Are you making these mistakes in your nutrition business?
October 29th, 2018
Whether you’re a total newbie or a seasoned nutrition entrepreneur, making mistakes is one thing you can count on as a business owner. When I started my nutrition business, I wasted a ton of time and money on the wrong things like writing an ebook before I was clear on the needs of my niche and posting pretty food pics and inspirational quotes on social media that got me likes, but not clients.
On a positive note making mistakes in your business is a sign that you’re taking action, because the only way to make no mistakes is to do nothing at all. But what if you could avoid some of the most common mistakes nutrition entrepreneurs make?
Here are the top five most common mistakes to watch out for as you build your nutrition practice.
1) Trying to help everyone (not niching down)
The #1 thing I see keeping nutrition entrepreneurs stuck and spinning their wheels is not having a clearly defined niche. Truth is if you’re trying to help everyone, you’ll attract no one.
Having a niche allows you to become the go-to expert in a specialty area and design a signature program that truly solves a specific problem for your clients.
Not only that, choosing a niche means you get to work with people you actually WANT to work with…no more taking on any random client even though your intuition is screaming no!!
If you’re not clear on exactly who you want to work with yet, check out this free workbook I created with 7 powerful questions to help you narrow your niche.
2) Perfectionist Pitfall
As a recovering perfectionist, let me tell you that perfection and entrepreneurship don’t mix.
In the wise words of Mastin Kipp “perfectionism is a dream killer, because it’s just fear disguised as trying to do your best.”
Perfectionism will slow you down and in extreme cases possibly even prevent you from putting yourself out there in the first place. Now that would be a real shame because you’d be keeping all your special gifts and knowledge hidden from the people who need it the most!
Pop quiz! Which option is better:
a) A perfect idea trapped in your head
b) A good enough product or service that’s out there helping people
Successful entrepreneurs know that done is always better than perfect.
3) Wasting Time on Website & Logos
This one is SO common I wrote a whole blog post on this topic alone. Websites, logos, and fonts are fun but having the world’s most beautiful website won’t necessarily lead to clients.
If you’re still working in the clinical world and building your nutrition business on the side, spending hours scrolling the Creative Market vortex isn’t a good use of your precious time.
First get clear on your niche and how you’re going to serve them through your offers, then get out there and start building relationships to spread the word about who you desire to work with.
4) Learning vs. Doing
Guess what? You already know enough!
Learning is great. I LOVE learning. But I also know that learning can be a sneaky form of procrastination and perfectionism.
After years spent completing your nutrition degree, learning feels safe and familiar. It’s your comfort zone and putting yourself out there on the internet as a business owner feels scarier than a Gordon Ramsay outburst.
It’s easy to spend a ton of time learning everything about business and entrepreneurship, but if you’re not taking ACTION and IMPLEMENTING then you’re not going to see RESULTS.
As much as I love learning, there comes a time when you have to press pause on all the webinars and podcasts so that you can start DOING.
Next time you feel compelled to watch another webinar or sign up for another course, ask yourself if you really need more information. Or are you using it as an excuse to put yourself out there out there and start getting clients?
5) Lack of Focus (AKA Shiny Object Syndrome)
I see so many entrepreneurs trying to tackle a bunch of big projects all at once. They want to start a podcast, learn how to do webinars and create an e-course all at once! No wonder they aren’t gaining any traction.
Stop trying to do ALL the things because there’s no way to do them all well.
What you focus on grows, so I encourage you to commit at least 3 months to ONE goal at a time. If you’re just starting out in your nutrition business, I’m guessing that getting clients is one of your top priorities. And if that’s the case, you need to focus your attention on that goal.
It’s easy to get distracted in the noisy world of social media, but learning how to manage your focus is the most important thing you can do for your business.
What do you think? Are you making any of these mistakes in your nutrition business? Share in the comments below.