What's one mistake you made in your first year of business that new owners should avoid?

Question

Hi everyone! 👋
I'm a newer business owner and one thing I've learned is that there is always something new to discover. I'd love to hear from those of you who have been in business for a while.
If you could go back to your first year in business, what is one mistake you would avoid or one piece of advice you wish someone had given you?
Whether it's pricing, customer communication, marketing, hiring, scheduling, or operations, I think your experiences could help many of us who are still building our businesses.
Looking forward to learning from everyone. Thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom!

hugehomepros · Answer

Don't hire a marketing agency. Finance (bookkeeping hand off immediately but financial analysis and decisions is what I mean) and marketing should be one of the last things you hand off as you are delegating things off your plate. There are a lot of ways to get leads easily/ quickly and they are way less expensive than paying someone $500-$2000/month on top of the ad spend. Put the time in to learning what works, invest some time in to your GMB page or learn what exactly you want on your website/ what would make a good website so you can analyze your future marketing firms performance adequately. When you first start out, you need to be doing the marketing basics (getting review, GMB being up to date, handing out door hangers, networking events, social media etc) before approaching a marketing company.&nbsp;

janierucker · Answer

Thank you for sharing this! I really appreciate you breaking it down in a practical way. One thing that stood out to me was your point about learning the basics of marketing before handing it off to someone else. It makes sense that understanding things like your Google Business Profile, reviews, networking, and your website would help you make better decisions as your business grows. As a newer business owner, advice like this is incredibly valuable. Thanks again for taking the time to help those of us who are still learning! 🙌🏾

travisshepherd · Answer

Hey there! Great question, and congrats on getting your business off the ground. 🎉​I’m actually in my first year of running my own business right now, though I’ve been working in the trade for years. Moving from doing the work to managing the business side has been a huge eye-opener!​The biggest lesson I've learned in this first year—even with a lot of hands-on experience under my belt—is that you have to prove your value visually right out of the gate.​When you start your own thing, you don’t have years of established company reviews to back you up. To bridge that gap, I’ve focused heavily on building a digital portfolio. Taking high-quality before-and-after photos and showcasing those transformations on Instagram has been an absolute game-changer.​When people can see the dramatic, night-and-day difference in your work, the fact that your business is new doesn't matter anymore. Your skill speaks for itself.​Wishing you the absolute best of luck! It’s a wild ride, but you're already asking the right questions!!!

Forum Discussion

What's one mistake you made in your first year of business that new owners should avoid?

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