- Hey guys, I'm James Sinclair.
I'm an entrepreneur here in the United Kingdom.
I've been in business for over 14 years now.
And probably over 400 people.
We turn millions of pounds in sales each year.
And I love making videos to help other
entrepreneurs and business owners.
Indeed, in this country and around the world,
we've got viewers from all over the show now.
And in this video I'm going to share with you
my seven biggest mistakes in business
and how you can avoid them.
Let's go.
Mistake number one for me was
not building a database as soon as I got into business.
It took me years before I actually
got in and built a database.
And then, I realised we could communicate
with our customers and get sales instantly.
It's a thing that's very important
and not urgent to the business,
and therefore businesses lots of businesses don't do that.
It's so important to build what marketers call the list
as soon as you start in business,
and then communicate with the customers
as regularly as you can.
We have over hundred thousand customers
coming through our doors,
and we didn't know a single piece of data on them
until years later, a huge mistake.
One which I know I wish I could change,
and I would have gotten a hold
of a million pounds more worth of sales
if I had just done that sooner.
Mistake number two was setting up a stretch limo company.
A stretch limo company, I did that.
And the big problems were this:
number one, they invested capitol from the business
in something we didn't really understand, disaster.
Number two, you needed really specialist staff
that could drive really long cars.
I didn't have any of those.
And mistake number three was, I built this business
where you've done all the effort to find this customer,
and they'd only buy from you once.
They didn't want to hire a stretch limousine all the time
unless they were some multibillionaire,
which wasn't our market.
We were going to people for 40th birthday parties,
weddings, anniversaries, big, special nights out.
They never wanted a repeat buyer, that's a disaster.
And now I know that I must build businesses
where you can get repeat customers.
Try not to build businesses where your customer
only needs to buy from you once like a funeral parlour.
Mistake number three, was not investing
in content marketing sooner.
See, I now I realise that content marketing is the only
ground for businesses to survive in 2019 and beyond.
Now, I saw the Youtube growing in 2008 and nine and said,
we have got to start our own tv channel on Youtube.
But it took us seven, eight, nine, ten years later
before we really got into that.
We have left thousands of pounds or dollars
on the table when we could have grabbed customers
and got their attention from producing
good quality daily content, weekly content
to really build customers closer to us.
And to keep front of mind, I wish I'd have done that sooner.
Huge, massive mistake from me.
Mistake number four is all about margin.
And margin in the products and services we deliver.
You see, in the early days of my entrepreneurial career,
I was driving turnover and not worrying about margin.
It's really important to worry about margin,
especially if you're a small to medium-sized enterprise.
And a small to medium-size enterprise in the United Kingdom
is something that's turning up to 25 million pounds.
So, that's quite a big business.
And you must concentrate on margin rather than
just driving turnover because therefore,
you've got more chance of being profitable,
and you don't have to deal with the big boys
that are turning billions to make millions.
Mistake number five is stretching your management team
into new ventures before you're ready.
So, this is something that entrepreneurs do all the time.
They open up new branches, or they
start new things within their business,
and they can't properly afford
the decent quality management to run those new things.
This is a big, cancerous DNA for entrepreneurs.
You must find great management that can invest
in this new business wholeheartedly.
The same sort of management level and expertise
you did when you started your original business.
So, make sure that you don't stretch your team,
and invest in the best quality
management to start the new business.
And if you can't, don't do the new business or venture.
Mistake number six was doing brand marketing
over direct response marketing.
And there's a huge difference,
but I didn't understand the big difference.
Now, I believe in direct marketing.
That's marketing to people that
are most likely to buy from you.
That's why you want to build a database.
People that have bought from you before, a market to them.
Most people do what I call brand marketing.
It's the same stuff that Gucci do,
that Coca-Cola do, that Apple do.
They're doing stuff on a much broader scale,
investing millions and millions of pounds.
Most small to medium-sized enterprises say
oh, my marketing's not working.
That's cause they're doing broad stroke
brand marketing rather than direct response marketing.
Going directly to people that would
most likely buy from you.
If you want to know more about
direct response marketing or direct marketing,
check out our other videos.
Mistake number seven is not acting
on tough decisions sooner.
See, when you've got a business or you employ people,
there will be tough decisions to be made
within your organisation at some point.
It's making those tough decisions quicker and faster,
which will get you through those tough
times quicker and faster.
Especially when it comes around to employing people.
If you employ people and you know that
they're toying with your company,
it's no longer good, or you can't afford them,
rather than putting yourself through
loads and loads of stress,
you need to act on those decisions far, far quicker.
And sometimes you have to think right,
if we're going to do these things,
it's going to be difficult but it'll save the mothership.
Then, that decision has to be made.
Hope you've really enjoyed these seven mistakes
that I've made in business.
If you've got any comments please put them below.
And I'll try my best to respond to them.
See ya, buh bye.
Hey guys, thanks for watching the video.
Really hope you learned loads.
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And it gets better than that.
If you want to come and spend the day
with me and learn some real entrepreneurial stuff,
come to my free Super Success Seminar.
All the details of how you can come along to there
are in the link in the description of the video.
See you really soon, buh bye.