Skip to main content
  • Call Now
  • Request Info
  • Menu

Search form

  • JWU Main Site
  • jwuLink
  • Apply Now
  • Hide nav
  • Request Info
  • 1.855.598.1881

JWU College of Professional Studies

  • Academics
    Academics
    Academics Home Academic Calendar Online Catalog and Student Handbook On-Campus Programs
    • On Campus
    • Online
    • Business
      • BA - Communication
      • BS – Accounting
      • BS – Advertising & Marketing Communications
      • BS – Business Studies
      • BS – Digital Marketing & Social Media
      • BS – Fashion Merchandising & Retailing
      • BS – Food & Beverage Entrepreneurship
      • BS - Marketing
      • BSBA – Business Administration
      • BSBA – Entrepreneurship
      • BSBA – Human Resource Management
      • BSBA – International Business
      • BSBA – Management
      • BSBA – Operations & Supply Chain Management
      • BSBA – Enterprise Risk Management
      • MS – Global Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development
      • MS - Finance
      • BSBA - Leadership Studies
      • AS – Business Administration
      • BS – Finance
      • Doctor of Business Administration
      • Graduate Micro Certificate - Operations & Supply Chain Management
      • MS - Engineering Management
      • MS – Operations & Project Management
      • Undergraduate Micro Certificate - Business Communication
      • Undergraduate Micro Certificate - Communication for Change
      • Undergraduate Micro Certificate - Foundational Operations & Supply Chain Management
      • Undergraduate Micro Certificate - Technical Writing & Editing
      • Undergraduate Micro-Certificate - Accounting
    • Nonprofit Management
      • Graduate Certificate - Nonprofit Management
      • MS – Nonprofit Management
      • MPA – Nonprofit Management
      • MBA - Nonprofit Managment
    • Criminal Justice
      • MS – Criminal Justice
      • MPA – Criminal Justice
    • Political Science
      • BS - Political Science
    • Culinary Management
      • BS – Baking & Pastry Arts & Food Service Management
      • MS – Food Safety
      • BS – Culinary Arts & Food Service Management
      • BS – Food & Beverage Entrepreneurship
      • BS – Food Industry Compliance Management
    • Psychology
      • BS – Psychology
      • MBA – Organizational Psychology
      • MS – Organizational Psychology
    • Health Science
      • BS – Healthcare Administration
      • BS – Public Health
      • MS - Nutrition
      • Graduate Micro Certificate - Sports Nutrition
      • Undergraduate Micro Certificate - Public Health
    • Public Administration
      • MPA – General
      • MPA – Criminal Justice
      • MPA – Nonprofit Management
      • MPA – Homeland Security
      • MPA – Human Resource Management
    • Hospitality
      • BS – Food & Beverage Entrepreneurship
      • BS – Food Industry Compliance Management
      • BS – Hospitality Management
      • BS – Hotel & Lodging Management
      • BS – Sports, Entertainment, Event – Management
      • BS – Tourism & Hospitality Management
      • MBA – Hospitality
      • MS - Hospitality Management
      • MS – Global Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development
      • Graduate Certificate - Hospitality
      • Undergraduate Micro Certificate - Food Compliance
      • Undergraduate Micro Certificate - Quality Assurance in Hospitality
    • Sociology
      • BA - Sociology
    • HR Management
      • BSBA - Human Resource Management
      • MBA - Human Resource Management
      • MS – Human Resource Management
    • Sport Administration
      • BS – Sports, Entertainment, Event — Management
      • MBA – Sport Leadership
    • Liberal Studies
      • BS – Liberal Studies
    • Technology
      • BS – Computer Science
      • BS – Digital Marketing & Social Media
      • MBA – Information Security/Assurance
      • MS - Data Analytics
      • MS – Instructional Design & Technology
    • MBA
      • MBA - Event Leadership
      • MBA-Executive Communication
      • Master of Business Administration (MBA)
      • MBA – Finance
      • MBA – Hospitality
      • MBA – International Beverage Management
      • MBA – Human Resource Management
      • MBA – Information Security/Assurance
      • MBA – Organizational Psychology
      • MBA — Marketing
      • MBA – Operations & Supply Chain Management
      • MBA – Organizational Leadership
      • MBA – Nonprofit Management
      • MBA – Sport Leadership
      • Executive Communication
      • MBA – General (One Year)
      • MBA – Global Fashion Merchandising Management
      • MBA – Project Management
  • Admissions
    Admissions
    JWU Admissions
    • Admissions Home
    • Undergraduate Admissions
    • Apply Online
    • Graduate Admissions
    • Transfer Students
    • Doctoral Admissions
    • On-Campus Admissions
    • International Admissions
    • Career Coach
    • Returning Students
    • Tuition and Fees
    • JWU Military
  • Financial Aid
    Financial Aid
    JWU Financial Aid
    • Financial Aid Home
    • Tuition and Fees
    • Scholarships and Grants
    • Military Benefits
  • Student Services
    Student Services
    JWU Student Services
    • Student Services Home
    • Academic Calendar
    • Career Resources
    • Academic Resources
    • Commencement
    • Technical Resources
  • Corporate Partnerships
    Corporate Partnerships
  • Blog
    Blog
  • About
    About
    About JWU
    • About JWU Professional Home
    • Read Student Testimonials
    • Tour an Online Classroom
    • Two JWU Grads, One MBA Journey
    • Learn from Experienced Faculty
    • Meet Our Team
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Discover the JWU Difference
    • Online Student Consumer Information
    • Priorities Survey for Online Learners
  • Apply Now
    Apply Now
  • jwuLink
    jwuLink
  • JWU Main Site
    JWU Main Site

