3 mistakes I made early on in my business… and how to avoid them

Looking back at how I started my business, there's so many things that I wish I had done differently, but also not. And I'll explain what I mean, but here are the top three. I'm Katie, your practical business coach, and I help new business owners leave their corporate nine to five and replace their six figure salary. And while sure I wasted a ton of time, money and energy on making these mistakes, I do not regret them. Because now that I'm a business strategist, I can explain to my clients that they are not alone in making these mistakes and I can show them exactly how to overcome them. The first mistake is I wasted so much money on a website when I first started that didn't get me anything. So when I started, I was terrified that no one would take me seriously. So to give myself credibility, I invested money I did not have on a website that I did not need, that did not get me a single client, when what I should have done was invest more time and energy on putting myself out there on social media. That's exactly what I teach my clients to do. The second mistake I made was I spent so much money on these online courses showing me like step by step guides on how to start a business, none of them worked for me. Even though none of them worked for me, I kept spending money on them. When I first started, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing because I had never started a business before. And so it sounded so cool that someone just had a business in a box program that would show me step by step exactly what to do. Because it worked for them. They insisted that it would work for me and it didn't. And honestly, the worst part about this is that after buying a bunch of these things and going through them and having it not work for me, I started assuming there was something wrong with me. When really a one size fits all solution never works for everyone. In fact, it works for very few people. And the best lesson I learned from this mistake was that when I developed my group programs for my clients, I made it a choose your own adventure. Because everyone needs something different. Because everyone's values are different, their goals are different, the type of business is different, the types of clients they're going after is different. And really there are some core business skills that you need to develop, but other than that, you really need a coach and a guide who can help you make it your own. And the third mistake I made was I massively undercharged for my services. And because I was a brand new business owner and a brand new coach, I kind of figured, okay, well, I'm not allowed to charge more money for my work because I haven't done this as a business before, which is some shitty logic. I had it all mapped out in my mind that I would start off charging like $20 an hour, and then I would gradually raise my rates. And what ended up happening is I started attracting really non committal clients who, because they weren't committed, didn't see any results because they never did the fucking work. And I can tell you 100% of my clients today, when they start with me, they are massively undercharging for their work as well. And the best part about making these mistakes is that when my clients come to me and they're feeling embarrassed and ashamed that they've made these mistakes early on in their business, I can tell them honestly, no, no, no, no, there's no need for shame. There's no need for embarrassment. Everyone goes through this. And also, here's exactly what we can do to move you past this. So if you're starting a business and you've made some mistakes, go easy on yourself and like and follow for more content like this.