In the vast world of business, more aspiring entrepreneurs and future franchise owners aim all of their energy at developing their growth strategies. They focus on how to build the right brand or maintain brand consistency in case of franchising, how to attract their target customers, how to ensure better brand awareness, how to get solvent fast, and the like. While these are all viable questions every startup owner needs to address, you would also benefit from thinking about what not to do in the process.
To put it simply, there are so many beginners’ mistakes many startup owners make in the first several year of setting up their foundation, and you can prevent many, if not all of them, simply by understanding how they occur. Let’s take a look at the most frequent mistakes that happen when you’re starting a business, and how you can do your best to prevent them and help your brand grow!
Lack of clear goals – or follow-through
Having a mission and a vision of where you want your company to go in the near future is not nearly good enough to be called a direction that can enable success. A staggering piece of research data shows that 80% of small business owners don’t really track their goals. Having them in the first place is a good start, but if you don’t put them to good use, you have merely wasted your time building them to begin with. Every new business requires a roadmap, with detailed directions for each short- and long-term achievement, as well as means to monitor progress.
Goals serve as your indicators of how fast you are moving forward, if you can scale more efficiently, and if you should make any changes on your path forward. Make sure to have your roadmap clearly outlined before you launch your business, and you’ll reduce your risk of failure significantly.
Improper budget allocation
Whether you overestimate the value of your brand or you undersell all of your products and services, either extreme can wreak havoc on your long-term success. It’s vital to remember that starting a business successfully requires you to not only have the initial capital to kick-start your plans, but also ongoing funding sources to stay afloat and keep your customers happy. In order to prevent undervaluing your brand or overspending on irrelevant aspects of your brand, you need a budget plan.
If you decide to work with a franchise, make sure to follow the guides provided by your franchisor, which will help you determine the best financial strategy to a great extent. However, if you decide to fly solo with your entrepreneurial dreams, make sure that you have a financial structure that can handle your growth goals and support your ambitions.
Poor market knowledge
Too many new brands show up in any market believing they are good enough, or even more than that. It’s commendable to be confident about your offers, but a completely different story if you enter a designated market not knowing what your customers need or prefer. Learning about your market will not only help you brand your business better or develop the most appropriate language, but also determine the best pricing range, the most optimal means to communicate with your customers, and understanding your competition better.
Even in case of running a franchise, you can utilize your market insights by refining your localized efforts and collecting data that will help you improve your marketing and advertising campaigns. Startups that ignore market fluctuations and changing moods of their customers run the risk of losing traction as well as loyalty, hence the need to focus on what the market says – not just what you believe and know about your brand.
Ignoring the learning curve
Some of the most experienced business professionals from every field have been able to earn that reputation precisely because of their learning-oriented mindset. No matter how brilliant your idea may be, there is always room for improvement, and many people from your own industry can help you make adjustments. For example, as a franchisee, you can talk to other branch managers to determine their own ups and downs, and get some tips on the best ways to approach your own development.
The same goes for industry experts as well as competitors, all of whom can be your perfect sources of information on best practices as well as possible setbacks you’d want to prevent. There’s always the option of workshops and in-house training for franchisees, but even as a solopreneur, you can attend conferences and seminars and find your own way to learn.
Avoiding innovation and automation
Finally, too many startups ignore the need to innovate, no matter how innovative or advanced the very brand may be. However, considering any form of innovation, whether in adapting your brand’s products and services, introducing new lines of products, or simply by turning to more efficient ways to run your day-to-day operations, can be beneficial for your long-term growth.
For starters, stay in the loop with the latest tech trends and implementing various tech tools that can automate certain processes, whether it’s automated payment platforms, reporting tools for your marketing needs, or scheduling tools for email campaigns and social posting. Boosting efficiency through automation and innovation can always help your business grow!
Mistakes have always been and always will be a crucial segment of the learning process, and startups are no different. However, some mistakes come at a price too high for a brand-new business, so make sure to steer clear of the ones that can cost you your reputation or your ability to grow, and turn them into opportunities instead.
