Justin Cobb on Mistakes that Entrepreneurs Make and How to Avoid Them

It is often said, “Go make mistakes and learn from them”. While that may be true, Justin Cobb believes that you can save some time and unnecessary hardships if you just learn from the mistakes that others did and what actions they took to correct them. So, instead of making the mistakes yourself, learn about them and avoid them.

This is particularly useful if you are an entrepreneur. Mistakes can be costly if you are running a business and those are not things that you would not really want to go through. You might even miss wonderful opportunities if you deliberately make mistakes just to learn from them. In that case, let me share with you some early mistakes that entrepreneurs make and how you can aptly avoid them.

Giving away your precious time for free!

This might just be the most common mistake that entrepreneurs do – giving their time away for free! This usually happens when you try to entertain every possible client that enquires or comes your away for the hopes of closing a deal with “some” of them. This is catastrophic! To resolve this, try to develop a method to filter out enquiries from those who already want to close deals versus those who are just inquiring for future possible dealings. This way, you will be able to use your time wisely.

Doing everything yourself.

Another mistake that entrepreneurs might possibly make is doing everything yourself. Doing everything yourself in the early parts of your business might be understandable; however, this should not go on for long. Doing everything yourself might eventually burn you out and your business enthusiasm will dwindle fast. It might even affect your health in the long haul. To avoid this, you have to start delegating tasks to other people. Hire qualified employees who will be able to perform the tasks you do better and faster. This way, you will be able to use your time in further improving your business.

Thinking short-term.

As an entrepreneur, you need to always think long-term. Other entrepreneurs fail to realize this until it is too late. Zone in on growing your business and think years ahead instead of thinking and living in the now. For instance, instead of trying to provide a wide array of services on the get-go, try providing only a few ones and actually specialize in them. This way, you will be maturing as an expert in said services. In general, think about long-term solutions to problems that you encounter instead of Band-Aid solutions that will just temporarily resolve your issues.