Episode 315 Are These Common Business Mistakes Sabotaging Your Success?

In this week’s episode, we identify five common business mistakes that could be hindering the growth and enjoyment of your business. As an independent expert — whether you’re a solopreneur, coach, speaker, or consultant — these insights might be just what you need to pivot from feeling stuck to building a profitable, fulfilling business that complements your lifestyle. From worrying about the ‘how’ before clarifying the ‘what’, to getting caught up in daily struggles and forgetting the long-term game, we’ll explore practical strategies to overcome these hurdles. Plus, I’ll share details on our upcoming webinar series and the Business Accelerator programme designed to offer you personalised support and accountability. Ready to redefine success and build a business you truly love? Let’s get started!

Key moments:

[00:00] Introduction

[01:02] Setting the Stage: Identifying Business Challenges

[02:20] Mistake 1: Worrying About the How Before the What

[05:12] Mistake 2: Getting Caught Up in Today and Forgetting the Long Game

[08:28] Mistake 3: Copying Other People’s Business Models

[11:08] Mistake 4: Selling Yourself Short

[14:00] Mistake 5: Waiting for Perfect Clarity Before Taking Action

[16:26] Recap and Additional Resources

[17:55] Closing and Call to Action

Resources mentioned:

The Long Game by Dorie Clark

The 3-part webinar series on building a business that works for you

The Business Accelerator programme

Common business mistakes

Okay, so you’ve decided what you want your business to look like. You know exactly what you’re doing. You’re implementing all the steps. You’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, but you’re not getting the results that you want. Either you’re getting lots and lots of clients, but they’re the wrong kinds of clients, or it’s creating lots of stress for you. You’re working way longer hours than you wanted to. You, you’re not earning as much, perhaps because you’re not charging as much as you wanted to. You’re compromising on your values in terms of the clients you’re working with, or you’re not getting the clients and you feel like you’re caught in this kind of hamster wheel of creating content and sending emails and doing all the right things but not getting results.

If that sounds like you, I’m going to be digging into five common mistakes that I see again and again that might be preventing you from building a business that works for you. And it’s not that you don’t know what to do. It’s not that that you need more information. There’s nothing wrong with you. These are really common mistakes that might be holding you back. So the first one is worrying about the how before you’ve decided on the what. And if you’re familiar with my work, you may have heard me say this before. I always say, get clear on the what and the why before the how.

Here’s the thing. We spend so much time worrying about all the possible obstacles. How am I going to do this? What if it doesn’t work. Who am I to think that I could. That’s never going to. That’s far too difficult. It’s going to cost too much. They will never say no.

Nobody will pay that in this market. I can’t. It won’t. Oh, my goodness. All these reasons why you can’t figure it out, why it won’t work, why you won’t get the clients, or it won’t be financially viable and so on. And we worry about these things, about all the different possible scenarios before we’ve even really thought about. Hang on. What exactly is that I want? So this keeps us in this cycle of overthinking, doubting ourselves, not taking action, and then figuring things out along the way.

So we’re. We’re looking at all the possible things. Oh, I could do this, but that won’t work. And that and this, and oh, and often usually comparing those very theoretical possibilities with something that’s very certain. So it’s sort of better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. So whether we’re in our corporate job or we already have a business going on, if we’re thinking of pivoting that or building something very different, that new different thing is so different and uncomfortable and unfamiliar by definition, that it is scary. And by the way, another thing I often say is scary tends to come along with exciting, but it’s so scary and uncertain that of course we won’t know how to do it yet. But the problem is we can’t figure out how to do all these different things.

Right. We need to go. Okay, I think this is what I want to do. This is my North Star. The parameters of what I want to focus on. The next month, the next 90 days. I’m going to work out a plan, get support if I need. Fine.

Study this, learn that, do this, that and the other. Save money, whatever it is. But we do that working and working out what the path is towards this one goal or one plan that we have, Right? So if you’re worrying about the how of lots of different paths and lots of different possibilities, if you’re kind of getting caught up in that analysis, paralysis, take a breath, take a step back. It might feel frustrating, but take a step back and really get clear on what your vision is. What. What’s your version of success? And what do you want the business to look like? What are the parameters? What are the criteria? What are your values that you want to anchor it in? What kind of business do you want? And then you can worry about the How? Okay. But I think you’ll find in my experience that that will all kind of fall into place once you are committed to a clear vision for what you want. So that’s mistake number one, worrying about the how before you decide on the what.

The second one, and I think linked to that one, is getting caught up in today, what’s kind of happening right now, whether it’s slow client work or feeling like you’re not getting the results. And oh, this is so difficult. And forgetting the long game, right? We’re in it for the long haul. Dory Clark has a great book that I wish I wrote that’s called the Long Game, which is worth a read. Dory Clark, the Long Game. And we get distracted by this kind of immediate problem right now and we forget that. Hang on a second. Actually, the results that we’re doing that we’re getting today are coming from actions we did or didn’t take a month, two months, three months ago.

