11 Things that You Must Stop Doing to Succeed as an Entrepreneur

11 Things that You Must Stop Doing to Succeed as an Entrepreneur
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Zachary Wheeler

Entrepreneurial success is not easy to bag. It takes as much talent as toil to become a successful entrepreneur. That would have been indubitable if I were writing about it a decade ago. But today, in the year 2016, much as in the year 2006 or 2012, business is much more than toiling day in and day out. It is much more about your image among your clientele as well as your competitors. And it is even more about maintaining and improving that image. Now if you have you have to work hard for that, then we shall call it a game of hard work.

Seriously, what are the odds of every entrepreneur, on the face of the earth, going right about his/her business? Not a bright chance for everyone! Or is it? The truth is that most entrepreneurs make mistakes, which, at least, I am not critical of, but which do spell their doom even before they can break even.

So, here I am, giving away a list of 11 things that entrepreneurs must stop doing in order to succeed.

1. Surviving without a Website

Geekygyaan.com

A survey says that only 51 percent of startups in the United States of America have their websites, which is seriously surprising given how rapidly the world is becoming an online identity itself. In an age which is fit enough to be registered in the annals of anthropological history as the “Google Age”, it is rather blasphemous, not to have a website for your business

The massive mistake that businesses commit here is to think that having a website would not make much of difference since their market is local. But that, my friend, is a myth. Research has it that a whopping 97% of people, even from the local market Google products and service before they spend on them. So, stop thinking that you could survive without one. Look up sites like Weebly, GoDaddy, Foursquare, etc., and get yourself a website.

2. Staying Oblivious of Your Competition

Assets.entrepreneur.com

If you think you are the best, it holds no validity unless your clientele thinks so. Staying oblivious of what your competitors have done, or are doing, is just being complacent; it like thinking that you exist in a vacuum.

When you do pay attention to it, you will learn from example, both the good and the bad ones. You can learn the tactics if they work well for your competitors, but yes, do not forget, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy. Market research is some good basis for determining trends and acting accordingly. You cannot be lagging behind and still bagging success. You do not have to copy, but you must know and react accordingly.

3. Selling Exactly what Others are Selling

elysego.com

So, everyone is selling lemonade and you are doing that too? And you expect people to ditch the guy who has been doing that for 5 years for the lemonade that you are selling? That is simply unfair, and needless to say, not going to happen.

Well, look at it this way; it may work in sense that this is the trade that is thriving the most in a market, you may as well make some fairly good business initially, but what ahead? There are only a few, for e.g., gas stations, that may not ever fail. Bit that is a wrong presumption to make about all businesses.

If you wish to thrive and prosper, you should not be offering what every enterprise around you is offering at the moment. Having that edge is the point in case.

4. Investing More on Social Media than on Your Website

mirikwrites.files.wordpress.com

Well , people of that sort do exist and chance are that you too may be guilty of it. What you are investing in your social media profiles may be way too much as compared to your business website.

This is not to say that you reduce your social media activity to level where your website maintenance efforts exist. It rather implies exactly the opposite. You must invest as great an effort in your website as you do on your social media profiles.

Make a good one-time investment to make your site engaging and user-friendly. Believe you me, it will boost your customer experience drastically.

5. Working on Hunches, without a Written Market Plan

http://www.charlesmuchene.com/

If you are still under that impression that a clearly written out marketing plan is a requisite for a hi-fi business with all the marketing mumbo-jumbo, then you, dear pal, are highly mistaken. The good news is that you are not alone, and the bad news is that all such enterprises are basically spending a lot of time and money in the absence of such a plan. What it helps you in, especially when the time and the finances are limited, is to curtail the expenses that are superfluous. It will tell you exactly how much are the marketing efforts going to cost you.

All you need is couple of hours, a day at the most and there you are on your way to double the chance of succeeding in your marketing strategy.

6. Not Gauging Your Audience

http://manageablemarketing.com/

Well well well, I really should not be telling you this, but you cannot be selling people things they do not need (unless you have the mettle to convince them to buy it). Sometimes your idea of selling a product or service can be so imposing that you may forget to gauge what the customers actually want. And let’s admit, so many of us do it, just like we do it with our children.

Sometimes, our vision is lopsided when it comes to demand. So make sure that you the target clientele that you are to cater to. Don’t go on selling fat-free burgers to farmers. They will care a fig about it.

7. No Marketing at All

Themarketingacademy.com

You surely think I’ve got to be kidding when I tell you this, but it is a truth that could very well be the way you are headed.

It can be pretty tempting but not justified. Your product and services may be world class but the world will not come looking for it. You will have to go exhibiting to the world, and in grand way for that matter.

The best part about marketing is that you need not be an expert to do it. Small little things like local advertising and social media promotion can help you a lot.

8. Not Delivering What You had Promised

ijgolding.com

Okay! The success of an entrepreneur lies as much in delivering the promised deliverable as in promoting those deliverables.

The biggest mistake is to think that much media hype will do you any good if the basis of your business, i.e., your product or service is not what the clients think you offer. The brand promise, as you call it, is the biggest thing that connects you and your customers. Th faith must not go.

So, if you are compromising on delivering quality because you spent too much on marketing your product, mend it and stop following this strategy.

9. Being Uninterested in Follow Up

sharnenterprisesinc.files.wordpress.com

Follow up service, whether through phone, website, or social media should never be given up on. Lead generation comes from this activity majorly.

Calling up prospective clients, offering deals, addressing the grievances of the existing ones, are some gestures that will get you more business. As an entrepreneur, if you are ignoring this aspect, you are doing yourself no good at all.

10. Banking on an SEO Expert who Says, “I will Get You to Page 1 on Google”

http://www.csdesignworks.com

Okay, a lot many SEO experts will say this,and a lot many of us will believe them because we no know zilch about SEO.

Just look at it like this, if every SEO expert would able to get you to the 1st Google SERP in a few months’ time, every business would be there all the time. practically , this is not possible. Your rankings on Google may crawl up drastically but being on page 1 is actually idyllic.

So, go steady and hire an expert who gives you realistic promises.

11. Not Caring about Your Reputation Online

http://runesmedia.com/

“Any publicity is good publicity”. This may not always work. If you are the kind of entrepreneur who does believe in leading a social media campaign, keeping a check on your reputation on these platforms is a must.

What we usually fall for is a fad. Looking at our competitors, we do make social media efforts but we forget to make a constant evaluation of our reputation out there. The point is, that if any negative comments or feedback are left on your profiles, they may do much more harm than the good that 10 good comments would.

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So, it is time you stopped being reluctant, and do some deliberation on your strategies and stop doing things that may have been pulling you back till now.

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