My top 3 business mistakes and why you should avoid them!

Whenever I think of some of the mistakes I’ve made in business so far, I laugh! Not exactly the funniest of jokes, but I often wonder what was going through my head in those times. Despite that, I’ve come to realise how inevitable it is to make mistakes in business especially if you’re new to business. It’s how we learn isn’t it? That said, avoid costly mistakes at all costs. Some business mistakes come with huge regrets and I am hoping you don’t make these same mistakes.

Dear Entrepreneur, I’ve got 3 interesting experiences to share with you, so take a seat and let’s hear get into them quickly.

1 – Underpriced, undervalued!

My first gig offered web design & development services, it’s the first business I registered in the United Kingdom. I would get a brief from a client and build them a new WordPress website at a very affordable price. During this time, precisely 2012, I had the opportunity to bid for a contract – to build a new website for a Church in Lagos. I was so excited. It would be my first time submitting a business proposal and I was hopeful for positive news. But it wasn’t so simple putting a first proposal together. I had to describe the services I was offering and it became even more challenging putting prices to my services. I looked and the first draft and thought, “Hmmmm! Looks expensive”, so I reduced the price. After hovering over the document multiple times, I felt so undecided and eventually reduced the price much more. Why? I thought it was best to drop the price to boost my chances of getting the contract. Then I had to wait several months for a response as all I heard back was radio silence. After waiting impatiently, I pushed for updates and eventually got some feedback, but not the news I was hoping for. My proposal had been turned down because the price I quoted in the website proposal seemed too low and unserious. They didn’t think it was possible to build a website at such a low price point, especially in comparison to other service providers who applied for the job. Too bad! It was at that point I learnt a major lesson, “Never underprice yourself out of a potential sale”. Probably a blessing in disguise anyway, as it may have been too much for me to handle, especially at the low price I was looking to charge. 

Lesson – Know your value, know your worth and charge what you deserve! Dropping your prices significantly or offering your services for FREE doesn’t necessarily attract customers. It may be a turn-off as customers hinge value on price.

2 – Verbal promises are not contractual

My first argument with a customer was the last one I had, thankfully it’s over a decade ago now. This happened many years ago and it was down to my own carelessness, I hadn’t documented the agreement. It didn’t seem necessary to make a clear list of deliverables and timelines for my customer to sign-off before building their new website. Weeks after, here I was chasing for a verbally agreed deposit payment which was due 3 weeks ago. Unfortunately, nothing there was no signed agreement. I found myself in a continuum of ringing the customer, but landing on their voicemail message. Eventually they picked up, but it wasn’t the best of news. It got super-frustrating when the client informed me there were some additional web pages that were needed, only after agreeing to these terms would I get my deposit payment. While I was 100% sure this was not part of the agreement, I had nothing documented for reference. After a lot of back and forth, we came to a reasonable agreement and I ensured I got it all signed. It cost me more time, and a lot of friction with the customer. Looking back now, it was definitely very careless of me not to get written agreement from the customer from the beginning of the project.

Lesson – Verbal promises are never the same as documented agreements. Protect you and the customer by putting agreements in writing. It removes conflict from the equation, brings transparency in to your business engagements, sets correct expectations and gives you something of reference. 

3 – Trying to do it all by yourself

It’s understandable to wear multiple hats when you start a new business, after all, you may not initially have the funds to hire anyone, let alone build a small team. This was my situation in 2011, but the mistake I made was stretching this too far many years after. I really thought I could continue to do it all by myself until it started to really wear me out. I wore held the role of developer for the business, and deprived myself of sleep a lot. During a specific season, my average sleeping time was 2.00am. Bad idea! I would wake up a few hours later to continue my work, only to repeat the cycle later at night. Asides being Mr Developer, I was also Mr Accountant, Mr Sales & Marketing, My Customer Service and so much more. When you’re serving a few customers, these don’t matter so much but it will start to impact your health if you’re not careful. I didn’t realise how my health was being affected until I started noticing changes in my behaviour – my sense of judgement was getting weak. Can you see why you need to prioritise your health and wellbeing?

Lesson – You need to stay healthy. If you don’t look after yourself, you’re going to struggle to run the business anyway. It’s fine if you’re a one-man-band running your own show in business, but once you start growing/scaling, start considering building a team you can start to delegate responsibilities to. You can’t do it all by yourself especially if you want to grow your business.

But you know what, business is a rewarding journey, not just financially, but in so many ways too. Business teaches you many things and it can be a very enjoyable journey especially if you’ve built your business around something you love.

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you got the message across my business lessons

By the way, what mistakes have you made in business? Please share in the comments below.