Opening a business is the American dream, and it can be quite a rewarding experience. That said, most businesses fail within the first 5 years, meaning that owning a business remains a dream for many people.
In order to avoid failing at your business, consider the following small business mistakes:
Ignoring Social Media
It doesn’t matter what you’re selling, social media is a golden advertising opportunity. Everyone from teens to grandma’s use Facebook. By creating a social media page, you can create “status” updates about your products and services and have them show up on your “friends” news feed. This is a free and easy way to advertise for your business.
If you want to take your social media ads to the next level, set up a premium account which allows you to automatically post status updates, enabling you to keep your customer’s informed without taking time to manually create posts.
Considering Your Target Audience
Effective advertising means more than just creating a commercial and putting out there for the world to see.You need to consider your target demographics before creating a commercial in order to determine what your audience wants.
For example, you wouldn’t advertise adult diapers with Justin Bieber songs because you’re not trying to advertise to tweens, you’re trying to advertise to older adults.
You also need to take into account the medium you are using; younger people tend to be more receptive to internet commercials, whereas many older people can be better reached by traditional mediums such as television or radio advertising.
Not Having Enough Capital to Start
Everyone knows that starting a small business is expensive, but most people only raise enough capital to cover basic business expenses such as rent, products and utilities. While this is enough to start a business, it doesn’t take into account tertiary costs-like emergency price increases or negative market fluctuations.
You may also run into production emergencies or even storage issues. You may think you have anticipated everything, but in reality there is always an issue waiting to surprise you, which is why you need extra capital to ensure you can deal with emergencies.
Working Too Hard
There’s a lot to starting a business; you need to be the CEO, advertising manager and customer service department. This can be overwhelming and take up a lot of your time. In fact, it can take up all of your time. This can not only cause your business to suffer, it can cause you to have a nervous breakdown; everyone needs a break now and then.
Be sure to delegate some work to avoid burning yourself out.
Not Having a Plan
It may have been your life long dream to open a business, so when you finally make the decision to do so, it’s going to be exciting-but don’t let the excitement take over. You can’t just jump into opening a business. You need to take time to make a business plan or your business may not last.
Ignoring Suggestions
You might have a vision of your product or business, but you shouldn’t be ridged about it. Your customers, employees or even family may have a beneficial idea. Sit down and ask them pointed questions, and be sure to engage your customers in meaningful conversations
Tax Filing Mistakes
There are several things that small business owners forget when filing taxes, which can lead to everything from missing out on tax credits to incurring expensive fees. Things such as forgetting personal income taxes, not keeping accurate records and not considering all the taxes you may owe can all harm your business.
This article is written by Westbrook Julian, a writer and editor. She recommends especially start-up businesses to talk to a tax attorney in Miami, Fl or in other US states known for their better understanding of tax implication of various business structures to start off on solid bases.
