The Biggest Mistakes I Made as an Entrepreneur that You can Avoid Making when Starting Your Business This Year

I am an avid perfectionist, learning to develop a growth mindset. And boy, has the journey been…. Fun. Haha

Long story short: I made so many mistakes when starting, building and running my business.

I’ve also made a few really great decisions. What I’ve learnt from the process is that mistakes are inevitable when it comes to entrepreneurship.

Mistakes aren’t final, fatal or defining in anyway. But there are some mistakes that I wish I could have avoided. That’s why I want to share them here with you.

If you’re thinking about starting a business, please take these into account. I know that it will save you a lot of time, money and stress.

Here are 5 things you should be careful to avoid if you want to grow a healthy, sustainable business that can be profitable in the long-run.

1) wearing all the hats, all the time: unwilling to delegate

When you’re first starting out, it makes sense. Your “team” might be: you, yourself and thou. You figured out how to create a website. You’re posting all the socials. You’re in charge of marketing, admin, finances and delivering the product or service.

Your side hustle is picking up, you’re feeling great — until you don’t. You’re getting a lot of enquiries. There’s increasing demand. Whis is awesome. People actually like and want your service or product. But the problem is — there’s only one of you.

You’re struggling to pick up calls, let alone even open your emails. You don’t want to turn any new clients or customers away because you’re just starting out. But you feel the strain.

You’re wearing too many hats.

At the start, it worked for you. But as your business grows — your role, your focus, and the structure of your business needs to shift to support the growth. Otherwise it won’t look pretty.

The biggest mistakes a lot of founding entrepreneurs make, including myself — is failing to delegate. Failing to outsource. And continuing to juggle all the hats. You know what they say right? A jack of all trades is a master at none.

You, as the owner are the only person responsible for setting the direction, culture, vision and standards for your business.

As you receive more orders, enquiries and requests for your product or service, one of the best things you can do is to recruit great people. People who are passionate. Driven. Teachable. It can be hard to find the right people — but let’s be honest.

Even if someone isn’t “amazing” at the role, or don’t have much experience — if you recruit someone who is a quick learner — they’ll probably do a better job than you, because your mind and focus is scattered in all sorts of ways.

Rather than juggling all the hats like a clown, reach out. Build a team. Don’t hold onto all the glass balls as you’re destined to drop a few.

Create systems and processes that are repeatable, sustainable and scalable.

Remember, you’re the entrepreneur. Not the admin assistant, accounts or marketing manager. If you have natural strengths in any of these areas, that’s great! Definitely give your input. I’m not saying disconnect completely.

I’m saying, if your business is growing, and your still operating like the early days when your business was a side-hustle — it’s not going to work out for you.

You need to build a stronger foundation for your business to sustain the growth. You need a team, and you need to focus on leading, serving, entrusting, and empowering your team.

As you delegate roles and responsibilities, you’re going to have more headspace to focus on the direction and vision of your business. Surround yourself with a talented team. Respect them. Treat them well. Give your team the freedom to operate in their own way and see them thrive at what they do best.

This is how you can grow your business sustainably in the long run. You can achieve goals quickly alone — but you can grow so much further with a team.

2) neglecting my health & wellbeing: only investing time into my business & work

Starting up a business can be all-consuming.Building, growing and scaling it can also be incredibly consuming too. At the end of the day, business owners put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into building something bigger than them.

Some people think that all entrepreneurs are free from the 9-5 but really — entrepreneurs often put in much longer hours than a “traditional” employee might. It takes a lot of risk, sacrifice, time, mistakes, resilience, self-doubt, perseverance and grit to build an organisation that can one day be self-sufficient (meaning that one day, you as the owner won’t physically need to be there for the business to continue to run and grow).

I’ve learnt that the busier it gets, the more important it is to carve out time to rest. I remember starting work at sunrise and staying back at the studio til stupid hours in the night, organising, cleaning, prepping and building furniture.

I remember putting in hours and hours of work for a few months. I invested a lump sum of money (which was significant given our revenue at the time) to hold a few events, all of them breaking even just by a tiny slither. I remember lying on the couch in tears, mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted.

