Ten mistakes first-time entrepreneurs make and how to avoid them

Executive overview

Most new entrepreneurs stay busy without making sales — building lists, buying courses, and testing ideas without ever asking a customer to pay. The fix is the same in every case: find a paying customer before you build anything.

Customers first, always — everything else is distraction.

The 10 mistakes

1. Spending a month on the business with zero customers. Building a mailing list isn't a business. Ask people to buy before you optimise anything.
2. Bouncing between ideas without committing. Fear of failure drives half-effort across many ideas. Pick one and run the law of 100: stick with it for 100 days.
3. Selling to strangers instead of your network. Ads and Reddit let you avoid accountability. Your network wants to help you — start there.
4. Spending over $1,000 before earning $1. Logos, apps, and paperwork are not progress. Get three customers in 48 hours before spending anything.
5. Blaming external conditions. A bad economy or pandemic reveals a product people don't need enough. Take ownership. Would customers notice if your business disappeared?
6. (Unlabelled in transcript — implied: not pre-selling.) Pre-sell before you build. One example: selling handcrafted ice cream before buying the machine, generating £6,000 in first-month revenue.
7. Buying too many courses. More knowledge feels like progress but avoids the hard work. Time out on content. Reward yourself with a course only after you've landed customers.
8. Giving up too soon. Success is often boring and slow. Quitting at 30,000 podcast downloads because it wasn't 100,000 is a mistake. Keep going until 100 attempts.
9. Not using your day job as an investor. You don't need to quit to start. Keep the income, reduce risk. Only leave when the side project hits $1k/month.
10. Chasing trending opportunities. Crypto, dropshipping, content creation — each is a career, not a shortcut. Solve a problem you have. You'll have at least one customer you know you care about.

Seven takeaways

1. Law of 100 — commit to 100 iterations before deciding to quit.
2. Coffee challenge — ask for 10% off anything to build the ask muscle.
3. Minimum viable customer — get customers before building the product.
4. Start today — not next week, not after the next course.
5. No more courses — until you have paying customers.
6. Day job as lead investor — keep oxygen in the business while you validate.
7. Scratch your own itch — solve a problem you personally have.