5 Major Mistakes Entrepreneurs need to avoid

Being the best “YOU”

This is part of a “LinkedIn pilot” called “Series” I am very proud to be part of that select group to run the pilot

I was in sabbatical the last couple of weeks due to a family loss. My series is titled “Being the best YOU”.

Every article will shed some light on how to become your best version either as a person, leader, or entrepreneur to live the life you always deserved to have.

I am looking forward to your engagement, sharing your opinions and ideas and most importantly to you reading the series.

If you enjoy it, hit the SUBSCRIBE button to get the articles fresh of the press every week

The first post in the series was “You are not your past”, the second post was “Living in the moment, living in the present”, the third post was “5 Limiting beliefs”, and the fourth was “Why negative thinking is easy”

My fifth post is about your best version of “Being the best Entrepreneur”

5 major mistakes entrepreneur do

Most experts and gurus, sell the dream, the success, or the destination without taking you step by step through the journey. The actual steps of the journey is what gets in the way of success.

They make you live a dream to achieve your goals or make six figures in 90 days or less. We all know that it doesn’t work that way.

So we keep buying program after program spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars, hoping that the next product will get us where we want to be.

The mistakes or pitfalls that are common to start or expand a business are mostly never shared. Sharing setbacks, challenges, efforts, and heartaches will not sell, that is why they are hidden.

“There are many reasons why 80% of the businesses fail in the first three years.”

Entrepreneurship is not for the faint or weak heart – this is not meant to scare you away from becoming an entrepreneur; it is about giving you the keys to unlock the secrets that no one wants to share that lead to your success and achieving the dream.

I believe that if we know what to expect from the beginning we can be prepared for the good, bad and ugly, it could change everything, and lead us to the path of success. 

Mistake Number ONE: Do not let your small business makes you small minded

 Your small business can make you small minded, just because you are starting a small business doesn’t mean that you are destined to stay small. All big businesses started somewhere. Your mindset is crucial to this stage.

 If you live with a scarcity mind where you feel like you do not have enough of anything, guess what? This is what you will get “not enough”.

 Scarcity mind is your first enemy you need to watch for. It will keep you paralyzed feeling like a victim. Negative mindsets undermine your beliefs that you are capable of greatness.

Do not go down the trail of “lack of resources” either money, support, man power, capabilities, education etc. as you will start focusing on what you do not have rather than what you have.

This mindset can make you stick to what may not be good for you because your brain tries to protect you from experiencing any pain from loss or change.

Scarcity also diminishes your ability to make decisions. Like a magnet, it pulls you away from focusing on activities that can fuel your growth.

What you focus on grows. If you divert all of your attention to the one circumstance that negatively triggers you, the rest of the positive areas in our life will suffer.

Solution

Scarcity and limitations will get you stuck in place

• Be grateful for every step you take, right or wrong, the wrong one will show you how to do something better. Many do not have that opportunity to do what you do
• Notice the way you talk to yourself, would talk the same way to a friend of yours starting their business to motivate them? If no, then change the way you address yourself
• Look at who you are surrounding yourself with. Get rid of negative, jealous and toxic people. Misery loves company

Mistake Number TWO: Do not hide behind your business

 Most entrepreneurs hide behind their business. Brands are not only for businesses, you need to have your business brand but most importantly you need to have your own personal brand. 

 Your brand is the perception that you want people to have of yourself and of your business, it is the promise that you offer your audience. Your brand is what will differentiate you from your competition, it is why your audience will engage with you and not the next person that offers the same service or product that you do. 

You need to show others what value you add to their lives. Your brand determines your Unique Selling Proposition, your value proposition, and the way you will market your business.

Your brand is what creates influence and credibility for your audience to trust you and deal with you.

You will be your business, and your business will be you

Make sure that you reflect your brand, you reflect who you want people to see, make sure you are the image that you want to project, that you are the promise that you make.

Solution

People will deal and will engage with people that look like them, think like them or speak like them

• You are your own brand. Your brand is your story, your uniqueness, your image, the value you are offering to the world. Be your OWN brand
• You need to get comfortable in uncomfortable situations, embrace self-branding, and learn to brag a bit about yourself.
• Establish your credibility offline and online, people need to trust you before they deal with your business, it is not the other way around

Mistake Number THREE: Not clarifying your brand and what you offer

 You can never be a carbon copy of anyone else, but you can reinvent an idea, service, or product already existing packaging them better or covering an angle that hasn’t been touched yet.

