This episode, “The 5 Biggest Mistakes I’ve Made in 13 Years in Business” was recorded at the request of one of the Virtual Assistants in my directory. I openly and honestly share with you the mistake I have made in my 13 years of business.
There are so many mistakes that we, as business owners, can make. Here are The 5 Biggest Mistakes I’ve Made in 13 Years in Business, that I feel, really had a big impact on the growth of my business.
- Stopping then starting marketing. If you start marketing your business then stop your marketing, you will find that you will either be in a season of feast or famine when it comes to your business. You will always have these seasons in business, especially when you are first starting your business. What I am talking about is, if you are continuously starting your marketing, then stopping when you have clients, you will find your season of famine to be longer than necessary. This is due to the fact that you have to rebuild from the lack of interaction when you were not marketing as much. To combat this, you must continually market your business to have a longer “feast season”.
- Not being consistent. Marketing is just one thing people in business need to be consistent with. You don’t want to be chasing rabbits in your business. If you are jumping from one new thing to the next because it may seem easier or it looks as though it will be an “instant hit” and bring money in faster you will not “win” in the business you are currently building. Building and maintaining any business takes hard work and consistency to become successful. If we work hard, focusing on our end goal, our business will grow faster than if we keep jumping around.
- Not time blocking. You will find it makes being productive so much easier! Have you ever felt scatter-brained or that, no matter how much you “work” you still aren’t able to get things completed? If this is you (like it was me) time blocking will be a tremendous help!
- NOT using a project management system. There are quite a few of these programs out there. With this, it is basically trial and error to find the program that works for you. Personally, I like Asana for quite a few reasons. First off, it is a free program (and who doesn’t LOVE free right?!)! I love how you can color-code folders and you can have repeated tasks! I have a color-coded folder for each client. You can put all of their tasks in their folder so everything you need to do is all in one place. Take notes during client calls. Get in the practice where, as soon as you get off the call, you put all of that information into their folder in the project management program.
- Ask for help! Don’t think that you need to be Wonder Woman and do everything yourself. This will lead you straight to burnout. Burnout leads to your business not being as profitable as it should be which leads to more stress on you. It is an ugly cycle that can be easily avoided. I believe that not asking for help, in the beginning, was one of my BIGGEST mistakes! Even if you outsource something small, if it helps take something off your plate it’s worth it!
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