I've made a HUGE mistake
I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life. We all do.
How could you not? According to Inc., adults make over 35,000 decisions a day, and for founders, that number is even higher.
(At first, this figure seemed outrageous. But think about this: how many times do you ask yourself if you should get out of bed before you do? Should you check your phone right away? Email? Make coffee right now or in 10 minutes? Do you actually need to get dressed today? I guess 35,000 isn’t an unreasonable number.)
When it comes to building a company, there are a lot of BIG decisions to make.
What are you selling? How will you fund it?
Who do you target? How do you find them? Do they want your product or service? How do you know?
Who do you hire? When? How much do you pay them? How do you retain them?
And a lot more...
While making these big decisions, you’re bound to screw up. A lot.
Part of the reason I started sharing content is to help others learn from my mistakes.
So, without further ado, here is a non-exhaustive list of the mistakes I’ve made while growing my company:
Undervalued my services by pricing them too low
Didn’t get an outside perspective on my marketing message (does it make sense?)
Relied too much on referrals and not enough on sales
Thought I didn’t need mentors or coaches
Didn’t ask for case studies or testimonials from my first few clients
Didn’t learn how to be a good boss before I started hiring employees
Hired too junior for the role and thought I could train everyone
Waited too long to learn how to sell
Hired too fast
Hired without a clear understanding of the role and what success looks like
Fired too slow (or didn’t fire at all)
Didn’t look at financials closely enough because I was confused by them
Wasn’t transparent about financial state when the company was in trouble
Waited too long to apply for a line of credit
Let toxicity fester without seeking out the source (on a small team, one bad apple can spoil the bunch)
Didn’t focus on selling when I had enough customers
Cared too much what other people thought
Structured my company via quick decisions instead of researching and taking my time
Backed out of client work too fast (team was too small to support)
Waited too long to hire a professional salesperson
Took many things too personally
Acted without a clear goal/desired end state in mind
Didn’t sell results into current accounts to retain them (not bragging enough)
Took risks/spent money when there wasn’t really money to spend
Hired people I liked instead of hiring based on skill
Made changes too fast and didn’t communicate thoroughly enough
Took clients that weren’t a good fit because we needed the cash
Hired my (now ex) husband because we had an open position, not because it was a great idea for either of us
Yelled at the intern because he almost made us lose in an escape chamber (okay, this is mostly a joke, but yelling at people isn’t cool—btw, that intern was our friend @Quentin Allums)
I digress...
I guess the point of this post is to let you know that we ALL screw up…
And many of these mistakes are avoidable.
How many can you dodge with the right information?
Slow down. Take your time. Do your research. Test the waters. Consult your mentors.
And don’t beat yourself up.
❤️
*Shameless plug*
I dug into my three biggest mistakes and how you can avoid them on my podcast this week. Link in the comments. ;)
#entrepreneur #startups #management