Knowing that all my hard work earnt me $0 was heartbreaking. But I also knew at the same time, this is what you sign up for as a small business owner. To break even within the first year of operation is a really big deal, as many small business owners struggle to make any profit within the first 1-5 years of opening their bricks and mortar business. Despite the financial state, I knew that I was building a brand. I was building a community. I knew that financially in the short term, I couldn’t see the impact — but I also knew that in 3-4 years time, the work I put in behind the scenes for no money would have made an impact.

It can be draining to run a start-up. Cash-flow issues are no joke when it comes to how it impacts our emotional and mental health. That’s why it’s extremely important that you prioritise your health and wellbeing as a business owner. You’re going to need to be resilient and push through big challenges that not many people will be able to see. You need to take care of yourself because you need the clarity and strength to navigate challenges and continue to see the opportunities that lay ahead.

Self-care looks different for everyone, so it’s about figuring out what makes you feel refreshed, rested and energised. Here are few simple ways to prioritse your wellbeing:

• Eat wholesome foods. Set a day to meal prep and cook so that you’re not just opting for quick takeout or junk. If you’re really tight on time, set a budget to buy nourishing meals on your breaks.

• Make sure to keep a water bottle on you! Stay hydrated.Go on a quick walk between your work demands to get some fresh air and sunshine. Literally, even 5 minutes can make a big difference in your mental clarity and mood.

• Try and make movement a regular part of the week. It could be 3 gym sessions a week, a dance class, martial arts, and like I mentioned above, quick walks around the block.

• Clean your workspace regularly. Keep your car, home and office tidy.

• Light a candle, put on some lofi-music, and get some fairy lights. Create a safe environment for yourself to unwind to when you get home from a long day. Give yourself margin to switch off and unwind

Taking care of yourself physically will have an amazing impact on your mind, mood, motivation and clarity. It doesn’t have to be expensive or bougie. Especially if you’re in the start up phase of your business which can make things tight financially. It’s the simple things that we choose to do everyday that make a big difference in the long run.

3) not prioritising seeing my friends & connecting with my loved ones

The quality of our lives is largely shaped by the strength of the relationships we have with the people around us. When the going gets tough, or busy, or overwhelming — my natural response is to come home after work and switch off to the world.

Reality TV, Netflix shows, scrolling on the Gram — these are a few of the low-energy, low-investment activities that many of us turn to after a long, hard slog of a day. There’s nothing wrong with unwinding at home via entertainment and social media. But if that’s the only way we try to take care of ourselves post-work — it might not be the best protocol.

It takes effort to arrange a catch up, even with your closest friends and family members. Everyone leads a busy life, and teeing up a time can take a bit of troubleshooting, and following up each other’s calendars. Reaching out to your loved ones is high-investment. It requires effort, intention and energy — but it’s also high return (depending on the company).

I neglected my friendships for a chunk of last year. It was all too much for me. I felt like organising a coffee catch up, or dinner date was difficult. Things being tight financially also made me reluctant to go to organise drinks nights, etc. I’m a social butterfly who thrives in small group settings with a few really close friends. Crowds drain me, so the thought of going out was tiring. And ironically, as much as I love alone time — I found that too much alone time drained me too.

Everyone is different. Everyone has different needs when it comes to levels and depths of social interactions. No matter how introverted or extroverted you are, it’s important to connect with your loved ones. Isolating yourself for too long can take a hit on our mental and emotional wellbeing.

The quality and strength of our relationships is one of the biggest factors when it comes to living a fulfilling life. Sometimes it takes a little more effort and discipline to prioritise connecting with our family and friends, but it’s always worth it.

It will boost our mood and allow us to feel supported which will undoubtedly have a positive flow on to your attitude, energy and performance in your business too.

4) not introducing any changes: scared of losing loyal clients or customers

Change is inevitable in life, and in business too. Prices for goods, products, rent, supplies, etc. are always increasing. When you provide a service or product to customers, there are so many other costs involved that are rising year after year.

