Now it’s true that in the beginning (unless you have deep pockets) you have to do everything yourself.
You have to:
- Come up with the idea
- Do the research (what research?)
- Work out who your customer is?
- Decide on a name (Can’t I just pick anyone?)
- Kickstart your brand (What the…?)
- Build your website (can’t I get a free one or something?)
- Do your social media strategy and implementation (knackering)
- Do your PR (exhausting)
- Do your marketing (but…)
- Do your trademark search (what’s a trademark search?)
- Find your suppliers (where do I even start..)
- Build your following (How the hell…?)
- Set up your mailing list (ahh do I have to..)
- Setup your email funnel (Whats a funnel?)
- Come up with lots of exciting and creative ways of attracting your customers
- Blah, blah, blah
It’s never ending
If you don’t two things can happen!
Either:
Nothing gets done and ‘your beginning’ quickly becomes ‘the end’.
Or
You spend tons of money on stuff you think you need before you need it and then before you know it you’ve run out of funds before you sell anything.
Ouch!
The scary bit is…
In the beginning is where we make most of the mistakes.
And it’s no surprise because we don’t know what we’re doing.
- We prioritise the wrong tasks
- We get the wrong advice (or no advice)
- We spend money on the wrong services at the wrong time
- We make lots of little mistakes that build up layer upon layer
Some of these become obvious straight away while others take weeks, months and even years to come home to roost.
How you begin is important
Yet most online experts tell you to begin by signup to endless monthly subscription based services before you need them:
- Email funnel software $xxx each month
- Social media management apps $xxx each month
- Twitter automation apps $xxx each month
- Instagram automation tools $xxx each month
- Scheduling apps $xxx each month
- Virtual assistants $xxx
- Mailing list software $xxx
- Over complicated website $xxx
And more
Before you know it and more importantly before you even have a single customer you’re paying out hundreds of dollars a month on stuff you can do without in the beginning.
Yes once the money starts coming in you can start outsourcing various tasks.
But
In the beginning, you don’t want a lot of unnecessary ‘stuff’ draining your limited funds.
You don’t need more stress.
And you need to hang onto what you do have in the bank for as long as possible.
Why?
Because it takes time to start a business, it takes time to build a brand.
Because your first idea might not work, or your second or you’re third.
My point is, in the beginning, you need less than you think you need and much less many experts tell you, you need.
In the beginning, there is a definite trade-off between time and money and the chances are you don’t have much of either, so what you do first and how you do it will have profound implications for what happens next.
Don’t rush into spending money and wasting time where it is not needed and the whole journey will be a lot more enjoyable, a lot less stressful and much more profitable.
You could just carry on doing what you’re doing (there’s nothing wrong with making mistakes but don’t make too many of them)
The decision is as always – yours. Make it a good one ☺
