Working for free or being glued to your mailbox all day – these are just two “mistakes” that I have made countless times as an entrepreneur. Rest assured: I still make mistakes regularly. Annoying of course, because you have to pay the price yourself. But in retrospect, it never makes you stupid. And you immediately have food for a new blog! You guessed it: I share 4 mistakes that I have made more than once as an entrepreneur. I will also tell you how I now (usually) handle those things more effectively.
1. Providing work (almost) for free
Especially when I had just started as a freelance copywriter , I already considered it a great honor when people came to me. I responded to every request that I received in my mailbox. If people had “no budget”, I would happily give a huge discount. Well, I thought I should be happy if someone came to me. I also worked on projects for nothing, nada , because the client promised me that a lot of beautiful things would come out of it later. Not so.
Fortunately, I am now a lot more businesslike. I have to be, because my mortgage provider and energy company are unfortunately not lenient when I “don’t have a budget” or “can offer something nice later”. With that thought, I am better able to ask for what I think I am worth.
How do I approach this differently now?
These things have helped me to be more businesslike:
- On the advice of my business coach, I now put prices on my site . Transparency helps a lot to prevent disappointments for yourself and your customer.
- Furthermore, I am clear about my costs from the first conversation . As a result, the amount on the quote is never an unpleasant surprise.
- When clients start talking about “Maybe we can trade services,” I quickly point out that I don’t work that way. Only if I happen to need that person’s service do I do something like that.
- I have also come to realize that customers who only choose you because you have the lowest price will never be the best customers. If all goes well, people choose you because of what you offer, not because you are as cheap as possible .
- Furthermore, I try to remember that the baker doesn’t give me my bread for free because he enjoys making bread. Or because I’m his neighbor’s niece. For a baker’s situation, that sounds very logical, but for many other areas of expertise, it is actually at least as obvious that there is a price tag attached to it.
I do sometimes provide free work for nice people around me that I have known for a long time. But that’s another story.
2. Not daring to invest
I remember how proud I was that I had hardly incurred any costs in my first two years as an entrepreneur. Unfortunately, that do-it-yourself mindset later turned out not to be very useful. If my sink is broken, I am not going to tinker in my sink cabinet myself. Yet, as an entrepreneur, I spent a lot of time on things I had no idea about . Struggling with HTML, cobbling together a logo in Paint myself, spending a lot of time on online programs that I don’t understand a thing about – been there, done that . Cost me a lot of frustration, time and failed attempts.
Well, investing turned out not to be such a bad idea. I myself mainly spend money on coaching and courses. Precisely because you as an entrepreneur do not have a boss who presents you with an e-learning course every two months, it is quite useful to treat yourself to a good coach. That helps me enormously to step out of my “That’s just the way I do it!” bubble . If I did not let anyone watch me for a kick in the ass or a confronting mirror, I would probably still make every one of the mistakes in this article every week.
Speaking of investments, good office furniture is also worth the investment in my opinion . At IKEA you can find a lot of good office furniture. For example, my office chairs , which are not only ergonomic, but also look nice enough for a Pinterest-proof home office. A good chair is not only an investment in your company, but also in a healthy back. My back, neck and shoulders are still grateful that I now have a good keyboard and laptop stand in front of me and sit on a good chair.
What helped me?
Well, especially looking at investing in a different way:
- All the time you spend on things you don’t know anything about, you can’t spend on helping customers and doing what you are good at.
- Sometimes you have to admit that a professional (or a program) can do something better than you. You wouldn’t lie under your sink yourself if it was broken.
- Investing helps you work more efficiently. That saves time and money.
- Investments almost always pay for themselves.
- An investment in your company is often also an investment in yourself.
3. Accept every assignment
As I just said, I already considered it a great honor when people came to me in the beginning. A client? For me? Wow! So I did all kinds of assignments without first critically considering whether it was something for me. I wrote texts. That was my job. But what kind of texts? And what was so special about my work? I had no idea.
My coach (sorry, it’s her again!) taught me to make choices about what suits me and what doesn’t . I love translating complicated material into understandable language for companies. Especially for the web and preferably for clients who appreciate a touch of humor and a subtle wink. Since I have that clear, I can much better attract clients who suit me well.
One of the pieces of advice that opened my eyes was this: “If you’re the copywriter for everyone, you’re never the copywriter anyone is looking for.” Because why should people hire you instead of your thousands of competing wordsmiths? I thought that was a good point. Not just for copywriters, by the way.
What helped me?
A few tips that I apply to stop accepting every assignment:
- I almost never respond to a new assignment right away. My first reaction (“Yes, great! I’ll do that!”) is not always the most helpful reaction. By letting it sink in for a while, I can get a much better sense of whether I can help a customer well.
- I have made a list of values against which I test each assignment. For example, ‘honesty’ and ‘challenge’ are very high on it. That list helps me to explain (also to myself) why something does or does not fit.
- Realize that you also help your client by saying ‘no’ when you don’t feel like the right person for an assignment. A client will also notice when you do something for him reluctantly and without passion.
- Refer people to other experts in your network. I do this, for example, when clients come to me for mailing campaigns. I don’t get excited or cold about it, but I do know people who are really good at it.
4. Working on, working on, working on
Oh yes, and then there is something else I did not always pay attention to when someone came to me with an assignment: whether the assignment fit into my agenda. A pretty crucial point! I often did a calendar check, but then decided that I had to make time for it. I worked quite a few weekends and evenings. I was also continuously available for clients and often took on last-minute emergencies. Oops! I cannot recommend you to continue doing that for very long.
What helped me?
I am still not a perfect example of an entrepreneur who stops perfectly on time and takes a vacation every 3 months (the pitfall when your work is also your biggest hobby!). But fortunately I am a few steps further than the overzealous always-on entrepreneur I used to be. A few tips that I apply:
- You do n’t always have to say “Yes!” and start shifting your schedule in emergencies. Be honest when something doesn’t work out instead of immediately running.
- Buy a day planner (or make one digitally via Google Calendar) in which you can reserve time blocks for tasks. That helps me a lot to stop being overambitious about planning 12 hours of work in a day.
- If a new assignment doesn’t suit you, be honest and say that you do have time, but not for X weeks .
- Don’t plan too tightly (but realistically ). It’s better to tell a client that you will take a week to do something and then deliver it after 5 days instead of the other way around. That gives you some space and ensures that you can only surprise the other person in a positive way.
- Forget the idea that you always have to answer your phone immediately or call someone back right away. If it’s not convenient, you can just say so and call at a later time.
- Don’t answer emails all day long. That way you give the signal that you are on top of your mailbox 24/7 . If I do email during the weekend, I often schedule emails to be sent the next morning.
Mistakes as an entrepreneur | With trial and error
I don’t want to claim that I never make these mistakes as an entrepreneur. I too am sometimes tight in my planning, should say ‘no’ more often and let my phone ring more often. But I do think it’s great to see that – partly due to coaching, I’m glad I made that investment! – I no longer fall into the same pitfalls. Entrepreneurship involves falling and getting up again. Falling is no fun, but getting back up again ensures that you always get a little further.
That’s precisely what’s so fun about entrepreneurship (and actually about self-development in general).
