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The 3 Biggest Mistakes I Made Starting My Online Business

Posted By Ngahuia Galligan 1st of March 2017 Blogging for Dollars 0 Comments

3 biggest business mistakes

Setting out by yourself to start a business can be an exciting and also scary time. Whatever your reason for needing to go solo and make it on your own, what follows is usually a messy experiment of failures and successes than eventually (hopefully) becomes a business you can be proud of, or the makings of an entrepreneur who’s not afraid to give anything a go.

It can be even scarier when most of what you do is online for everyone to see (or not, as is the case with my third business mistake below). The sheer volume of opportunities we have to access clients, suppliers, collaborators and solutions online is unprecedented, to the extent that even a stay at home mum can start a business in her pyjamas and eventually offer her husband a job.

However, despite eventually succeeding in my ventures, most of my mistakes had nothing to do with the online realm at all. It can be easy to think online business is easier, but it still needs you to focus on all the hallmarks required of any traditional business. Here’s where I fell down, so you can hopefully avoid the same pitfalls.

1. Not Keeping My Finances in Check

My ‘business’ started out fairly slowly with revenue trickling in from here and there. I did have the foresight to set up as a Sole Trader (a simple Australian business structure), but I didn’t set up a separate bank account because as a sole trader I would be taxed at the same rate as an individual. So all my revenue earned went into my personal account and was spent as personal income.

My big mistake was not considering the implication of no longer having income tax withheld from my earnings. When you’re employed, your employer does that for you and passes the tax onto the government. When you’re a sole trader, you need to do that yourself, preferably on a regular basis ie each quarter. I learned the hard way, getting landed with an $11,000 tax bill at the end of my first financial year.

To make things even more difficult, I wasn’t really keeping effective financial records, so submitting my tax return was painful and eventually resulted in many tears and a visit to an accountant. My accountant set me on the right track, helped me get set up with an accounting system, a business bank account, and the correct business structure. They also empowered me to learn how to manage and understand my own accounts and tax obligations. You may want to delegate these to a bookkeeper and/or your accountant, but I thoroughly recommend learning to understand how your finances work in your own business first.

2. Working with the Wrong People

I think this is a pretty common mistake. When we first start out we eagerly take business that comes our way, usually for the wrong reasons – they’re a friend, they were referred by a friend, we need the money, we tell ourselves we need the experience – even if they’re not quite the right fit.

I’ve taken on clients and then realised I should have done more homework. I would have recognised that I couldn’t actually help them. I’ve worked with clients who have said they want one thing and then after it was delivered, moved the goalposts – like to another playing field!

It’s the same with people who you contract or sub-contract to – your judgement can be easily clouded, but when it really matters, the mismatch in expectations or skill will become painfully clear.

The best ways to avoid these mistakes is to:

  • have a very clear expectation of what you want in a client and/or contractor
  • do your homework and make sure they actually fit the brief. Ask for examples of work from a potential contractor, or at least do a trial run.
  • ensure expectations are clearly understood – do they understand what you’ll be doing for them and what they’ll be doing for you?
  • be super vigilant with the above if considering working with friends or family

3. Lacking Self Confidence

Deciding to jump the fence from being an influencer to working with influencers was a big step for me. There was some definite imposter syndrome going on, and as such I ended up spending too much time worrying about branding and business cards (which is important to help you stand out) and not enough time creating content and promoting myself. I felt like I had to hide behind some pretty fancy business cards that cost me $900 (wow, that hurts to admit that!) and remembered crying when my toddler destroyed $30 worth of business cards in the blink of an eye!

I have always identified as the experimenter, not the expert. I’m a terrible self-promoter and I worry about what people would think if I ever wrote an opinion piece, hence why finding blog posts authored by yours truly is like searching for hens teeth. Not the best strategy if you want to be found online!

Last week Darren introduced you to Robert Gerrish of Flying Solo in a podcast interview about how to overcome the challenges of being a solo entrepreneur. I’ve been going through his Soloism course and came across this very frank observation:

Being a soloist demands that you are prepared to stand up, stand out and get noticed. It also demands that you stand for something, have opinions and can talk powerfully and passionately about what you do, who for, why and how. This is stepping into the expert’s space – standing under the spotlight.

