Starting a new business is always a challenge when you are an entrepreneur. Do you like to know the 5 biggest mistakes I made during the first 100 days? I’m sure that it could be really helpful if you are able to avoid it. Let’s go:
THE 5 BIGGEST MISTAKES:
When I realized that Freenancial Exposed had reached the first 100 days, I decided to take some time to think about the hits and the mistakes I made. I suppose that, for someone starting his online business, it’s going to be more helpful to talk about the mistakes and the way I could have done better. These are, in headlines, the five biggest mistakes that we’re are going to talk about in deep, later.
- STARTING TOO BIG FROM DAY 1.
- NOT HAVING A MKT AND COMMUNICATION PLAN.
- FOLLOWING GURU’S ADVICE (OR TRYING TO).
- BEING IN TOO MANY SOCIAL NETWORKS.
- THINKING IT WAS GOING TO BE EASIER WITH YOU.
- CONCLUSION.
A. STARTING TOO BIG FROM DAY 1.
When you design your idea for your online business you should think big. Of course. By the way, here you have how can you do exactly this: How to start your business from scratch
But when you decide to start the business that you design in your mind, you want to start small and grow steadily. I thought I was doing that way, but I wasn’t. Even after I keep many ideas for the next updates, I released a version with too many things for the resources that I actually had.
I started the blog, the book club, the monthly reports, the social networks, the youtube channel, even the podcast from day 1. That’s too much!! Then I decided to start the podcast only when I’d reach 100 subscribers. I also delayed the youtube channel for a bit later. And it was good because it gave me some time and energy for the rest of the project, but probably it was still too much. And once you do that, it’s very difficult to go back. By the way, if you want to motivate me to start the podcast, you only have to subscribe to it here: Freenancial Exposed Podcast.
I should have started probably just with a landing page. Building a list of early interested people. After that, the blog. Opening a new tab in the menu. And so on. Please, if your resources are limited, start from the smallest piece of business you can manage with ease.
B. NOT HAVING A MKT AND COMMUNICATION PLAN.
This is probably the biggest mistake of the whole five. But the problem is not that I didn’t have a plan, it’s that I thought I had it. You notice the huge difference when a professional shows you the difference. Only when you stop trying to do it by yourself, checking web sites and old books, and you get the help from a specialist, you realize that you didn’t have a clue about how to do it properly.
I am a man of action. I usually learn by doing, as with Freenancial Exposed. I don’t really believe in business plans, and I thought that an MKT and Communication Plan could be interesting but not crucial. I was wrong!!. One more time: I was wrong! MKT and Communication are totally key.
It’s true that our principles say that we’re not investing money. But there are many other possibilities to get the help of someone in the MKT area that could help you. I made an agreement with an expert (that you are probably going to meet in our future podcast) based on the success of Freenancial Exposed. He believes in the project’s success, and that’s is going to be true because his help is going to be key to make the project succeed.
Please, never start a project without an MKT and Communication strategy. You’ll have to get it as soon as you realize your mistake. That’s going to make you change a lot of things and lose a lot of time.
C. FOLLOWING GURU’S ADVICE (OR TRYING TO).
When you start something new, you always try to follow some other’s advice. When in real life, usually you follow people whose results stand out. But in the online world, many times you follow people who seem they have great results, but sometimes is just smoke or marketing. There are some “gurus” that tell you they have (and they can sell it to you) the secret to making your business grow fast and easy. They show you great results from their companies, but this is not enough. Why? Because sometimes those results are not real. And when they are real, they are not easily exportable to your project.
I’ll try to follow many gurus advice these first 100 days. 99% of them didn’t work. Strategies to outreaching, backlinking… many others, it simply didn’t work. And it’s not because of me (or at least not always). As you can see in this article, there are strategies that only have possibilities to work if you have the situation in which you probably don’t need to use it, because you are already big enough. One trick to create a catchy article title.
Don't expand beyond your possibilities Share on XD. BEING IN TOO MANY SOCIAL NETWORKS.
Whoever takes a lot of space, the less he tightens up! This is totally true. When I was younger I used to play the Videogame Civilization in one of its first versions. In that game, when you start to create your empire and you try to conquer too much land before you had a big army to defend it, there is a pop up helping you with this phrase: “Don’t expand beyond your possibilities”. Since that moment, I had that tip as personal advice, but I forgot when a was creating the social networks strategy 😛
The day after I started Freenancial Exposed, I had already created those accounts:
That’s too much when I started. I realized that I couldn’t manage and that’s a bad image when someone interested goes there to visit it. Probably it could be right in a few months, but at the start, I should have started only with twitter and facebook. I suggest you think about one or two social networks that you think are the best for your business, and you stick to them and spread your message only through them.
E. THINKING IT WAS GOING TO BE EASIER WITH YOU.
Yes, before you start your project, you listen and read many times “it’s going to be hard. It’s going to take time”. But if you consider that your idea is good enough, and you have all your endorphins pushing you from inside, you may think: “With me, it’s going to be different”. But I have to tell you, usually, it’s not.
Project in your mind that it’s going to be easy. And be proactive and motivated with that idea in mind. But be ready if things go slower or harder than you know. That is not an exception. On the contrary, that is the usual thing that happens. An idea or a plan is just that, a projection. You have to be flexible and patient. Your ability to manage bad days is going to be key to the success of the project. And the success of the project is giving you the financial freedom that you are looking for.
F. CONCLUSION.
It’s true that sometimes you need to experience the mistakes in order to learn. But I prefer to be ready even if I have decided to go through them. Of course, there were many things I did right those first 100 days. It’s important that you pay attention to the things that are hardest to go back if you make a mistake, for example, the election of the hosting. It’s something you do early in your online business and you don’t want to be wrong. I wrote this article that can help you to make a decision about it: Hostgator Review (2019). Why we chose them instead of Bluehost. If you need more help, don’t hesitate to ask me for it.
DID YOU MAKE ANY BIG MISTAKE IN YOUR FIRST 100 DAYS OF YOUR CHALLENGE TO GET PASSIVE INCOME? Tell me!
And remember that you can join our community of “freenancers”. Register to the Freenancial Exposed Newsletter here.
Luis Gil.
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