And so if we only just started now, there’s no way we’re going to get results today. Right. And the problem is if we give up or switch strategies too soon, either we will have missed out on those results that were coming after the initial effort, or we won’t know if it worked or not because we haven’t even tried it. So it’s really important to have that long term mindset, right? You’re building a business for the long term. This means that, yes, the results might not be there today, but they will be there. It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. So stay consistent, keep showing up and understand that the seeds you’re planting today are going to bear fruit in the future. Maybe it’s not the exact thing that you’re doing today, maybe you’ll need to pivot it and so on.

But first, give yourself a chance to experiment, explore and test something before you give up on it and move to the next thing. Because otherwise we’re just jumping from strategies to strategies. Years ago, I remember a mentor said to me, you know, it’s like doing one webinar and saying, oh, only in my case, I think eight people showed up, which is pretty good, I think, for a first webinar. And it’s failed. You know, she did monthly webinars. Ultimately she was doing launches and launches and launches to figure out how to do a good webinar and so on, right? So when it comes to a bigger business, of course we’re not going to figure it out in one second. The other Aspect of this long term game is also that it allows us to go to bed when we’re tired, not stress too much in the moment, knowing that and, you know, prioritising family or hobbies or, or life stuff that’s happening. Because isn’t that the point? And the big picture is that that’s what matters and that we will ultimately get the business results.

The book will get written, the stuff will get created, it will get sold, the clients will come, but it may well take a little longer. And that’s okay because, you know, we overestimate what we can do in a day or a year, but we underestimate what we can do in, you know, three years, five years, 10 years. So what could be possible for you? So that’s mistake number two, getting caught up in today and forgetting about the long term game. The third one is building on last week’s episode when I talked a bit about accidental business models and the importance of intentional business models. And I can’t help then by making a plug for my upcoming webinar series, which is talking you through, walking you through, guiding you on the three core principles of building a business that works for you. And the first one is an intentional business model. Second one, if you’re interested, is ethical marketing and sales. And the third one is simple systems and processes.

So if you go to onestepoutside.com a business that works, one stepoutside.com forward slash a business that works, then you can sign up to that. And if you’re listening later on, you can always watch the recording as well. So mistake number three is copying other people’s business models, meaning that we sort of follow someone else’s blueprint or business model, usually because we’ve kind of fallen for their very effective copywriting and they’re very credible. And it sounds great, but we haven’t considered. Hang on, is this the right fit for me? Okay, if someone says, hey, seven figure business, these are the seven steps. Like, oh, yeah, sounds great. But first of all, do I want the seven figures? Maybe, maybe not. Secondly, do I want everything that comes with that type of business? And thirdly, do I have the skills, the preferences, the interest, the inclination, the financial situation, the lifestyle aspirations, et cetera, et cetera, that support the particular model that this particular expert is selling you, right? And what happens is we get frustrated.

Either it doesn’t work for us or it does work, but it doesn’t align with our strengths, values, lifestyle. So yes, we’re showing up and doing the stuff, but we’re hating it, so that’s no good. So rather than try to implement someone else’s blueprint before thinking it through, we really want to build a business that’s designed for us. So again, that’s where the intentional business model comes in. My skills, my values and the kind of life that I want to lead. Mistake number three, copying other people’s business models. Mistake number four is selling yourself short. And this is so easy to do because there’s this whole world of kind of free content marketing.

And obviously when we’re starting, we perhaps lack confidence. And there is something to be said for offering lots of value up front, doing pilot programmes, offering things for free. You know, in coaching we often do free sessions early on and so on. But if we’re offering too much for free, if we’re too much in the kind of friend zone, as it were, hesitating to ask for that sale, we’re not treating our business like a business. It’s going to be a hobby, a charity. If you want, by all means. If you are, by the way, sitting on a huge, you know, wealth that is supporting your lifestyle, by all means, disregard everything I’m saying. But if you want to need to build this into a viable business, at some point we have to get our big girl, big boy pants on, lean in and actually go, okay, do you want to work with me? This is how much it costs.

Raising my prices sometimes and stepping away when it’s not valuing the person or company is not valuing my expertise. They’re asking me for too much when it’s overstepping my boundaries. Right? If we’re just giving away our expertise, we’re actually not helping anyone. By the way, I’ve learned this painfully the hard way. If I’m trying to give people lots of free advice in a short call, or if you’re trying to teach people everything in a video or something, that’s not going to work. People might think that, oh, great, she’s told me everything I need and they might not work with you, but in doing so, they’re missing out on the very support that you could offer them that would make all the difference for them. If you. And again, it comes back to your belief.

If you believe that what you offer is going to make a difference, is going to get them the results that they want, then it is a disservice not to at least ask if they want to pay you, if they want to work with you. Right? So try to shift your mindset, start valuing your work. Believe in yourself, build offers by all means that deliver value, Add more if you need to. It’s not about the bits and bobs that you add to it, the bells and whistles, but make sure that you are charging what you’re worth. Probably it’s more than you think the particular service is worth. Usually we’re undercharging, right? Treat your business as a business and make sales a priority. You know, I come from a marketing background. It’s all well and good to do lots of marketing, which is important, building a personal brand and having all that credibility and visibility, but at some point you do need to say, hey, by the way, I’ve got, you know, spots for coaching.

