With unemployment rates throughout the country at a constant high, it is quite hard to believe that there is also a rising rate in emerging entrepreneurs occurring instantaneously. The truth of the matter is people are waking up to a new way of thinking.
They are realizing that there is more to life than the mundane standard of a “9 to 5”. But being an entrepreneur means taking risks that may be outside your control.
Let’s make this typical worker a little more personable, shall we? His name is Jim. Jim starts asking himself questions such as “How do I get to THAT point?” and “How do I climb the ladder and create a business that will allow me to work for myself?” Enter the world of entrepreneurship.
Now that he has established that he wants to become an entrepreneur, he has to start his epic adventure of discovering exactly what genre of business he wants to start. He has to make sure that his home-based business will be something that will give him some kind of longevity and that will remain relevant in order to keep him afloat with no overwhelming threats of sinking to his doom.
At the same time, he has to keep in mind that along that way he is going to go through a period of trial and errors, crash and burns and making mistakes. But he still needs to remain strong enough to make it through these challenges and see the end result he really desires. This is where things get a little tricky.
As with any new path different from the norm, you are going to experience a little bit of turbulence at first. Anyone who has been on a plane will tell you that they have all had a passing thought of impending doom when the plane would begin to shake in the middle of nowhere thousands of feet up.
For some even, if the turbulence is really intense, it is challenging to keep in mind that the plane would be fine in the next ten to fifteen minutes because of what they were experiencing right there and then in that moment. The same goes for mistakes that are made by first-time entrepreneurs. Everyone starts somewhere.
When entrepreneurs first start out, they are filled with big ideas, vivid dreams, passions and aspirations of what they want to accomplish. Since they are now out of the jail of corporate America, the sky is the limit! And in some cases, other galaxies light-years far away seem to be the only limit.
There is nothing wrong with an entrepreneur having a wide scope visualization of how they see their business soaring, but a detailed business plan of how they will accomplish this is very vital to their long-term success. Organizing your steps of action is essential to staying on point with your direction and focus.
Another common mistake made by entrepreneurs stepping out is not doing the initial research about the market that their home-business will help boost. It’s all fine and dandy to know that you are going to make a difference in the genre you choose to go into, but you also need to know the supply and demand of the consumers you plan on attracting.
Because at the end of the day, the clientele you build is one of the main things that will keep your business going. So now that Jim has this business plan together and has done the research on his potential customers, he now has to think about how he is going to market and sell himself so that his customers are streamlined straight to him.
Some of the best things are hidden in plain sight. This concept also goes for how often the power of social media is underestimated when it comes to effectively marketing your skills. Everyone is aware of the simultaneous results that social media gives us when we want to know what someone else is doing, who they are doing it with, what they like, what their friends like, and where they are.
Entrepreneurs tend to lose sight of this simple tool that will help them gain more exposure for their home-based business. For some reason, they totally overlook these means and still try to hold on to more traditional ways of advertising, one being print.
But if your business is mostly based online how will paper-pushing help you? These days, you have to evolve with the times. Over the years, the internet and social media have grown exponentially in its ways of connecting people, so promoting yourself on these mediums will give you the jump start you need.
There are also trends that the up and coming entrepreneur must be aware of as well. With our constantly evolving culture, the trends change faster than the weather and they can range from good to bad.
Because most entrepreneurs start their business with knowledge and experience that they have accumulated over time, they tend to become a little self-absorbed, which doesn’t pan out too well when it comes to acquiring and maintaining employees that will be helping you out with your business. This can lead to you being left all alone to manage all the tasks of your business that you really need help in which ultimately leads your business’s demise.
Another bad trend of the year among entrepreneurs is being money-hungry. There are some home-based businesses out there that were started solely so that the entrepreneur who founded it could make money, with no rhyme or reason.
You may ask “Well that is the point, right?” Yes, you are correct. However, if an entrepreneur is only focused on the money aspect with zero lack of passion for what they are doing, then you have an impending recipe for disaster.
If the focus on the business plan, catering to what the consumers really need, and proper marketing goes completely out the window or wasn’t properly thought through in the first place due to a bloodthirsty quest for easy money, that business will not survive at all. This kind of thinking system creates most of the scams we have witnessed this year.
To go along with the previous point for 2014’s worst trends for entrepreneurs, other bad trends also include the lack of staying up with the supply and demand of customers.
Like trends, their needs change just as often if not more. If an entrepreneur is not willing to bend when it comes to this, the customers they once had will eventually be drawn away to another business that will actually care enough to accommodate them efficiently and quickly.
This is equivalent to what you see a swarm of lightning bugs do when they will automatically go to another light source to buzz around when their original light source has dimmed or turned off completely. Not good.
Another of 2014’s worst trends for entrepreneurs to note that will drive our point home is that some entrepreneurs lost the ability to actually sell and market themselves in real life (you know, away from the computer).
Earlier, I know I mentioned that they should take advantage of all social media opportunities but there should also still be a balance of being versatile enough to market yourself at various networking opportunities or even just sitting in Starbucks.
Failure to do this will lead a home-based business to become stagnant and at a definite stand-still due to the lack of keeping a fresh avenue of potential clients open.
So now that we have explored mistakes that are made when first starting out, challenges to expect when it comes to home-based business startups and the worst trends from this year to be aware about, I think it’s pretty safe to say that Jim is equipped with enough knowledge to quit his job, graduate from typical worker to entrepreneur and start his first successful business!