When you are self-employed, you are the boss, secretary, accountant, and marketing director. So, what do you do when you lack one or more of those skills? The most straightforward answer is to learn from others because experience really is the best teacher. Here is a guide from Simpay that demonstrates the top seven devastating mistakes self-employed entrepreneurs make.

1. You Undervalue Your Training and Skill Set

The most critical element to a successful business is revenue potential. Your budget, operating costs, and taxes come out of your revenue. If you are lucky, you will have enough profit to give yourself a paycheck. The first thing you should do is research and develop a fee schedule based on your local market and skill set. When you know what you are worth, you have a higher potential for a successful business model.

2. You Lack Discipline

If you are going to run your own business successfully, you must have discipline. You must work more extended hours to compete with the competition. You have to complete administrative duties, marketing, and website upkeep outside of your primary routine. Time management can significantly increase efficiency.

➧ Set aside time first thing in the morning to check emails and schedule your day.

➧ Download Streak. It is a fully functional, cloud-based CRM with the capability to send files, manage tasks, and send emails. The application has fundraiser abilities and product or service development, which makes it an ideal choice for a startup.

➧ EasyNote is a free task manager that allows you to assign yourself duties so that you focus on daily tasks. Reminders also keep you on track.

➧ Use Google Docs so that you can make changes to documents when needed. It enables you to coordinate with clients while outside of the office.

3. Office Duties Are Outside Your Expertise

An office administrator plays a significant role in any office as he or she types documents, provides customer support, enters receipts, or processes orders. It is a full-time job that requires focus and attention to detail. As an entrepreneur, it is now your responsibility. You will need to type efficiently and learn about application suites, spreadsheets, and databases. Your computer already has Microsoft Office, which is terrific for self-starters.

4. You Fail to Produce a Business Policy and Procedure

Many small business owners still work on the premise of a handshake. It is one of the worst mistakes you can make as you do not have explicit protection under the law.

➧ Develop terms and conditions and service agreements as they detail business and client responsibilities.

➧ You will also need a legal document of privacy policies that detail how your business processes and stores personally identifiable information.

5. You Do Not Realize When You Are Over Your Head

A grave mistake is not asking for help when you need it. If you try to do everything yourself, it will cause you undue stress if it is something you do not yet know how to do. You would do well to ask friends, family, or even hire a contractor to help with some of the tasks you cannot complete. A contractor can do a lot in just a few hours, which is well worth the investment since you can invest more time to job completion.

6. You Do Not Have Accounting Experience

Accounting is more than just math. In business, an accountant focuses on assets, capital, and liability. As an entrepreneur, this is an essential duty as you must measure financial transactions, analyze data regarding revenue and loss, and file taxes.

➧ Since you already have Office, you can utilize Excel to build a spreadsheet to track revenue and expenses.

➧ You can file your taxes under your social security number and qualify for self-employment tax breaks. You can also contact the IRS and register for an employer identification number, which makes tax obligations much easier to navigate.

➧ You can use an online tax filing agency, which walks you through the steps and configure any tax liability. If you want to do it manually, the IRS provides plenty of information to help you through the process.

7. You Lack a Payment Processing System

There are two primary issues with cash-only businesses. First, customers generally want companies that accept electronic payments, which means you will miss out on revenue. Second, entrepreneurs tend to offer discounts because cash is the only source of income.

➧ As a Simpay client, you have access to EMV (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) payment processors, point-of-sale equipment, and payroll personnel, which makes you more accessible.

➧ Quality customer support is always on standby so you do not have to worry about issues like error codes mentioned in the guide from Simpay.

You do not have to implement all the changes before starting your business. It is an excellent strategy to plan and execute the most vital requirements and scale as your business does.