By : Starting a home based business is your first step to independence. Your first online business should be the best as they say that the First impression is the best impression. So, you should always care for what does matter for your venture. Avoiding mistakes that could keep you on a safe side so that you could concentrate on the next step to your goal rather than correcting the mistakes. Here are seven common mistakes that almost all the businesses tend to make. Try to avoid these 7 mistakes when starting your home business.
7 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Home Business
1) Don’t take too long to launch your product
I know starting a business needs preparation, market analysis and customer graph recognition. But, what if all that analysis ate your time up and meanwhile someone else launched a similar product?
Be quick at your decisions and prelaunch preparations. You might think of launching the product after your blog reaches a said 1 lakh reader or say 1000 subscribers. But, that way you are killing your consumer expectations and their by cannibalizing your own leads. What about launching a product and then letting the product do wonders and give you your 1000 subscribers? The latter is a fantastic idea.
2) Get a life!
Yes, working from home gives you the freedom to work at any time and for any time you want. There is no boss or that schedule hanging down the boring wall. But, spending too much time in your business will eventually lead to fatigue and you will get tired soon. Sitting for too long affects your health. Read this detailed post on harmful effects of sitting.
Moreover, if you force your employees (if any!) to work day night you are ruining their creativity and thus hurting your business goals.
Try spending some time with family. Don’t sit for a long time. Go for a walk; spend some time with friends laughing out your problems. This will rejuvenate you and next day you can give your best 100% to your work.
3) Don’t take interruptions for granted
Okay, you have kicked your boss out of your life and are now the master of your own destiny. It is also understandable that every now and then you take a walk to the kitchen for a sip of your coffee or a small piece of pizza. That’s okay, but, if you allow too much freedom for yourself then it will surely hit your productivity.
It is extremely necessary for you to maintain strict schedule. Try staying away from the common din of the house. Your bedroom can never be your best workplace so have a separate area for that. Do not get disturbed when a aunty or a neighbor visits your house. During your work hours its only work that should rule your head not anything else.
4) Assuming banks are eager to give you loans
Yes, every new business needs money and for that banks are the only place for getting monetary help as a form of loans. But due t the increasing incidences of failures in case of new businesses, banks are reluctant to provide loans for startups. Some banks (mainly community banks) however allow loans in exchange of some collateral equities like house or land.
Make sure how much investment your business demands. Then check if you have similar amount of collateral resources that can act as a mortgage in case of loans. Also check if you have chances of failures. It is always intelligent to prepare for your worst case. Imagine your business fails and the bank snatches your only home that you signed as collateral. Now what? So, it is advisable to keep back up plans.
5) Funding / Investments
Yes, every new business needs money and for that banks are the only place for getting monetary help as a form of loans. But due to the increasing incidences of failures in case of new businesses, banks are reluctant to provide loans for startups. Some banks (mainly community banks) however allow loans in exchange of some collateral equities like house or land. Take a while to read through reviews online and find the best option for your business. Sometimes one company’s review is all you need to know if a loan is the right option for you.
6) Hiring the wrong people
If you are going to launch a home business chances are you need correspondents or virtual assistants who would help you to do your work properly. While dividing work is a good option what about choosing the wrong people? If you are not vigilant while hiring an assistant you might end up miserably.
Check the portfolio of your assistant. If he has worked for others previously, there is no harm in getting in contact with those firms to enquire his rapport.
7) Thinking buyers will come to you by their knees
This is an idea that can ruin all your efforts and still most home based businesses make this mistake. Even the bigger multinational companies make proper marketing strategies before launching their products. So it is advisable to to make a social strategy as well. Making separate social pages for your product is the first step in this process. You can also conduct a press release if you think your product is worthy of it.
Try advertising from a social network, this works wonders. Target you audiences. Facebook ads allow you to target people based on region, age group and much more. Try leveraging it.
Be active on a social media platform that already has your potential customers. Suppose you are starting an online gift card store or a flower store, Pinterest will be your social network to focus. This is because Pinterest has potential customers that lke those products of arts and crafts (but not limited to that!). Pinterest has the best chances of attracting a customer by the power of visuals.
Over to you,
So, these were the most common mistakes to avoid when starting a home business. This way you should be able to properly launch your business and then concentrate on taking it further.
Author Bio:
Mohd Arif is a digital marketer and professional blogger from India. He writes about many topics including blogging, technology, software, etc. He runs several blogs in a different niche, and his main blog is Techlazy.
