hire people and set them up for success<\/a> to delegate that work to them. So an example, in some of the sites that I run is I have a virtual assistant that essentially takes my keyword research and then prepares the article briefs from my writers. And she’s trained on all the different ways to actually prepare these article briefs to set up the writers for success.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd then on the other side of that, the writers are trained to take the article brief and create a meaningful article that’s going to fulfill the search intent for that particular long-tail phrase. So it’s only by creating these repeatable systems that you’re then able to scale beyond yourself and make a bigger impact in whatever it is that you are creating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mistake 4: Not doing enough customer development.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
I got really lucky because with my very first official company, I was actually the target customer previously. So I knew exactly what I was building towards, but I got lucky in that situation. If I were to do it again, I still should have probably done some more customer development because what I ultimately ended up building was very much what I solve for if I were the only target customer without considering that there might be other subtypes of personalities that would still be interested in the service that we were offering at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ultimately, I knew what the key pain points were in terms of what I was solving for, but I didn’t necessarily know the different ways that I could have potentially phrased my pitches to actually cater to the variety of different personalities that would still be in my target customer group but just didn’t reflect the bias of my own individual perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is something that I’ve learned from other entrepreneurs and working for other businesses as well over the years in which the best entrepreneurs will always work in customer development, as they are continuing to improve their product or service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This means spending several hours, every single quarter talking to customers, talking to prospects about what exactly made the difference in terms of why they did upgrade or did not upgrade for a product or service. And then working to incorporate that feedback into the next cycle of development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mistake 5: Not taking enough calculated risks.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Now this is a nuanced point because at that point in time, I had very little money to actually support this new venture. So I had to be really strategic in terms of how I invested my resources. And I also had though a lot of pride. And at that point in time, I was too prideful to actually ask friends or family for assistance in starting my business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In reflecting a little bit more here, what I should have done was leaned on my network, leaned on people that I knew trusted me to try this thing out and get results for them. So I had to little confidence in myself at that point in time to take a bet on myself. And that’s something that I still regret to this day. But I think that that just comes with age as well and experience in which it’s until you actually start to get some successes as an entrepreneur that you will then start to feel confident enough to take bigger swings the next time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Entrepreneurship is a combination of taking the wins and taking the losses and strive. It’s something which you just have to be comfortable taking calculated risks, because if you never take that risk, then you’re never able to actually see the true extent of the potential of the idea that you’re working on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you liked this article, be sure to\u00a0check out my YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0to get new videos every single week. I\u2019ll help take you from zero to self-starter as you grow your business, get more customers, and hone your business acumen. Also, feel free to share this with anybody that you think might benefit from learning the five mistakes I made during my first year as an entrepreneur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n