The 10 Most Common Mistakes That First-Time Entrepreneurs Make

Starting a business can be hard. I know because I have started numerous companies and I have taught thousands of people how to make money online.

There are 10 common mistakes that I see repeatedly, and I want to help you avoid every one of them.

The 10 Most Common Mistakes That First-Time Entrepreneurs Make:

1. First-Time Entrepreneurs Spend Over a Month on Their Business and They Still Have Zero Customers
2. They Bounce from Idea to Idea Without Committing to Any Single One
3. They Sell to Everyone but Their Network
4. They Spend Over $1000 Dollars in Starting a Business and Still Have $0 Dollars Revenue
5. Blaming the Economy
6. They Buy Too Many Courses and Invest in Too Many Masterminds
7. They Give Up Way Too Soon
8. They Do Not Use Their Day Job as an Investor
9. They Chase Opportunities Because They Saw it on YouTube (or wherever) Instead of Focusing on Their Own Problem or Situation
10. They Do Not Follow Advice

1. First-Time Entrepreneurs Spend Over a Month on Their Business and They Still Have Zero Customers

A guy I know has a mailing list and every week, he keeps emailing me, “Oh my god! I have got a thousand people on my email list... I’ve got 5,000 people on my email list...” And so, I recently asked, “How much money are you making from your mailing list?” Guess what the answer was.

Why do people fall for this mistake?

Because it feels fun. You are playing poker without any money. How does it end? Eventually, he tries to sell them something and hopefully they buy it (but probably not).

So, what should you do instead?

EVERYTHING in business is about ASKING. You must ask your customers, or potential customers, if they want to buy.

Do the 10% OFF challenge. Go and ask for 10% off the next time you buy anything online or offline. You are going to get rejected. But you are going to still be alive and you are going to move on.

2. They Bounce from Idea to Idea Without Committing to Any Single One

I know a girl named Jenny who messaged me and said, “Hey, I’ve got three different business ideas. Which one do you like best?” I replied, “You should ask your customers which business idea they like, not me.” She told me that she was going to try all her business ideas.

Why do people do this?

Because they are afraid of failure and so they do a half-ass job on all their different ideas.

What should you do instead?

Do the ‘Law of 100’ Challenge. Pick one idea and stick to it for 100 days. For example, send 100 emails, write 100 blog posts, make 100 offers etc. What you will find out is that you will learn a lot more about it. If your customers did not like that idea, great, now you can figure out something that they do like.

The most successful entrepreneurs focus on one thing (usually something they are good at). They employ people to do things they are not good at. When they find success in one thing, they double down on it. Keep doubling down on the things that make money and kill the things that cost you money or resources.

3. They Sell to Everyone but Their Network

A person who is going to go unnamed, I’ll call him Vernon, created a landing page plus he ran ads to that landing page, selling some product that he didn’t really care about, and guess what? No one bought it.

So why do people fall for this mistake?

They are afraid to sell to their network because they do not want to get rejected and they do not want to be judged by their friends and family.

Then, when you are selling unanimously to strangers behind ads or Reddit or blog post, there’s no accountability so you can do it without ever having to fail because you’re like, “Well, it’s okay. I don’t know these people.” And so, how does it end? You do not make any sales.

Think about this. Why aren’t you going to the people who want to help you first?

4. They Spend Over $1000 Dollars in Starting a Business and Still Have $0 Dollars Revenue

Logos, business cards, paperwork, services, whatever it is. So, there is a girl who emailed me recently and she said, “I want to build this equestrian app,” which is awesome. I really like horse riding.

I said, “Well, how is it going and where are you at with it?” And she said, “Well, I need a developer. I’m spending about $150,000 to build the app and then I’m going to launch it hopefully maybe 6 to 12 months.”

If they are trying to start this business, they should go find people who are equestrians and see if they can help him out first and then build an app to support it.

For her, I would recommend ‘customer first’. You have got to find the Minimum Viable Customer - what is the cheapest product you can build to demonstrate your solution to customers? A goal that you should be having for yourself is to get three customers in 48 hours.

5. Blaming the Economy

So many people have said, “I couldn’t get a job in 2008 because the economy crashed. My company got ruined and we had to shut everything down because of corona virus…”

What that really means is that you have created something not valuable enough. Period.

So, take ownership of the things you are working on and the things you are trying to create and figure, “Am I important enough?” Ask yourself, if you went away from the business you are working on, would you customers care? Would they notice? Would they be upset? And if they would not be, you are not working on something important enough.

6. They Buy Too Many Courses and Invest in Too Many Masterminds

Years ago, someone came up to me and they are like, “Monica, I bought so many deals and so many courses.” And I asked him, I said, “How much money are you making? How is your business?” You know the answer.

So why do people fall for this mistake?

The reason they fall for this mistake is they feel like they need more. Like once they get enough, “I’m ready to start.” It keeps them from having to do any of the hard work.

So, what should you do instead?

You should time out on buying more courses. Time out on consuming content and you should reward yourself only with the course once you have gotten some customers. And start today.

