Three Things to Avoid when you Start a Business
When you start a business and you want to make it a success, you might begin from reading books about business, internet articles that are more specific to your case, or from a simple “trial and error” method.
But if you want to save yourself time, here are the three things commonly done by many entrepreneurs that you might want to avoid.
1. No consistency in branding
Imagine you are a hairdresser, you have a beautiful logo on your business card. The Facebook page where that card takes your customer features a different logo. The physical location that is mentioned on the card has yet another brand-decoration on the windows and even its own color scheme different from the previous two. How would you feel as a customer? Wouldn’t you start questioning if it is even the same place where you got your awesome haircut last time?
Familiarity is key in making a customer recognize and like your brand. By keeping your image so different on different channels you are only confusing them.
2. Spending money on accessories
You are just starting as a freelance copywriter. Before you got any leads you decide that you need a beautiful logo so you order it from a designer. Then you pay for a professionally made website. Once it’s done, you think you need specially designed pens and notepads that feature your logo to give away. Meanwhile, you have not reached out to any potential customer and your financial resources are already depleted.
Before you commission a logo and a website, order branded notepads and other souvenirs, ask yourself is that really necessary to find and approach your customers?
3. Wrong Location
For some businesses, like a freelance copywriter, even thinking about renting an office is already a bad start. If you don’t need to be stationary — don’t waste your money on it.
On the other hand imagine, you are opening a hairdressing salon and you found a place that is affordable and feels luxurious. You signed the papers, decorated the place, opened the door, and… nothing happened. Turned out it is too far away for your existing customers, and the new ones aren’t coming because the location is deserted and there is no traffic around it.
Before you drain your money into signing a two-year lease with a huge deposit, spend a day or two sitting in a cafe nearby and observing the new place you chose. Are there any people at all? Are they your potential customers? How are other businesses doing?
