Just starting a business? Watch out for these beginner's mistakes

There you are, with your brand new Chamber of Commerce registration in the pocket. Your entrepreneurial adventure can begin! Prevent a false start by avoiding the most common beginner’s mistakes. Then you will immediately be 1-0 ahead of your competition. We list them for you:

Charging too low a rate

Do not sell yourself short by charging too little for your products and services. Beginning entrepreneurs often do not dare to ask the top price, because they are ‘just getting started’. They first want to build a portfolio, to gather evidence. But how long you have been an entrepreneur has nothing to do with the quality of your work, right? Also realise that, by setting your price low, you are sending out the wrong signal to your potential client: apparently, this is the price that matches the quality you deliver. Dare to value your products and services – and make a stand if necessary. Quality has to be paid for. Simple as that.

Forgetting to establish your brand (on time!)

Before you ‘hit the stage’, first register your concept (whether that’s your company name, logo, product design, text or unique sound) as a trademark. With a trademark registration, you are in the strongest position against copying behaviour – and you safeguard your originality. You desperately need this for your success. Think about it: if other entrepreneurs can just copy you, without you being able to go against them, you’re as interchangeable as anything. So: make sure you stand out from the crowd – and establish your brand!

Do it in time. By this we mean: before you start investing. Because your trademark has to meet a number of legal requirements in order to be registered as such. Does it turn out that you have to go back to the drawing board? If so, it’s pretty bad when you’ve already invested in – for example – marketing, design and purchasing.

In the blog ‘5 reasons why your trademark deserves protection’ we tell you more about the usefulness and necessity of trademark protection.

Not daring to invest

Many start-ups like to think twice about spending every euro. Especially if you are not yet generating any turnover, investing out of your own pocket can be quite exciting. But be aware that an investment always pays off – and will even earn you more. That is also the reason for your investment: that you will benefit from it in the long run – and achieve success with it. Even if the latter is not the case, at least you have learned something from it. In short: dare to invest in that training, coach, marketer or website. It will always pay off!

Being too modest

You can be as good as you like: if nobody knows you are nothing. Visibility is key, in order to build up your clientele and your image. So dare to promote yourself and claim that expert role. Because if you don’t believe in yourself, neither will anyone else.

Wanting to do everything yourself

Having your own business involves a lot of work. To keep the shop running, you will inevitably also have to deal with matters such as purchasing, shipping, taxes, administration, marketing… To save costs, starters like to do as much as possible themselves. But a) you can’t be good at everything and b) it costs you a lot of time. That time is better spent doing what you are good at. And what will earn you the money. That is ultimately your right to exist.

It’s a shame if you get so caught up in the organisational side of your business that the quality of your products and services suffers. In the end, that will cost you a lot more money than hiring specialists like an accountant, business consultant, copywriter or website builder. Just like you, they know their trade like no other. And your business will only benefit from that! Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)