What are some of the silliest mistakes you’ve made running a business ? I have soooo many
Once I hired a sweet old man to do my bookkeeping. I had no idea what was the difference between accounting and finance. Neither did I know manufacturing accounts is psycho level. Or that startup is so temperamental and accounts need stability. This sweet old person wasn't cut out to do the job but I did not have the heart to fire him. SO i learned bookkeeping, did his job, paid his salary, did not pay myself and that went on for a year before I had no choice but to let him go. I did buy him a nice ice shaver machine as a farewell gift (We have this ice shaved dessert locally that he loves)
Lessons learnt are quite obvious here. But also, as an entrepreneur, it helps to know what's your cash flow status on a weekly basis or even daily. That and figuring out cal table strategy will up the game if you are on the VC route.
I have a long list of other mistakes. Used to be such a tech snob, so much of a humbling process involved. Used to think hardcore tech speciality means I can't do creative things. Used to think marketing was too fancy and complicated and out of my depth. Used to think finance math was hard. Not knowing the difference between personal branding vs business branding and how to optimize both. Not pivoting fast enough. Not knowing what to do when you have so much advice thrown at you. Not removing emotions out of business. Thinking that everyone knows better than you. Not having confidence. Feeling insecure. Also, I was that person who had “if you build it they would come” on my chat status for 2 years - I read this on nostr:npub1r0rs5q2gk0e3dk3nlc7gnu378ec6cnlenqp8a3cjhyzu6f8k5sgs4sq9ac post and was thinking to myself I was totally that idiot lol. I am still making a lot of mistakes in terms of time management with all the extra jobs i have and that's something I really need to work on.
But my point is, people make mistakes. It's ok to make mistakes. Mistakes are not going to define you as a person. A project failure is not a representation of a person’s failure.
What really makes a difference is understanding what's right and expanding on it, what's wrong and doing something about it. This entrepreneurship journey is a journey on not just the business but also on yourself. It really really shakes things up.
My biggest mistake so far was to send a package to the UK but without tracking to save on fees. It was costing me 70-80$ with tracking so I opted for no tracking at 50$.
Client haven't received it and since there's no Tracking I feel obligated to do the work again and send it with tracking. A lot of money will be lost but brand reputation is everything to me.
(I have my website really really soon btw 🤗)
Pain!
wow that expensive. logistics is a whole diff painful world. But that's a really expensive logistics cost. who are you sending it through? and how large is your parcel? Are you sending from the US ? Also with UK, their VAT makes export hurt more. And with leather your HScodes will raise all alarm bells. My biggest mistake with logistics what not understanding volumetric cost and thinking fancy packaging rocks lol.
This note might interest you
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Keep going! although one year from would love to know all your learnings
From Canada. I use Canada post since it's the easiest way for me. I had so much going and so little energy left I didn't go around to shop shipping prices so maybe I could've found cheaper elsewhere but sometimes you gotta chose where you direct this energy.
It was a 9x6x4 boxe. Not that big. Also one of my customers in Germany got hit by a taxe upon receiving her's. It sucks there's no way for them to know before hand. I'll have to warn them.
But lost packages really is my nightmare..
