Hi everyone! I’ve just filed my first LLC & am planning to open a vintage boutique in my city- I’m completely new to owning a legitimate business of my own. I thought this would be a great question to ask as I know I’ll be making many mistakes in my first year of business.
Please feel free to comment your favorite mistake!
Honor your boundaries. Customers and clients will push them both in time and money. Stick to your guns.
This is very helpful- thank you!
Partner with other businesses in a way that’s mutually beneficial.
Do not let your overhead creep up. You will get 1000 sales calls a day from someone offering some product to improve your buisness. Be cautious.
This, you need to say no to every salesman that is looking to sell you something. Remember you are new, they aren’t.
Caveat here: sometimes they can actually deliver value. Don’t let them decide if their tool can deliver value or not, but sometimes a little self reflection and research is warranted.
When in doubt, though, just ignore them, lol
I totally agree. I have a clover system (worst choice I’ve ever made). I get the scammiest calls for payment processing and cash discount programs, and the “visa and mastercard update” this is a sales call. They are annoying.
Why was clover a bad choice?
I love my Clover system, but the company I bought it from was a scammy, scummy place that lied through their teeth to me when I was less experienced.
Exactly, the company that sold me the system where the worst. They still are. I haven’t figured out how to get out of it yet.
One of the biggest mistakes was not realizing insurance was based on gross revenues.
We estimated 100k for example and did like 300k so we paid more in our insurance audit then we did for the year.
Also minimize debt anyway you can. We have a credit card we use but it’s typically paid off every couple of weeks.
Find a bookkeeper or CPA that can help you set your books up early or from day one as it makes it easier to understand later.
Hire slow, fire fast. It’s ok to be a demanding boss. Do more marketing than you think you need to, then even more. Trust your employees but have systems in place to verify everything
Make sure you pay your workmans comp
Underrated advice
Learnt that the hard way. Knew nothing about it till they came knocking on my office door.
Uh oh…I’m a single member LLC. Do I have to pay workers comp??
I am too and I have no employees and I do not pay that
No, owners/officers are able to be exempt from WC. But if you hire anyone as W2 or 1099 you should have it for them.
I didn’t understand the power of networking. (Service business.)
If possible, don’t put your business on Rating sites. Better to have a great word of mouth reputation. Also, your business type isn’t really something people use ratings for because it’s so niche (not so many vintage shops compared to restaurants and you probably have a majority of older women who will be your customer base). Rating sites will make you obsessive about the wrong things and you’ll take personal offense to non-perfect responses. All distractions.
This is so smart. Various friends with business are always so distraught over a bad review it ruins their mood like about a week 🤣
Business model is everything. A bad operator can have success with a great model/offer. A great operator will still struggle/fail with a bad model/offer.
Thank you!
Increase fees. You’ll weed out the bad clients.
Read and implement Profit First.
Sometimes, you just gotta take a step back and ask: “What is the most simple and direct path to my goal”. We have a tendency to overcomplicate things and look for new shiny solutions. I have fallen into that traps so many times and it can become very costly.
That is great advice! Keep it simple.
Yep. If you can think of a shinier way, that’s great… write it down and come back to it in the next tax year. For now, go with simple and direct.
Do not get behind on payroll taxes, even though it is seemingly a small penalty.
Back of house bookkeeping is more important than the romance of the product.
Consistency is underrated.
What illegitimate businesses did you own?
Don’t trust anyone, when I say anyone I mean anyone. During the first few years learn to do everything so that no employee can BS you.
Most importantly check the work done by your staff constantly, double check, triple check if you have to. You will thank me later.