The top 7 mistakes entrepreneurs / consultants / freelancers make…

2020 has surely been a year of surprises for everyone. For few, it has been a nightmare, for few others, it’s been business as usual and for few, it’s been the greatest breakthrough.

As a consultant, I’ve had my share of learning. And then, interacting with so many entrepreneurs and freelancers out there, I think we have something in common… and we all can learn from it.

Here I list the top 7mistakes entrepreneurs, consultants and freelancers make… no matter what scale are the operating at.

1. Expecting return of favor. Don’t offer anything for free. And if you offer, don’t expect anything in return. You may think that you will get them buy your product/service and support you when you need it the most — but I promise you, Free only attracts cheap. Choose your clients smartly, aggressively, intelligently. The quality of your client will determine the magnitude of your success.
2. Expecting appreciation in equal proportion of your effort. Well, you built the company. You worked 20 hours a day. You got the best raw material/machinery/qualification/design. You placed it right and marketed it everywhere. You hired the best people. That’s ok. That’s what you did. No one asked you to do it. And now to expect that they should buy your cake/consulting/car polishing/cleaning service is… stupid.
3. Expecting the revenue and growth to be in equal proportion of your marketing budget. Well, you might have mastered SEOs and you are everywhere on the digital space. But then, spending brilliantly on an average product cannot get you too far. Make better products. Period.
4. Expecting that a good product is enough for success. Well, you might have the best product in town, if the world doesn’t know about it… go home. You succeed when your story/idea/ of product or service spread. So, go and learn marketing [art of spreading ideas].
5. You Can’t Sell If No One Is Listening. Stop fooling yourself. If you’re not in front of the economic buyers — whether existing ones, past ones, or new ones — you are not selling and hence, you are not moving forward. No amount of blogging, newsletters, software sophistication, collaboration, or education is going to change that. This is so simple and yet, so many of us completely ignore it.
6. Listening to everyone. Keep it simple here. If they’re so smart, why aren’t they running your company? I bet your mother-in-law and the banker friend doesn’t have much to share. It’s important that you cover your downside, add up to your desire, remember why you started, reflect on what you want to change, zoom in on who you want to focus first… and then just do it.
7. Missing the measuring part. If you have delayed measuring ROI for next year, you can surely delay your success for another few years. Alternatively, test and measure relentlessly. Learn every day. Scale what works. Discard what doesn’t. Repeat. Daily.

So — where are you going wrong?

Go… Change the world!