7. They Give Up Way Too Soon

I remember giving up too soon on my very first niche website. It was a tiny website with just a few articles promoting one product. After weeks of creating the site I did not sell one single unit. So, I thought “Ah, I’m a failure!” And the same with YouTube, I made a few videos, but no one was watching them. And so, I was like, “Ah, I’m going to stop doing this.” And suddenly both were working.

Why do people fall for this mistake?

It is that we are impatient by nature. And sometimes, success is boring. Sometimes I know that we are being successful when things get boring. And you get discouraged because you are not meeting your goals. You set this goal and you are not meeting it, so you are like, “Well, I guess it is a failure.”

8. They Do Not Use Their Day Job as an Investor

I know you read these stories, “Quit your job! Just go for it!” But all the companies I started, I had day jobs or consulting projects. Only when those projects, they were ‘projects’ not businesses, started showing that they were going to make a thousand a month that I felt comfortable quitting.

Too many people are quitting and just going for it when they do not really have to.

So why do people fall for this mistake?

They hate their day jobs. I know about hating day jobs. And they feel like their nights and weekends or their mornings or afternoons are not enough. So how does it end? You basically play it safe, or you quit and you burnout, and you just go right back to that day job.

So, what should you do instead?

1. Remind yourself WHY you would want to do a side hustle. Like, “I want to do this so that I can have more time with my kids”. “I want to do this so I can travel.” “I want to do this, so I do not have to wake up to an alarm.”

2. Get a little better at time management and think about how you are using your time productively. We all have the same 24 hours of pie to use each day of our life. And how are you choosing to use it? Some people are using it better than others.

3. Start looking for opportunities that will give you flexibility to reschedule. With my first business I was consulting. I did not have to be in the office. I went once a week. And so, it gave me all the flexibility to have my time for me.

9. They Chase Opportunities Because They Saw it on YouTube (or wherever) Instead of Focusing on Their Own Problem or Situation

They think that “Oh, I’m going to make money because it’s crypto or Shopify or it is content creation” or whatever it is. And the reality is that every single one of them at the end of the day is a career. It is going to take you a lot longer than you think. And so how does it end? You are going to give up probably if it is gets hard. I know because I have done it too. You are not going to make money as quickly as you think.

So, what should you do instead?

Learn from these other people. So, if they are talking about drop shipping, they are talking about affiliate, it is okay to learn and say, “What are the pieces I can cherry pick from that?” But really take a step back and realize that the “get rich quick” schemes do not really work.

10. They Do Not Follow Advice

Even if a first-time entrepreneur finds an experienced, successful mentor they too often do not follow advice.

Here are some typical mistakes:

• They think it is going to be easy
• They are in love with the IDEA of being an entrepreneur
• They are NOT in love with being a hard-working business builder
• They try to do everything themselves
• They will not invest money
• They do not find a mentor
• They do not stick to the thing they are best at
• They do not double down on the things that are successful
• They chase money not personal fulfilment
• They give up too soon, often just before they would successful
• They undervalue the importance of networking
• They do not help people or focusing on customer service and solving people’s problems
• They sell their products or services too cheap
• They do not have a business plan or business model
• They do not plan to be able to scale
• They do not know their customers’ pain points and aspirations
•  They blame themselves for failure…

Lastly, they do not look after their health and soon lose the energy they need.

I know this has been a lot so let me recap all the different stories to help you on your business. But let me give you 7 things to take away in your mind to help you increase the chances of your success in your business journey.

7 Things to Increase the Chances of Business Success

1. Law of 100. Stick with your idea for at least 100 days. Make 100 videos, send 100 emails, whatever it is. Get to at least 100 and keep improving on it and then you can make the decision whether you want to quit or not.

2. Do the 10% OFF challenge. Getting over your fear of getting customers with the 10% OFF challenge is extremely helpful. The ‘ask’ muscle is really all business is. Can I have money for this service? And if you can get good at getting rejected, realizing it is okay, asking for referrals, moving on, the higher chances you have of being successful.

3. Minimum Viable Customer. If you can get customers before you build products, you are going to be successful in any type of business you are ever going to work on. You can text people, email people, hand out leaflets. Go and get customers first and then ideas are kind of secondary.

4. Start Today. Literally, right now. Do not wait for next week.

5. No More Courses or Books. Time out. Do not commit. I know you are thinking, “I’m going to watch more videos because that’s finally going to give me the ultimate answer.” I know when I used to read books and watch videos and buy courses, I would think the answer was going to be in there. It never is.

6. Use Your Day Job as Your Lead Investor. If you are out there and you don’t have a foundation, if you don’t have oxygen to actually run your business and you’re like always kind of panicking, it’s going to be hard to be really successful. Use the security of your day job to fund your dreams.

7. Scratch Your Own Itch. I mean, if you are only going to live once on this little planet, circling around the sun, you might as well have some fun. And if you can solve a problem, at least you are going to have one customer you know that is going to be excited about what you have got to sell... you. Seriously, if you solve a problem you have you can bet that other people have experienced the same problem and will pay for the solution.

I wish you every success,
Monica Gregg.