7 Business Mistakes To Avoid

Millions of startups are created all over the world every year. While each business has its different purpose, most of them are not sticking. In five years, about 90% of those new businesses will go out of business. It is disappointing to see an idea or business come and go. The worst part is that it happens often.

The reason businesses shut down often is not because it does not work. If creating a business did not work, then why are there the Apples and Googles of the world? Why are the 10% successful? The main reason why many businesses collapse is because many people behind the businesses are not business savvy. Many people who create a startup learn about how business works after the startup has already been created.

There are many people who also spend their money foolishly on their business. Just because someone grosses in $300,000 every year from a business does not mean that person is making $300,000 every year. Some people in this position only get the scraps.

Entrepreneurs have made many lessons available through their own trial-and-error experiences. By analyzing other entrepreneurs’ case studies as well as my own experiences, I have been able to come up with a list of seven business mistakes that you need to avoid so your business stays afloat and even makes a profit.

1. Putting all eggs in one basket. Squidoo’s decline amazed many people around the web. What once got millions of daily visitors now got absorbed by HubPages. At the time, I put all of my eggs into that basket. This forced me to experiment with other ways to make money on the web. Kindle book creation ended up becoming the big one. However, I never put all of my eggs into that basket. I am also utilizing training courses and other options to bring in revenue as well.
2. Thinking of profit in the wrong way. Sometimes a business is making a lot of money but the CEO is not. There are some businesses that make $1 million every year but have $2 million in expenses. Many people think of profit as the scraps after expenses take place. On the contrary, you should never spend your money if you know you won’t make a profit that way.
3. Using social media too often. We all use social media, and other people love to use it as much as they can. A big mistake is using social media too often to the point where you are not getting any of your projects done. Social media is a great way to build an audience but not as great of a way to make money.
4. Not having a vision. Having a vision allows you to identify where you want to be within a certain amount of time. Visions give us realities which may currently seem out of reach, but by striving to achieve your vision, you will take more steps of action to make that vision a reality compared to if you did not take the time to give yourself a vision.
5. Not analyzing your own statistics. I am analyzing my statistics every day to learn more about my business, visitors, and customers. I discovered that adding a subscription box at the end of all of my blog posts worked very effectively. In fact, it has more than doubled the amount of subscribers I get.
6. Never starting at all. Many people fear launching their business to the world because of criticism and the need to be perfect. In order to see how far your business will go, you need to start and launch that business first.
7. Giving up too early. There are plenty of people who were once comfortable with the status quo before they created their businesses. To these people, the status quo offers security. Although gruesome at times, the status quo offers a guaranteed payment for every hour at the end of the day. Businesses do not guarantee any type of revenue. However, if you take the time to create a business and make it work, you will make more money than anyone from the status quo could ever dream of making.

Business is an awesome and dangerous world to be in. By avoiding these mistakes, you will be taking more of the danger out of business, and you will be able to focus on the awesome parts about having a business: you work at your own hours, you love what you do, and you make money too.

What were your thoughts on the list? Do you have an 8th business mistake that people should know about? Please share your thoughts and advice below.