In order for you to ensure that the cash-flow of the business is healthy, it’s important that you plan and execute changes in your operations to keep up with the rising costs of living.

When I took the leap from self-employment to business ownership, I signed a commercial lease — which meant that I needed to pay double bills, double rent, and also pay staff. I didn’t realise how difficult it would be to generate net profit (and how important it was for me to have extra funds to cover unforeseen costs — which there were many!)

So after a year of operation, I introduced a price raise. Quite a high price raise for those who wanted to work with me privately. I chose to charge GST on top of our raises. I knew that this would be a difficult hit for some clients and families working with us. My fear of letting people down and losing valuable clients was crippling.

But deep down, I knew that the health of my business is reflected in not only the culture and quality of our services, but in the state of our cash-flow too. So I knew I had to make these changes as we stepped into the new year.

There will always be the possibility to lose the most valuable clients when you introduce a price raise, structural change, location change, or any other change from the usual way you’d operated before. Even with this possibility looming — I’ve learnt that it’s important that business owners can choose to pivot, adapt and structure the business in ways that will allow you to continue running.

As I introduced these changes, we surprisingly had high customer retention, and I also found a lot of new clients who were willing to work with us. I learnt that the customers who are willing to pay the price point that we’ve set see the value in the service we offer, and often ride with us for the long run.

5) struggling to believe in my own potential

I know, this sounds airy-fairy. Like, how many times have you hear someone tell you to just believe in yourself?

What does that even mean anyway?

Believing in yourself means having a firm understanding that you are capable of setting goals and achieving them with the right tools, decisions and actions. Believing in your own potential means that you are confident in your vision, character and ability to be resourceful.

People would often say that I come across as “put together” which my partner and I always laugh at. It’s not that I’m not confident — I’m a confident person who also struggles with self-doubt everyday. I have worked so, so, very hard to feel more grounded in myself — but as I’d continued to step out of my comfort zone, I struggled to see my own potential and lost myself in feeling inadequate.

Since making this realisation — that my relationship and view of myself is the most important thing that determines the success of my business, I’ve been working on my confidence and self-belief. One step at a time.

If you’re thinking about starting a side hustle or business in 2023, I want you to know this: it’s really important that you, as a business owner, believe in your own potential. You need to drive the vision, direction, mission and culture of your business — and without a firm degree of self-confidence, self-belief and self-efficacy, this will flow on to affect your team’s performance.

To flip the narrative and paint it in a more positive light — the more you, as the business owner can step into a higher state of mind and work on your self-dialogue to see the opportunities, growth and progress you’ve made so far — the more vibrant, strong and grounded your team will be.

I’m working on it! And I know I will be, til the end of time. I’m forever a work in progress (smile).

So there you have it. I wanted to share a few of the many mistakes that I have made in setting up my own shop-front business in 2022.

I felt like I was figuring everything out from the ground up without much guidance, clarity or strategy. The decisions I made, or failed to make had a really negative toll on my mental clarity, physical wellbeing, emotional health and more: early starts, late finishes, lack of healthy food, resourcefulness to seek help, and neglecting self-care led to a very ugly form of burnout that affected my performance and wellbeing for a while.

In order to prevent burnout and operate from a strong, motivated and driven place (which will yield the best results, performance and work-life satisfaction) it’s important that you:

• Delegate work to focus on what only you can do

• Reach out for support (be resourceful and proactive)

• Take time to invest in your hobbies outside of work

• Keep in touch with our loved ones, go out for a drink once in a while

• Introduce changes in the operations and structure of your business as needed

• Believe in your potential.

You are always going o be more important than your business. And the health of a business will always reflect the health of its owner. So don’t forget to take care of yourself and put yourself first when it comes to starting up, building and scaling your baby.

Remember that failing as a part of the process. Mistakes are a little step in the staircase. Just proof that you’re trying. Starting, building and scaling a business will definitely make you more resilient, resourceful and push you to grow beyond what you could have ever imagined.