You are here

JWU CPS > Blog > 12 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Small Business
Follow Us
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • PinInterest

12 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Small Business

12 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Small Business

November 14th, 2022
by JWU
Women with glasses standing and holding a laptop.
Women with glasses standing and holding a laptop.

Starting a business for a product or service you're passionate about is thrilling and full of promise. However, there are many things you must do to make everything go as smoothly as possible and ensure you’re protected if something goes wrong.

There are some key things to consider when starting your own business. According to Wix, you are building an ecosystem you plan to create, expand, and scale over time. Some things that comprise your startup ecosystem include coming up with a business idea, choosing a name, determining how you'll do business, drafting a business plan, obtaining financing, designing a website, conducting marketing research, launching marketing campaigns, publishing social media posts, and building your team.

It's a lot to consider for a business owner, and even with your best efforts, plenty of things can go wrong with your new business. While many business leaders experience some mistakes and learn from them, it's better to know what you could face in advance and protect yourself.

The key to avoiding mistakes is identifying them beforehand and ensuring you don't make them or can recover if you do. The following is a list of 12 business mistakes to avoid when starting your small business to ensure a healthy and successful enterprise.

1. Not Creating a Business Plan

You might see articles saying that you don't need a business plan or that a business plan is a waste of time, but our JWU business administration team couldn't disagree more. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), a well-developed business plan serves as a map or guide, providing a solid structure for your business. It informs you about how to run and grow your business idea in the short and long term.

Without a business plan, you risk developing your company lacking a firm strategy you can review when things aren't going as you thought they would. A business plan keeps you on track and accountable to your internal team and external stakeholders.

Additionally, you risk losing funding without a business plan because investors want to see a plan. So, while it isn't the most exciting part of your new business, it's not something you want to leave out.

2. Not Investing in Marketing

According to Wishpond, marketing professionals who developed a robust marketing plan were 313% more likely to find success than those who didn't. Without powerful marketing and research, you risk missing out on:

  • Understanding your target audience
  • Developing a customer avatar
  • Determining and analyzing your competitors
  • Uncovering and expressing your unique selling proposition (USP)
  • Working out your pricing strategy
  • Comparing previous marketing campaigns to assess your ROI and how you can improve
  • Coming up with the best metrics to measure your marketing campaign's success

3. Not Obtaining the Correct Insurance

Insurance is another area most entrepreneurs would rather skip. It's boring and has nothing to do with your exciting idea. However, getting the right insurance offers protection if something goes wrong with your business, such as a workplace accident like a fall or theft of a computer or printer.

It would be best if you had a minimum of liability insurance for your business to protect your company from any business-related litigation. Business property insurance will help if you experience an event that results in the loss, destruction, or theft of your office equipment.

4. Not Asking for Help

As a new entrepreneur, you will have questions and run into problems. When you don't ask for help, you risk damaging your business and reputation or short-changing your customers and losing their trust. Reaching out to trusted professionals who can help you navigate uncharted waters in business is essential. Whether you reach out to a former professor, colleague, or friendly competitor, you need to form and nurture a trusted network to help you succeed.

5. Not Understanding the Financials

Another common mistake in small businesses is that new entrepreneurs sometimes don't understand the financials, especially when they experience instant and rapid growth. These professionals are caught off guard, thinking they can keep operations fast and lean indefinitely. But without up-to-date financials, you risk missing out on securing the loan you need to scale up and buy new equipment, lease a bigger space, or hire new employees.