Are you ready to stand under that spotlight? I wish I had realised that positioning yourself as an expert is not about he or she who shouts loudest. Any confidence (even the quiet kind) can help you create content and opportunities that will allow the right people to find you and work with you. It’s something I’m still learning to do so that I can continue to grow into the entrepreneur who’s not afraid to give anything a go.

Soloism ‘Work Your Way’

Solosim would have helped me to avoid most of my business mistakes, except maybe the tax one – there’s no specific advice on that, and is best pursued with your relevant local authorities. When you go it alone you don’t have to be truly alone – there are great communities like ours and Flying Solo to draw from, and the Solosim ‘Work your way course can help you at whatever stage you’re in with your solo business.

With over 80 videos and supported by exercises, worksheets and online discussion, Work your way is the most comprehensive course of its kind anywhere. The modules help you to attract more dream clients. Fire clients. Find a mentor. Coach yourself. Work faster. Work slower. Work healthily. Charge more. Smile more. Expand. Contract. Enter new markets. Design your office. Design your week. Design your exit.

I’m looking forward to the next stage of my own entrepreneurial venture, as it is ever changing and exciting. I’ll see you on the other side of this module on ‘Rejuvenating and Refreshing’!

Soloism Rejevenating and Refreshing

ProBlogger is an affiliate partner of Soloism who is offering a 20% discount off the Work your way course. We earn a small commission if you purchase Soloism but we offer our genuine recommendation for it and the Robert’s teaching.

About Ngahuia Galligan
Ngahuia Galligan is General Manager of ProBlogger and the founder and director of Harness, business systems improvement. When she’s not helping people sort out thier business systems (or on Slack with the PB team), you’ll find her on the roller derby track or spinning a hula hoop.
Comments
  1. Finances are always interesting. Just when I think I have it all together, one more challenge comes along. Good article!

    • Laney Galligan says: 03/01/2017 at 6:45 pm

      Yep, from making mistakes when reconciling, to sending my tax payments to the wrong account (yes, I did that!), finances feel like a bit of a minefield. Always something to learn.

      • Yes too true and I’d love to see this topic covered at Problogger Event.
        Bookkeeping Xero maybe and Tax, how to register business name what structure that’s best for blogging/business. Too be truthful I’m feeling daunted by all this!! It makes me ill just thinking about it.

  2. Quite interesting but I made similar mistakes myself too. The worst thing of those you mentioned is working with wrong people, probably because they just want to take the money from you and unfortunately giving very little in return. Thank you for providing useful tips how to avoid those mistakes.

  3. Man, those are some hard lessons … the tax one is something almost every entrepreneur goes through at some point!

  4. Hi Laney,

    Nice to see one of your articles on the blog again!

    There is a lot of buzz on the internet about how we need to be (or perceived at least) as innovators, disrupters, thought leaders or influencers.
    I certainly understand that feeling of imposter syndrome. There is no harm in being quietly confident and as achievers in what we set out to do.

    Darren some time ago expressed this rather elegantly. We don’t need to be super star experts, we can be helpful and serve those who are not as far ahead on the journey as ourselves.

    Personally I felt much better about what I do to serve others after reading that point.

    I do see we can get better with obtaining the right clients and the best people to work with. Unfortunately that sometimes only happens through trial and error.

    Thanks for a great article with 3 fantastic insights.

    • Laney Galligan says: 03/01/2017 at 6:41 pm

      Thanks Jason – yeah, we can’t all be superstars! I think all business is basically trial and error – it’s ok to make mistakes, not so much if you don’t learn from them.

  5. Hi Laney,

    The cool thing; as I developed self-confidence I reached out to others, made friends and my solopreneur journey became a joint venture all the way.

