The #1 mistake new business owners make (+ the BEST way to get nowhere, fast!)
Table of Contents Show
Recently, in one of my fav Facebook business groups, someone posted asking for advice on which course to take next within a certain topic.
People were suggesting some GREAT options for her, so I piped in with my 2 cents & shared the course I have personally taken which I thought would be most helpful for her: a course that James Wedmore offers.
She replied by saying she knew of him and “the problem with [him] is that every little piece demands deep thinking. I want fast results, not considering each tiny thing until I’ll get paying customers maybe next year. Robust is not always good.”
😒
That was my initial reaction –being totally honest here.
But then I stepped back and thought, I don’t know this person and I certainly can’t judge why she believes this negative mindset will help her achieve her goal –or why she has this belief.
So I chimed in with an admittedly wordy explanation (as I tend to do when I’m trying to relate + teaching something or explaining something in detail with examples), saying I’d taken it myself and it was really perfect for that mindset since it IS so robust, and because it’s set up to allow you to pick one of MANY different tracks you want to focus on for the next 90 days, potentially giving you targeted results pretty quickly.
Their response?
“I’m sure [the course] is great, I’m just looking to get paying clients not spending all my money on those long robust courses…”
Look. I get that. I totally get that!
But at the same time…
mistake #1
The eye is on the prize, –rather than forming a plan to get there & keep it.
I hate to say it, –and of course, this is a generalization that is usually true for the way the universe works– but there’s no such thing as fast results when you haven’t done the work first.
I know sometimes it SEEMS like others are seeing immediate results. Ever seen those Facebook ads that say like, “How I made $50,000 in 6 months!”
What they DON’T say in that ad is that they’d probably been trying, tweaking, evolving & growing for some period of time PRIOR to that 6 months.
My point here is that those people put in the work (or sacrifice of some kind) first, which allowed them to figure out the path that got them to that $50k in 6 months. Maybe they tried and failed for a few years before that? Maybe they got lucky & it “just happened” after a month or two full of the ‘right’ coincidences, referrals, or tweaks in their shit. Maybe they hired a $5,000/mo business coach or joined an expensive mastermind full of gurus who could help guide him/her in the right direction!
Who knows. But often, that’s not how it works 99% of the time. So you shouldn’t’ expect that either.
Want more clients? There are a LOT of things you could try & each one could provide relatively fast results, but those results probably won’t have LASTING effects unless you set up your process for success in the long term.
And that means:
Adjusting your scarcity mindset.
If you focus on never having enough, that’s all you're likely to see –& your audience will feel that.Nail down your client & business processes.
Make sure you’re ready for the influx, –and not caught with your panties down when they all roll in at once!Figure out who to target
Know who you help & what they need help with so your targeted funnels, ads, copy, services/offerings, etc. –actually work! (Don’t just talk to the void in desperation!)Don’t be a generalist.
“I’ll hire a generalist to fix the transmission on my car because he’s cheaper,” –said no one, ever.PLAN ahead so your goals become achievable!
With a clear & specific goal in mind, breaking down the steps to help you get there will be MUCH simpler & easier.
Which one would you rather have? Stable, consistent income from a tried & true funnel that brings ya clients? Or a coincidence bc your ad went viral once and brought ya $50k in un-reproducible income? Dumb question, right? 😬😂
mistake #2
Avoiding initial foundational processes in order to skip ahead to the successes.
I touched on this before in “2. Nail down your client & business processes” listed above, but I’ll dive in a little deeper here.
If you don’t get your foundation right, your house will not last. Your walls will begin to bow, your sheetrock & paint will begin to crack. Eventually, if left unattended & ignored, your house will fall.
You don’t want to treat your business like this.
I know it sucks, –truly, I do! I didn’t want to do the initial setup either, but because I skipped it (partially because I didn’t know any better & partially because I didn’t want to wait to see results) it cost me several years of hard work, a sacrifice of hours of my time while producing little to no income to show for it.
Because I didn’t set up my processes, my niche, my mindset, or plan how to achieve the goals I was setting, it took me YEARS to be able to leave my 9-5 instead of months. If it hadn’t been for COVID this year, that essentially forced me to make a decision to go “all-in” to my business, I might still be at that 9-5.
I know firsthand that the old saying is true, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
No one knows it all. No one has it all worked out. ––What’s the (relatable) definition of being an entrepreneur? “Figure it out.” 😂
So I won’t tell you there’s only ONE way to become a success or follow THIS specific path to be successful. What I’m saying is that you can’t expect to become a sustaining success without some planning, some deep thought, or the initial building of processes. Without those 3 things, if you become successful, it’s not nearly as likely to last.
DEEP THOUGHT
You have to look deep inside your customer and inside yourself to find what you truly want. Who you want to work with? What industry are they in? How do you want to live your life, and how do you want to work around that to bring in income? Do you want to work 24/7 or would you rather work 20 hour weeks and have plenty of time to enjoy your life? You have to know answers to questions like these, in order to plan your business.
If you want to work 20 hour weeks, you need automations in place to take as many admin tasks as possible off your plate or hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) so you have someone to take those tasks from you.
If you want consistent income, you have to think about how you want to collect clients or make sales in order to achieve that without working your tail off until you learn to hate the business you built.
PLANNING
What do you plan for if you don’t know what you’re doing yet? It doesn’t matter; just make a plan based on your best instincts & what you DO know. If it doesn’t work, tweak those plans until you find something that does work.
Entrepreneurs fail up! That’s how we find success.
Reportedly, when asked how Edison felt after failing 1,000 times before he succeeded in inventing a working lightbulb, he said, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” 🤯
Your “failures” are NOT a reflection of you, how much ‘you suck’ or how ‘stupid’ you think you may be after a giant failure. They are a reflection of what you’re LEARNING as you grow in your business.
TAKE ACTION
This is the last, but most important step.
The problem I was seeing with this person in my Facebook group, was that she seemingly wasn’t connecting these 3 steps. Maybe she had tried thought and planning but didn’t take action. Or maybe she took action but failed because she didn’t think or plan first. Who knows!
If you’re stuck on taking action, don’t know what actions to take, JUST START SOMEWHERE.
As Marie Forleo says, “Action brings clarity.” Once you start taking action, whatever they are –and yes, even if it’s initially the wrong action, you’ll begin to get clarity on what you SHOULD be doing.
So just get started, and keep going. Take action on your plans to the best of your knowledge, and persist. If it doesn’t work, go back to square–one: think, plan, and begin taking action again with the new knowledge & plans in place.
but I wanted results, fast?
Sorry! If you want to be the next Marie Forleo, Oprah, James Wedmore, or Jeff Bezos (or whomever), you’re can’t skip ahead in the process. That’s not how it works. ☺️
