4 Common Pitfalls to Avoid When Building Your First Business

Building your first business is tough.

It’s really tough and a lot of people are delusional about it.

I incorporated my first LLC with $20,000 capital and a bunch of naive expectations.

One year after its incorporation I was at the brink of a nervous breakdown: I had burnt through almost all the money (making stupid decisions), leaving me broke with a bit more than $4,000 dollars.

This business was everything I had.

After my university studies I decided to ditch the 9-to-5 route and become a full-time entrepreneur instead. I thought it would be fun and easy. I thought it would give me freedom and peace of mind. Instead, I was working 16 hours a day, seven days a week, almost loosing my mind while trying to save my business.

I remember being at the movies with my girlfriend and having my laptop with me.

Every once in a while, during the movie, I’d sneak out of the theatre and get some work done.

That’s the level of desperation I reached at one point.

Luckily, I was able to completely turn my situation around within the next few months: I dragged my company off it’s death bed and revived it to the point where it made high six-figures a year.

I literally went from losing $2,000-$4,000 per month to making between $30,000-$85,000 a month.

So how did I end up in this mess in the first place?

And how can you avoid these same newbie mistakes?

4 Common Pitfalls to Avoid When Building Your First Business

1) Stop Spending Money

Most bootstrapping entrepreneurs, including me back in the day, are lazy and soft.

I wanted to solve every problem with money. Instead of putting in the work and building a real brand, I wanted to “crack the code” to Facebook advertising and build a business the easy way.

I outsourced a ton of things, thinking this is what business owners do.

Damn was I stupid.

Instead of making money I was spending money.

The whole purpose of a business is to make profit. And in order to make profit you need to generate cash flow. Spending money on SEO, outsourcing your website and buying expensive stuff isn’t part of the equation.

Although doing all of that makes you feel like a big shot, because you’ve seen and heard that’s what successful entrepreneurs and “bosses” do, it’s the complete opposite of what you should be doing. If you’re building your first business, stop spending money on anything that isn’t absolutely necessary.

And by the way: Getting a domain or a simple logo isn’t the problem.

Subscribing to something like Shopify or Clickfunnels is even a great idea.

But beyond that, keep the money tap closed.

• Don’t hire anyone
• Don’t outsource anything
• Don’t buy an existing business
• Don’t get someone to do it for you
• Don’t buy every course that comes out
• Don’t spend more than $5 a day on ads unless they’re making profit

The main reason why we spend money is because we’re lazy. If you want to succeed in business, you have to tap into the power of broke: Get creative, work harder than anyone you know, and for gods sake, build a real brand instead of chasing overnight riches.

There’s the easy way to build a business and there’s the hard way.

The easy way almost never works.

If you’re serious about building your first business: Quit the crap, stop whining and get to work.

2) Don’t Fall In Love With How You Make Your Money

Most people are unwilling to be flexible.

If you’re in the process of building your first business it’s likely that you have a very specific idea of how you want things to work.

You’re deeply in love with a fantasy of how you’ll be earning your money.

Let’s say it’s your dream to become a sports coach.

But you’re struggling to get the “perfect client” that would fulfil your little sports coaching dream. And since you’re in love with the way you think your business should look, you lack flexibility.

After 12-18 months you’ve burnt through all your money and your “business” is dead.

That’s what happens to most bootstrapping entrepreneurs.

The business world it’s tough, it’s at least a hundred times harder than you imagine it to be, and without flexibility you won’t make it to the finish line. Instead of falling in love with your business idea, think outside the box and start doing whatever it takes to generate cash flow in any way possible.

Heck, become a prostitute.

(Not a real one.)

But “prostitute” yourself a little bit, in other words, do things that you don’t like to do in order to make money.

Even if your end goal is to be a sports coach:

• You can do garage sales
• You can sell used products online
• You can use your growing skills to help others
• You can build websites for small businesses
• You can help successful businesses grow
• You can work with non-ideal clients

Do whatever it takes to keep your head over water, even if you don’t like it.

Every wealthy person had to work hard and do things they didn’t want to do in order to create their dream life. Most bootstrapping entrepreneurs are too soft and delusional.

They expect things to work.

Guess what, things won’t work right away, so figure out how to survive until they do.

Start building some damn cashflow and stop complaining.

Even if you’re deviating from your “ideal” dream scenario, it’s just a temporary detour. If you’re not willing to take it, if your ego is too bound up in your business, you’ll probably crash and burn sooner than later.

3) Work Harder Than Anyone You Know

Seriously, laziness will kill your business in a heartbeat.

Don’t ever get comfortable or think that you can work “smart”. I promise you, unless you have a slightly exhausted look on your face at the end of the day, you’re probably not pushing hard enough.

Entrepreneurs who build successful business have one thing in common:

They work really hard.

Ditch the Netflix binges, work on weekends, put in 16-hour days and pull all-nighters if needed.

Of course, take a short, earned break every once in a while.

But what I’ve learned over the years is that one has to earn breaks in business: Yes, watch a movie but only as a reward for an extremely productive day. Yes, take a weekend trip with your family but do it as a reward for a month of intense hustle and hard-core execution.

Here’s how to fail at business:

• Chill and tan at the beach
• Binge watch your favorite Netflix series
• Spend time researching on YouTube
• Reading to many business books
• Go for drinks every weekend
• Have an overactive social life
• Take weekends off

When I built my first business I didn’t take a single day off for three years, I worked on my birthday and on Christmas and I shrunk my social life to a bare minimum in order to stay focussed.

Will you have to do this forever?

Probably not.

But if you’re building your first business I recommend you do the same for the next three years.

Just work harder than anyone you know. Period.

4) Don’t Talk To Anyone About Your Business

Your business is only between you and god.

(Or whatever you like to call it…)

Stop talking to friends and family about your dreams, your vision and your progress. They are most likely going to discourage you, bring you off track or contribute to your downfall in some other way. Trust me on this one. Even if your family and friends don’t have bad intentions, talking about your goals with them will harm you.

Just shut up, get to work and let your results do the speaking in a few years.

Most people don’t understand business.

Most of your friends and family members don’t really want you to succeed. They want you to stay the way you are because they love you that way. If you’re serious about building your first business, quit the talking.

Exceptions to this rule are mentors and successful business owners that can actually support you and point you in the right direction. Then again, remember rule number one, keep an eye on your money. Try offering value in return for some mentoring, learn to extract information in a creative and smart way.

Buy a course or go to an event only if you really think it’s going to help you.

Having your own successful business is something that has to be earned. Avoid these four pitfalls on your journey to freedom and your odds of succeeding are way higher.

The bottom line is:

Building your first business is more of a mental journey than anything else.

It’s not so much about the technique, tactic or strategy (although those things do matter). But more importantly, you need to get your mindset straight and set yourself up to win long-term.

Here’s a nice little Forbes article on building business.

Let me know in the comments which pitfall you’ve been guilty of? 🙂