    Example; after checking my email today 3 guest post opportunities waited for me in my inbox. If I tried to go purely solo – as I did in the past – and closed Blogging From Paradise to guest post opps I’d turn away heavy traffic, strong friendships and an opportunity to spread love and make powerful connections. But I learned my lesson: guest posts open and everything keeps growing all because I had the self-confidence to reach out, make friends, help folks and open my blog to prospering guest posting partnerships.

    Few see blogging as an inside out game. But it is. All actions we take root themselves in our attitude, our energy, our vibe. If you blog with love predominantly – versus blogging mainly from fear – you will vibe high, avoid a litany of online business errors and promote your success freely over the long haul.

    Thanks for the awesome post.

    Ryan

    • Laney Galligan says: 03/01/2017 at 6:40 pm

      Great to see guest posting working so well for you Ryan. Thanks for the awesome comment!

  6. Amazing post……. your article is really informative and helpful for me and others too because often we do these mistakes while we start our business. Really you have described everything in descriptive, simply yet effective too. I would say you’ve done a great job.
    Thanks for sharing this precious article with us.

  7. Interesting things….These will be helping me in future to avoid working with wrong people.

    • Laney Galligan says: 03/01/2017 at 6:38 pm

      I hope you attract the people you’re looking for. Best of luck.

    • Agreed with Razzak. It’s the #3 in your list is currently I am dealing with.
      Thank you for an informative blog post.

  8. Hey Laney,

    Glad to read your wonderful experience regarding this subject. We know very well, self confidence is very essential for our healthy business because it encourages in positive path. Eventually, thanks for sharing your best ideology with us.

    With best wishes,

    Amar kumar

  9. Hello Laney,

    Very nicely written article.

    Finances are to be managed by the right people, one can be an entrepreneur but he has to have the right people helping him to be successful. You cannot expect everyone to be an expert in all the fields that an online business needs to survive.

    I hire CPAs, Attorneys, marketing officers, business development offices, accountants and many other domain experts to run my business.

    Thanks for a good read.

  10. Working with the Wrong People is the biggest mistake, I would rather work alone than work with them.

  11. Hey Laney, I too made some big mistakes while starting online business I did business with my best friend and I lost 20000$ in that. Also I didnt keep check on my finances too. So whenever you are starting out online business remember never do business with best friends without proper legal contracts. This will save your money & friendship too :)

  12. Your experience will open eyes for many. It is so nice of you that you took the time out to share your understanding.

  13. Hello,

    It is so nice of you that you took the time out to explain about your experience. it’ll help lot of people.

    Thanks for sharing!!!

  14. Thanks Laney! I’ve been in my own business (different ones mind you) for 40 years. I agree those 3 mistakes you outline are probably the most common and the fall out from making any one of them could signal the end of the business. My biggest mistake was in going into partnerships before finally having the confidence to go solo!

  15. I often speak to a lot of small business owners who get into difficulties with statutory tax filings and late filing penalties. Sometimes this can be due to a change of address and non receipt of notices through the mail but at the end of the day the tax man is less forgiving.

    Whatever route you take with your finances and the recording of income and expenditure (bookkeeping in simple terms) it is always wise to engage an accountant to at least help with the company filings.

  16. Hey Laney,

    Appreciate the initiative you took and very much interesting. :-)

    Cannot deny of the points you focused on as everyone does the same mistakes at initial stages of starting up a business.

    We too had some issues while we were beginning (as it is said, strive for progress not perfection), our focus was on perfection but we were wrong.

    Agree with you on financial stats as well.

    Thanks for sharing our heart out. :-p

  17. Wow! I pretty understand when it comes to finances. Separating personal from business is important but also keeping a clean record of the finances. I learnt this the hard way!

    Thanks for informative post!
    -Mategyero

  18. Hi Laney,

    Quite intrested topic & Nice to see one of your articles on the blog again!

  19. Technology Data Services says: 06/28/2017 at 4:46 pm

    Hello,

    Your experience will open eyes for many of us. It is so nice of you that you took the time out to share your understanding.

  20. Daisy Nosh says: 07/05/2017 at 2:59 pm

    Wow..!!

    Pretty good one. Just an enlightening post
    Thanks for sharing this

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