It’s not failing. You’re growing. They’re not mistakes. They’re lessons.
Here’s 3 mistakes I’ve made already in setting up my own design business - Design For Good Club - so you don’t make them too.
MISTAKE #1
Waiting until you feel ready to start
What do to instead: Feel the fear and do it anyway
I wasn’t going to quit my full-time 9-5 job until I’d built up a healthy and consistent roster of clients. But judging by the amount of unseen versions of my company vision and branding over the years the idea formed, I knew I had to go all in to make this work.
I couldn’t keep making excuses for myself while I remained paralysed by inaction and fear of failing. Of course this route isn’t for everyone, but honestly you’re more resilient and stronger than you realise.
People think I’m a high-risk person. But I’ve had this dream of running my own business since 2018 and this specific business idea since Jan 2021 and it took me another 2 years to then commit. I’m not a risk taker, even if it might look like it to some people. I was waiting for the right moment instead of taking action. The fact is when you feel ready for it, it’s already too late. So here’s to being late to the party, but showing up all guns blazing, dressed to impress and ready to cause some mayhem.
MISTAKE #2
Doing it all by yourself
What do to instead: Get people you trust to help you
It’s easy in the beginning to think you can handle it all alone, just me, myself and I, but the opportunity and time consequences of doing so can be deadly and even more costly from a financial sense in the long run. When it comes to legal stuff and accounting stuff, it’s better to leave this with the experts who know what they’re doing. While I did a law degree at uni and maybe I’d be able to muddle through it, the amount of time you save paying someone else to do the hard work will pay dividends (literally).
In some cases, you might not be able to afford help straight away, but you should work towards delegating those parts of the business as soon as you can, especially parts that don’t make sense based on your own cost per hour. You don’t want to devalue your time as a business owner.
Some quick tips:
Work off referrals from people you know who are also setting up businesses from a similar context
Get a few quotes from service providers to compare fees
Do your own research so you’re coming into the conversations with some knowledge
MISTAKE #3
Trying to do everything everywhere all at once
What do to instead: Prioritise ruthlessly
There are a million things you want to do as a new business owner. You need to generate new leads. You need to create marketing materials. You need your website looking sexy af. You need clients!!!! You need money! You need funding. You need clients!!! You need social media content! You need to sort your taxes! You need to do so much!
But the most important thing you need to do is know what the most important thing right now is.
It might feel a little reactive at first but I think this is the experience of most business owners from the start. You might find out about a funding opportunity that knocks your existing plan for that week to the sidelines, but if you were so rigid in your planning you would miss the opp. So use your unfair advantage as a business that can be nimble and adapt while you’re small.
Wrapping up
If you make a mistake once, it’s a lesson learned. If you make a mistake twice, it’s the start of a pattern. Avoid making these mistakes a pattern by learning from ours.
