Top 13 Mistakes I made in Business (as a startup)

1. Didn’t invest in growth, wanted to gain sales without spending money (biggest mistake - slowed me down a couple of years);
2. Thought I could do it all on my own (because I saw people on the internet that were doing it);
3. Didn’t collaborate with other businesses and viewed them as competitors (I read Guerilla marketing - the book was an eye opener to get out of this bad mindset);
4. Didn’t realize how much good branding can make sales a million times easier;
5. Didn’t open up to others about my mistakes and failures;
6. Didn’t always focus on sales, because I would get comfortable in the place we were in. Which automatically almost results in stagnation and no new clients (not sustainable);
7. Getting comfortable in the first 3 years of the business, instead of getting a bigger momentum rolling (momentum is a lot in business I realized - when done right you’ll be able to pivot quickly when the market demands that of you);
8. Investing in growing momentum (not the same as #1), every time we would get a lot of clients in the beginning it would mean that I had to stop sales and figure out operations. I did it as fast as I could, but it still wasn’t fast enough to not lose momentum. I could have focused more on simpler ways of delegating my operations;
9. Creating an easy access training platform for my employees. This is a huuuuge one, it literally saves me hours of my time nowadays. When I first started I thought just a video would be enough, it’s not. You should treat your employees as if they’d be your clients. Create a killer welcome video, an amazing training platform, great workplace, and a ton of support around the culture of your company. It’ll pay off in time saved for you as the person in charge;
10. I thought content marketing was everything not realizing that it only pays off 1–2 years down the line. Which is why it’s something that you need to do everyday but can’t focus on. UNLESS! you create specific content for your sales team (video testimonials, infographics, proposals, pitch decks, …);
11. I was fooling myself that I was patient, which I wasn’t in the beginning. Which meant that I didn’t create the necessary systems in my business that could provide daily income. In here, I learned that the business should always shape around the personality of the founder. The business shouldn’t consume and change your personality. Now that I’ve created systems for daily income, my patience has become more resilient and more fun.
12. Didn’t realize how much nutrition is important for maintaining energy throughout the day. I gained 8 kg’s in the first year of my startup, because I neglected this part. Granted I was also going through Law school and had several other jobs at the time to pay for my food and tuition.
13. When I exercised I did it with High intensity and low consistency. Big mistake. I’ve had much greater results for health and most of all stress, from small intensity but daily and consistently. Even though it doesn’t contribute greatly to sculpting your body, it does contribute to keeping you healthy, stress free, and sane.