The Newly self-employed tend to make many mistakes.
Here are 10 stupid mistakes that are often made be newly self-employed people.
Don't make the same mistakes.
10. Laziness
Being
self-employed will usually allow you to make your own schedule. If you
have a Dentist appointment then you can be sure that you will be able to
make it and not have to worry about your work schedule. The problem
with many newly self-employed people is that they may decide to lounge
on the couch watching Television instead of actually working. You need
to get into the habit of actually working hard. If you struggle with
this then it may help to pretend that you have a boss and imagine what
he would tell you to do.
9. Distractions
When
you work for yourself it is easy to get distracted. Instead of actually
working you spend your day on Facebook, checking your email, playing
Angry Birds, and reading Wikipedia articles. You need to force yourself
to work and eliminate as many distractions as you can. It is vital that
you prioritize the work you need to do in order to make a profit.
8. No Business Plan or Mission Statement
You
need a business plan, or at least a mission statement. Regardless of
how small your business is a business plan and a mission statement will
help you to keep you business on track. We can often get distracted and
focus on aspects of the daily grind that in reality have no bearing on
our business. Expand you customer base, but keep a watchful eye on your business plan to
ensure you do not shy away from your core business. Business Plans can
however need to be re-written and changed around in some cases. Only you
know what is best for you self-employment, however you do need to have
at least a mission statement you can refer to and also get inspired
from.7. No Work Area Away From the Family
If you work from home it
is easy to get distracted by your spouse and children. It is imperative
that you set up a work area or office that is dedicated solely for your
work. When you are working your friends and family need to understand
that they should not ever disturb you unless it is an emergency. It is
hard to work when every 5 minutes you kids come in and need something
from you. If you worked cooking burgers at McDonald’s your family
wouldn’t be coming back into the kitchen area every few minutes, so they
should not do it if you work for yourself, regardless of whether
you work from home or in a location somewhere else.6. Hating Your Business
If
you are self-employed then it is going to be important as to if you
enjoy your niche or not. If you hate carpet, hate manual labor, and hate
chemical smells then you will hate yourself if you open up a carpet cleaning business. If you love your job then you will be more apt to work hard and still be able to enjoy yourself while you work.
5. Selling to Friends and Family
If
you start a business where you will be direct selling to customers,
then you need to have a potential customer base that does not include
your friends and family. If you start of by hounding your family to buy
your products they will begin to avoid you and hate your business. If on
the other hand you begin to sell your quality product to customers,
your friends and family will also be more apt to buy products from you.
If your friends and family ask you to buy your product without you
trying to “hard sell” your products to them, then they are much more
likely to use positive word of mouth to spread your products to even
more customers. Positive word of mouth is one of the most valuable and
effective ways of getting free advertising for your business.4. Not Advertising
Many
new business owners will not advertise in order to conserve their cash
flow. Although saving money and not wasting it is vital, you still have
to advertise. How can customers find you if you do hot advertise? Make
sure you also advertise in a venue and method that will work for your
business. If you build webpage’s for local bars, then you obviously do
not need to Advertise during the Super Bowl. Craigslist works for many
businesses and it is free, however you may find that you get more
results by paid advertising such as in your local newspaper.3. High Rent Office
If
you are a new tech company that consists of only a few employees, then
there is no need to rent extremely high-priced office space in Downtown
San Francisco. You can open up you office in an area where the rent is
cheap. You are not a retail store so you do not have to have prime
space. You simply need a working space and by saving money you will give
yourself better odds of succeeding by not being undercapitalized.2. Quit After Failing
Most
successful business owners have had multiple failures in the business
world before they became successful. Instead of looking at a business
failure as a loss, you should instead be looking at failure as a
learning experience and then move on to your next business and you will
have much better odds of succeeding. If you fail working for yourself
then you should not quit. You may have to go work for someone else for
awhile, but never give up on working for yourself. You need to have not
only a good idea for a business, but also the confidence to know that it
truly can work.1. Under-Funded
If
you are under-funded then the odds of your business failing will
skyrocket. If you cannot afford to buy advertising, then your business
may not get any customers. If you cannot afford to upgrade your web server when
you website becomes more popular than your business may fail because
the website will crash and that will lead to no customers and no sales.
It is extremely important that you have enough capital to keep your
business running smoothly.
If you plan on quitting your job and simply working from home as
a 1 man operation it is still important that you have some money in the
bank saved up. If you are stressing about how to pay your monthly bills
then your odds of having a successful career as a self-employed person
will collapse.
source: infobarrel.com