You can sign on to this programme or I have this workshop for your team and so on. So selling yourself short is mistake number four and mistake number five, which I think brings us nicely round full circle to where we started is getting stuck in that analysis, paralysis and waiting for perfect clarity before taking action. I’m going to be a bit vulnerable here and admit to you that even now, 10 years later, and of course things have evolved, I still go round and round in circles about what exactly is the strategy, what exactly is my overall kind of personal brand statement, my elevator pitch, what’s the offer? Should I change this? You know, oh, change the website design. The perfect resource for everyone. What should the webinar be? The podcast series? The book? I’ve got several draught books, as ever, on my computer and we’re constantly waiting for. I’m going to have this magical moment when it all falls into place and I will know, ah, this is my expertise, I am this, I do that, and forevermore I shall be known as the person who. And I don’t know if other people have been able to do that, I certainly have not. So hopefully reassuring to you to know you are never going to have it figured out.

In fact, that’s maybe also a bit disheartening and worrying. But the point is, we need to get comfortable with living with uncertainty. Try things, put it out there. The amazing thing about digital is you can literally put something up, you can delete it. If you change your mind, you can change it so easily. We’re not printing stuff, we’re not buying huge amounts of inventory. Say one day that you’re a, you know, I’m a productivity expert, the next day I can say, I’m a leadership expert. Nobody’s going to bat an eyelid.

There’s different people. As long as you’re having conversations, you’re learning, you’re providing solutions to people’s problems. That’s what matters. So unfortunately, getting stuck in this kind of looking for perfect clarity and perfectionism slows us down. And the truth is that clarity comes through taking action. So taking those steps, the imperfect action, and then adjusting as you go, if it seems too overwhelming, just think, okay, what’s the next step? Break the huge, monstrous goal into small steps. And then remember that each step is going to give you more clarity and also more confidence. So as you start moving forwards, you get momentum, you work things out, you get feedback, you learn.

And before you know it, you know if you look back on your notes from a year ago, you have far more clarity. The other fun thing to do is look at your notebooks from the last 10 years and see how much has changed, but also how little has changed. So really, you are pretty clear on I certainly have been clear. There is a core to my body of work that has been there since the beginning. So there’s a huge amount of conviction there. Okay, so those are the five mistakes preventing you from building a business that works for you. Number one, worrying about the how before you’ve decided on the what. Number two, getting caught up in what’s happening today and forgetting about the long game.

You’re in it for the long haul. Number three is copying other people’s business models or ending up with an accidental business model. Number four is selling yourself short and not treating your business like a business. And number five is waiting for perfect clarity before you take action. So if any of those mistakes resonate, fear not, they are common. It’s perfectly normal. But I’d encourage you to have a listen to my tips for what you could do instead. Another little plug for my webinar series, helping you build that intentional business that works for you.

So that’s onestepoutside.com a business that works. And of course, if you do want to work with me and get the support and feedback and accountability and community and so on, then I have the business accelerator that will guide you through these challenges and help you to get those big pants on when you need them. So I hope that resonated. Or perhaps I hope it didn’t resonate. Maybe you’re not making these mistakes, which is even better. But we’re all in it together. We’re all experiencing these challenges. The point is to move forward with messy action.

And again, clarity and confidence comes with taking those steps. Hope to see you in the webinar. May we have a conversation with you about the accelerator and definitely see you back here next week. Bye for now. All right, so if any of this resonates and you’re ready to build a business that truly works for you, without the overwhelm, without the hustle, all that constant second guessing, then I’d love for you to join us in the business accelerator. We’re bringing together a small group of like minded experts, coaches, consultants, solopreneurs who want that personalised support, clear action steps and above all, real accountability. If you want to get in early, then head on over to onestepoutside.com accelerate onestepoutside.com accelerate to register your interest or join the waiting list. Let’s create the business and the life that you have always wanted.

Can’t wait to see you inside.

WORK WITH ANNA

Let us help you design a business and a life that gives you freedom from the 9 to 5. There are several options for how you can work with us. Choose the programme that’s right for you.

The Outsiders Business Incubator

A year-long business incubator for experienced corporate professionals who want to translate their skills and passions into a profitable and fulfilling business. onestepoutside.com/9to5

The Outsiders Business Accelerator

An ongoing mastermind for service-based business owners, freelancers and online entrepreneurs who are ready to achieve success on their own terms. onestepoutside.com/accelerate

The Outsiders Business Academy

A self-paced course for you to work through in your own time, to learn – and implement – the foundations of building a profitable business that lets you escape the 9 to 5. onestepoutside.com/course

1:1 Coaching & Mentoring

If you’re looking for one-to-one support to help you achieve your specific life and business goals, Anna has a limited number of spots for individual coaching and mentoring. onestepoutside.com/coaching