Today, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn't – at least – toyed with the idea of ​​starting one e-commerce business. The United States is the global leader by one rating 14 million e-commerce sites, and this number will only continue to grow as online sales continue to gain traction from everyone from established brick and mortar businesses individuals taking their first entrepreneurial steps.

While, yes, raising one e-commerce store it's easier than ever before, unfortunately, achieving sales and success is as difficult as it's ever been. Perhaps even more, given the growing competition. As the CEO of an on-demand consumer goods platform, I have a front-row seat to the trials and triumphs of today's digital businesses. I have been a witness first time entrepreneurs achieving life-changing success and I've seen great ideas fail due to poor execution and everything in between.

What I have noticed is that people succeed in different ways, but often fail in the same ones. It's hard to spot a success story before it happens, but it's easy to tell if a business is going to struggle. With that in mind, here are the four most common mistakes people make that you should avoid when starting an e-commerce business.

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Succumbing to perfection paralysis

Some great products have never seen the light of day just because the business owner couldn't find the perfect button color for their website. That sounds ridiculous – until you're the one in that position, wasting countless hours sweating the small stuff trying to get everything perfect.

Perfection it's a common vice especially among first-time entrepreneurs, as they don't understand what constitutes “good enough.” People go to great lengths to emulate the industry's best examples, forgetting that larger companies often have entire teams of developers, designers, and authors doing what the entrepreneur tries to manage alone. “Doing things right” is simply unrealistic.

Instead, it might be wise to take a page out of a product developer's playbook and focus on an MVP—a minimum viable product. The idea behind an MVP is that you do the minimum required to get a working product or, in our case, a store. And then, once it's up and running, you can iterate, improve, and polish it to your heart's content. This will help you overcome the paralysis of perfection and focus on what really moves the needle.

It is sold to everyone

Speaking of moving needles, building a brand without realizing your own CUSTOMER it's like sailing without a compass. Sure, you can move, but in which direction? What challenges will you face? Should you have brought hiking boots or a boat?

The ABCs of Entrepreneurship will show you that for your business to be successful, it must answer a real need. But it falls on your shoulders to identify who exactly has that need. More often than not, it's a small subsection of people. (And if it's not—that's a red flag that you may be biting off more than you can chew.)

This audience will have unique characteristics, including demographics, preferences, pain points and more. Successful businesses use these factors to create tailored messages to choose the best advertising platforms and to further develop their offer. In contrast, unsuccessful companies are unaware of who these high-potential customers are and instead opt for blanket messages that appeal to everyone and no one in particular.

Experience shows that a laser-focused approach beats a wide net every time.

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Refusal to adapt or admit errors

Failure is an inevitable part of early entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, it is also at this early stage that people are most idealistic. They have set expectations of how everything will work, and they become tunnel visioned to bring this specific idea to life instead of building a successful business.

As you might expect, this initial vision is usually wrong. Want to stand out with a super distinctive brand voice? There's a reason why no one else is doing it. Want to bring a product to a new audience? There is a reason why this audience was not interested in that product.

The hallmark of a high-potential business is the ability to recognize when their idea isn't working and move on to an alternative. Yes, it's hard to kill your loved ones, but if you don't, you'll find yourself banging your head against the wall, bleeding resources for a failed concept.

Note that this is not just about your business idea, but all of your business activities, including design, marketing, product, etc. If something doesn't work, adjust.

Trying to juggle everything alone

Going from idea to first sale requires a wide variety of skills, which means solopreneurs have to wear many hats. They must be designers, copywriters, web developers, user experience experts, accountants, partnership managers, and marketers—and all without even mentioning the product itself, which includes design, sourcing, logistics, photography, and more. .

Some people make it, and that's admirable. But you don't have to go it alone.

For example, I constantly see aspiring entrepreneurs get absorbed in learning peripheral skills, such as graphic design, when, in reality, they need little more than a logo that would cost $5 to get. from a freelancer to a workplace. Worse yet, people burn out from the constant learning and abandon their business ideas just because they can't manage something they could have paid someone else a few dollars to do.

Of course, those who struggle like to wear their misfortunes as a badge of honor. Taking pride in doing things the hard way is human nature. But it's not necessarily good business.