The biggest problem is when new entrepreneurs look for profitable ideas and gaps in the market, rather than making purposeful contributions to society. Even worse is the overuse of shortcut tactics and ‘growth hacks’ without caring about the product or market.
As a serial online marketer, I’ve worked in dozens of niches. For the first three or four years, I completely wasted my time, certainly from a financial point of view. New entrepreneurs tend to make two huge mistakes.
Firstly, they look at niches and products in terms of business opportunity, when they have zero interest in the product or service. They follow stats such as monthly search volume and the level of competition. That’s an easy way to burn out and be disillusioned over a project.
Secondly, they spend far too much time learning from ‘guru’s’ about ‘growth hacks’, ‘ninja strategies’ and other shortcuts. Most of these paths turn out to be dead ends. I now believe that this is because of a lack of authenticity. Examples of this bad approach include websites penalised in the search engines, or chasing ‘shiny objects’ along with millions of others around the world.
Now, when looking at an opportunity, I imagine the future. I think ten or twenty years ahead and wonder whether I’ll be proud of what I’ve done and if there’s a chance that the world is a better place because of it.
Jason Lavis is Managing Director of Out of the Box Innovations Ltd.
Visit Jason at: ootbinnovations.com
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