 You need clarity and precision on what you do, on your business industry, and the trends in your industry to stay relevant.

If you are not clear about what you do and able to share it in a minute or under; no one else will get what you do.

Why do you do it?

This is the most difficult question for entrepreneurs to answer. Basically you need to know why you are doing what you are doing, and what you believe in? What are your values? What do you get from it?

Obviously making money is a great goal, but it is not what connects with people you need to make sure that you have an emotional engagement with your clients explaining why you do what you do

Solution:

Defining the core of your business existence and purpose

Are you a solution to a problem or filling a gap?

• You can’t be both, you need to study your market, your brand, your industry and your competition to know where you fit; once you become clear you share it as part of your brand to attract the proper audience that are specifically looking for what you offer.
• You need to be consistent in your voice and brand

Do you decrease pain or increase pleasure?

• You can’t be both either your services or products are decreasing pain or increasing pleasure. The default for entrepreneurs is to say “increasing pleasure”
• 4 people out of 5 will pay to decrease pain than paying to increase pleasure.
• Human motivation is created through the pain-pleasure principle, understanding it will help you adjust your communication and marketing efforts to zoom in on your customers by defining their pain and pleasure points catering to their needs
• You should be able to articulate either the pains or the pleasure points and lead with them

Mistake Number FOUR: Not expecting failures before the success

There will be failures before the success: You will definitely fail at something sooner or later. If you do not fail then you are not taking enough risk.

Just being an entrepreneur doesn’t guarantee success. Failure is inescapable and it will come in many different shapes and forms so be ready, and embrace it. You are likely to make few or a lot of mistakes which will result in setbacks.

How you look at failure or setback will determine if you succeed or not. If you look at failure as the end of the road, then good luck, but if you look at a set back and think that “now I know what not to do next time and let me learn the lesson I am supposed to learn here” to move forward. 

Sometimes it takes failure to learn what you don’t know, and start learning the necessary fundamentals you need to build your business right. Your ability to rise above them will eventually lead you to success.

Solution

Redefining and re-framing how you look at mistakes as opportunities to learn will make a huge difference

• If you anticipate that mistakes will happen, you will be better prepared for them, will bounce faster, and be more prepared emotionally for setbacks.
• It is all about risk mitigation, most of the mistakes or failure will be self-induced from our self-limiting beliefs.

Mistake Number FIVE: Thinking that you can be everything to everyone

The biggest mistake entrepreneurs do when they start, is that they try to cast a net on everyone thinking that appealing to everyone is the right thing to do, and the only way to make a whole lot of money. 

The more they try to attract to their products or services, the more diluted their message will be, and the more it will fall on deaf ears. When you market to everyone you market to no one. The Jake of all trades is master of none. You can’t be the best at everything on the planet, it is just impossible.

You will never appeal to everyone no matter what you do. Many entrepreneurs resist that notion as they feel it limits them.

When a niche is defined, your message as an entrepreneur will become clear and focused. Your niche will feel that you specifically understand their problem, and that it is all about them as you understand what they need and where they are coming from.

You need to choose your audience, pinpoint your niche. The higher prices, the higher revenues, the greater profitability.

“Riches in Niches”

Solution

People look for specialists that they believe have the keys to solve their problems

• Becoming a specialist in one area is how you can set yourself apart from the competition and what will make you unique.
• Customers see niche businesses as specialists, so they tend to pay more of a premium price for what they perceive to be a higher level of expertise than they would get from a generic brand.

Are you ready to start the journey of becoming “BEST of ME” version of you yet?

This is the fifth piece in my series “Being the BEST YOU” part of the LinkedIn pilot "Series". Subscribe to the series to receive a notification when the next articles are published.

My name is Sahar Andrade, I help organizations increase their employee engagement by investing in Diversity/Inclusion practices as well as through Leadership Development.

I also help successful Individuals that are stuck to reinvent their lives with courage, release their fears, get clarity on their purpose and pursue their dreams.

My teachings, my unique education and experience combined with singular approach to realizing change, form a proven system for long lasting positive transformation. My methodology is based on human psychology and research to break down issues, reverse engineer them, and deconstruct personal myths, while developing personal leadership skills development. It is a simple step by step program, modules, exercises, one on one and group coaching.

I am the author of “49 things about Entrepreneurship: That experts do not want you to know” on Amazon.

This is my TED TALK : Overcoming Negative Thoughts

I am the founder of “Sahar Consulting, LLC” and “Reinvent Yourself to Greatness”