6. Not Knowing Your Strengths and Weaknesses

You will excel at running your business in certain regards and falter in other areas. You must know your strengths and weaknesses and figure out how to handle them. For example, if you want to manage hiring responsibilities but realize you can't keep up with payroll or financials, outsource these duties to industry professionals until you can afford to hire internal professionals to get everything done effectively and on time.

7. Not Embracing Technology

Technology levels the playing field for startups today, regardless of the industry. It gets your business up, running, and scaling quickly and efficiently. From network connections and hardware setups to social media accounts and cloud storage, embracing technology is the ace in your pocket. While upfront costs can be high, the long-term costs of not investing in technology could be devastating. Your competition will have the latest technology to support their business, and you should have it too.

8. Not Hiring the Right People            

New small business owners often struggle with the hiring process because they're unsure when and how to bring in new people. They want to do as much as possible themselves, but they wear themselves thin and run ragged, leaving their business and customers vulnerable to failure.

It's just as dangerous to hire the wrong people. Employee turnover is expensive, and a costly resignation or termination could put a massive dent in your budget and harm your business reputation, depending on what goes wrong when the wrong person is hired. As you start scaling your business and need to bring in new people, consider working with a consultant or external recruiter to ensure a good fit.

9. Not Listening to Feedback

The same people you reach out to for help could offer constructive feedback to help you improve or correct the course. You should also definitely listen to employee and customer feedback to get ideas about what your business is doing right and what you can improve.

Conduct customer and employee surveys, and reach out to a consultant to give you objective, constructive insights into your business and what you could do differently to improve your company.

10. Not Understanding the Competition

Identifying, analyzing, and understanding the competition helps you position and sell your products and services and make better decisions about marketing campaigns, product launches, and other vital business considerations while reducing risk, time, expense, and required resources.

The most important things you need to know about your competitors are:

  • Who they are
  • How competitive they are, as far as their offerings and target audience
  • Their strengths and weaknesses, especially compared to yours
  • What their plans are for products, services, and marketing

11. Not Understanding Your Target Audience

When starting out, you might think you know your target audience. However, as your business progresses, you might realize that you need to reduce or expand the scope of your target audience, or you might need to redefine who your target audience is.

Worse still, some business owners don't clearly know their target audience. They launch their business with the idea in mind, but without a clue what their ideal customer persona might be.

In any of those cases, it's time to task your marketing team with conducting market research to identify your target audience and learn how to reach them.

12. Not Having Goals in Place

Having goals in place gives your business direction. Defining and executing your vision is difficult without solid goals, leaving room for errors and a lack of accountability. Goals help you improve your product or service, identify your target audience, launch effective marketing campaigns, and increase sales. What's not to love about having goals in place?

 

You'll have a mountain of information to process when starting your new business, and the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) in Entrepreneurship at Johnson & Wales University will help you avoid pitfalls that could harm your customers or clients and your business reputation.

At JWU, you'll learn all the basics of starting a small business, including the necessary concepts, skills, and values. Our instructors tackle what can go wrong if you aren't fully prepared to build and run a tight ship from the moment you decide to start a business.

For more information about completing your BSBA in Entrepreneurship online, complete the Request Info form, call 855-JWU-1881, or email [email protected].

 

Blog Categories: 
Entrepreneurship
November 14th, 2022
by JWU
  • Back to Blog
Featured Blogs

U.S. News & World Report Ranks Johnson & Wales University Among Best Online Programs

January 30th, 2023 – Johnson & Wales University continues to rank among the 2023 Best Online Bachelor’s Programs and...

Niche Careers for Hospitality Professionals

January 24th, 2023 – The hospitality industry offers professionals a wide range of career options. Some career paths might...

Baking & Pastry Arts and Food Service Management Degree: A Deep Dive

January 17th, 2023 – The baking and pastry arts is a special expertise in food service management. Much like a wine...

Mindful Driving Behavior: Reflecting on the Ghosts of COVID Past, Present, and Future

January 12th, 2023 – In Charles Dickens’ timeless holiday classic, A Christmas Carol, three ghosts – Christmas Past,...

8 Benefits of Enterprise Risk Management

January 10th, 2023 – Enterprise risk management (ERM) is a process used by organizations to identify, assess, and manage...

Older Stories

Now accepting applications

Apply now
Admissions
Johnson & Wales University
115 Cedar St.
Providence, RI 02903
855.598.1881

© 2023 Johnson & Wales University

  • Privacy Policy
  • Nondiscrimination Policy

 

  • Contact Us
  • Accreditation & Approvals
  • Online Student Consumer Information
  • Catalogs
  • Handbooks
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest