develop new skills as well.
I am a programmer, but I like to develop new skills. Content writing is something I am trying to learn currently. Besides, I am also an investor and sharing knowledge of my investment experiences on my finance blog.
Online entrepreneurs not willing to learn are moving in the wrong direction and doing wrong for themselves.
Always be a learner. It’s a sign of a successful entrepreneur.
7. Rushing Things Quickly
The main problem of any new entrepreneur is that they are never comfortable with things done.
They chase the ‘to-do list,’ complete it as soon as possible and move on to the next in the time left.
But this is not how it works. It is the wrong way for online entrepreneurs to do things. Rushing things quickly at work has two cons: You get stressed easily, and the quality of work will be deteriorated.
Also, you will end up reworking on the things and rectify mistakes. It will eat up more time. So don’t be in a hurry.
Go slow and work accurately. Be thorough in your work to minimize the mistake.
8. Making Unrealistic Goals
The most common mistake in goal setting new entrepreneurs makes is that they are overly optimistic or uncertain. Whereas realistic goals reduce confusion and make vision clearer to achieve anything.
Once you’ve decided goals, set a time frame to achieve them.
Follow the SMART goal setting formula. Your goals should be smart, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
The ‘why’ of the business has to be precise.
Simon Sinek is a motivational speaker, author, and organizational consultant who has given a ‘start with why’ theory.
- Why = Your Purpose
- How = Your Process
- What = Your Process
Very few entrepreneurs know what they do or why they want to do it.
They don’t know the USP of their products/services. They aren’t the customer of products or services either. So how will they inspire others to use the products/services?
When these questions are answered, it will help you set your realistic goals.
9. Not Taking Calculated Risks
Can a business flourish without taking risks?
Taking risks is all about coming out of your comfort zone, and I see a lot of online entrepreneurs who are doing good avoid it, and it is an entirely wrong approach. Sitting in one place and not resilient to change will be more costly than taking the risk.
Three things you risk: Finance, reputation, and time. But it can be easily manageable. You can add partners or shareholders or investors in business when it comes to financing.
Reputation is a myth. If you know what you are doing and how it is going to benefit people, it doesn’t matter at all.
Your reputation is the choice that you make. So be careful in what you choose and how you take steps in any business to run.
Time is money, and sometimes new entrepreneurs feel that if this doesn’t work, there will be a waste of everything. But there is nothing like a waste in life.
Nobody knows what future holds, but definitely, you know what your business holds, and it’s in your control.
10. Not Accepting Mistakes
Many entrepreneurs fail because they don’t accept the mistake. Mistakes can make a great entrepreneur.
Mistakes are part of every business. No business in the world is successful without accepting mistakes.
As an entrepreneur, you have two approaches: blaming approach or problem-solving approach. Be always a problem solver rather than playing blame games in an organization.
Once you accept a mistake, things become easy and move on doing the next adventures. Not accepting mistakes will give you pain, and you won’t be able to see your goals.
11. Talking, Talking And Doing Nothing
Some entrepreneurs only speak and don’t take action. They have plans, a good team, and required resources, but they just stop themselves by not doing actionable things.
It happens because of overconfidence and not knowing both sides of the coin. To run a successful business, we have to be practical about it.
We can’t keep on making vague promises which we can’t keep. Be specific about what you want to do and then actually do it.
12. Not trying to Build a Team – Doing It Alone
Every entrepreneur needs another person to get out of his ideas in the world. He or she can’t do it all alone. For example, Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak forming Apple company.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin co-founded Google. So, every entrepreneur needs a partner who can help him see what he is not able to see.
13. Not Budgeting for Marketing
As a new business, we might think it’s not time to market right now.
Like first, let’s make money, and then we would see what to be done with the marketing part.
We tend to forget that marketing is critical. As Steve Jobs believed, marketing is the main part of doing business. If nobody knows what you sell, you can’t acquire good business.
No matter how small or big business you have, consider marketing as the main ingredient. It helps you reach a million of people in less time and double your growth in a year or two.
14. Putting Product First And Customers Last
A new entrepreneur tends to become too salesy every customer they meet. They put people secondary and product first.
But they forget that customers are the end-users. Their choices build your business, and their ignorance makes you losses.
It’s straightforward. Put your people first. Put their likes, opinions, and usage first, and then your product lasts.
15. The Wrong Attitude towards Work / Employees
Your attitude affects the client how they pursue you. You don’t need excellent entrepreneur skills to get more customers. You need the right approach.
Your client can actually like your work if you have a great attitude. For example, you may have visited many grocery stores. But you will only go to those stores where the owner’s behavior is good with you.
Shopkeepers with bad behavior cannot survive in the business because people like talking to those whose behavior and attitude are excellent and welcoming.
Final Thoughts
Doing mistakes are part of life, but repeating it and not learning from it shouldn’t be. So, make mistakes and learn. There is no harm in it. Just make sure you aren’t making the same mistake over and over again.
