7 Mistakes to Avoid While Building Your First Business

hey friends welcome back to the channel

if you're new here my name is Ali I'm a

doctor turned entrepreneur and the

author of feelg good productivity which

is about how to be more productive in a

way that actually feels good and in this

video I want to talk through seven major

mistakes that I've made through the

Journey of growing my business over the

last few years I've grown my business

from zero to over $5 million a year in

Revenue I've grown my team from being

just me to over 14 full-time employees

and I've made so many mistakes along the

way and I'm making this video in the

hope that you don't make those same

mistakes whether it's in your business

or in your life because a lot of these

mistakes are actually applicable to life

and not just work this video is

sponsored by HubSpot more on them later

all right so mistake number one is that

I did not have goals now this is a

ridiculously important point that I wish

I could just go back and tell myself and

Hammer into my brain so please bear with

me as I try and kind of explain my

thinking around this what I mean by this

is that we can sort of imagine we are

currently at Point a and we wanted to

try and get somewhere so with my

business I knew that I wanted some sense

of like Financial Freedom I knew I

wanted the freedom to be able to quit my

job job if I wanted to I knew I wanted

passive income and so that was partly

why I decided to start this YouTube

channel but throughout that process of

growing the business for a lot of it I

didn't really have a clear goal I didn't

have a Northstar I didn't have a

destination that I was working towards I

would speak to coaches and stuff and

they would say oh you know what's your

Revenue goal for the year and I would

say I don't know I don't really have a

revenue goal other than to be profitable

and okay okay are you sure you sure you

don't want a revenue goal and I'll be

like no I don't really want a revenue

goal etc etc now the reason I didn't

want to set goals for my business or for

my YouTube channel in the early days is

because I didn't want to set a goal that

was outside of my control I didn't want

to set like an arbitrary like subscriber

Milestone or something like that and I

only wanted to set a goal which was like

you know I'm just going to make one or

two videos a week and just see what

happens and I think again in the early

days that bias to action that just sort

of just making things happen really

worked but it was when I started hiring

people you know when you start growing a

business you start hiring people they

start looking to you as the leader to

you know provide some direction and have

a sense of where you want to go and

because I didn't know this like my team

were also fairly lost and like not

really knowing what to do and I sort of

hide people being like yeah I want to

hire you to help me like grow this

YouTube channel but like I don't really

know where it's going and I don't really

know why I want to grow the YouTube

channel and I don't really know what the

business around it is so yeah welcome

aboard good luck and it's sort of like

being the captain of a ship and hiring

crewm mates to come on the ship but like

the captain being like yeah I'm not

really sure where we're going we're sort

of going that way and like yeah we'll

just sort of keep going that way the

other thing that I used to think back in

the day was

well if I set a goal and then I don't

hit it then I'll be disappointed I

realized that that logic was actually

flawed because you can actually set

goals and also not be disappointed if

you don't hit it the feeling of

disappointment is a choice right I can

choose to feel disappointed or not

whether I hit the target or not but the

way my CEO coach Eric partaker put it he

was like look man I get it that you

don't want to be disappointed if you

don't hit the goal but like currently

it's like you're throwing darts with a

blindfold on so at least just take the

blindfold off and let's just visualize

where the target is and now even if you

do nothing else just by virtue of the

fact that you can see the target you are

far more likely to get there a lot of

students in my parttime YouTuber Academy

and parttime YouTuber accelerator come

to me and ask me for advice and the

thing I find myself saying is like great

I'm happy to give you advice but the

first thing we need to do is we need to

Define what is the goal what are you

actually trying to go for is the goal to

be making a 100 Grand this year or 50

Grand this year is the goal to hit

10,000 subscribers this year is the goal

to enjoy the process of making YouTube

videos and not be worried about the goal

like what is actually the thing that you

want just sit down and come up with a

rough Vision a sense of where you're

trying to get to and then it'll be

infinitely easier to find the path to

getting there and that's also not to say

that you can't change your mind on this

you know I've set various goals for the

business we've started moving in that

direction and then I've changed my mind

I'm like all right cool now we're moving

in a different direction but it's a lot

easier to steer a moving ship than a

stationary ship if you're just if you

start making progress in One Direction

you can always change the goal but not

having the goal in the first place means

that it's a lot harder to go on the

journey so that is one thing I would

tell to my previous self all right now

we come to mistake number two which is

once I realized the value of having a

goal and the value of having this

destination in mind I decided to set too

many goals and the thing I wish I could

tell myself is set the goal but don't

set too many of them ideally have just

one that you're focusing on for your

business and then maybe like two or

three others for the business that are

sort of like helping you get to that one

goal because when you have multiple

goals you know at one point I was like

okay cool there's value in setting goals

so let's get the business to I don't

know this million in Revenue let's get

the profit to this amount margin let's

grow our YouTube channel to this many

subscribers let's grow Instagram to this

many and int to this many and Tik Tok to

this many and like email list to this

many and also in our courses let's grow

the courses to this amount and I started

making this ridiculously long list of

goals and I posted this on Twitter a

couple years ago being like yeah these

are our okrs are objectives and key

results and everyone who is an

experienced entrepreneur looked at that

list and was like bro this is way too

many even now when I speak to

entrepreneurs and coaches and mentors

and stuff I still have a tendency to set

too many goals I've learned from that

and my 2024 goal for the business is to

launch our new productivity lab product

and to try and get it to 5 million year

in Revenue it's just that's the one

thing that I'm focusing on just because

that's the one thing I'm focusing on

doesn't mean I'm not doing other things

but it means that everything else I do

is filtered with that destination in

mind for me the goal is to get

productivity lab to 5 million a year in

Revenue why cuz I think it's a cool goal

to work towards and cuz why not I'm not

wedded to the Target I'm not wedded to

the goal if we don't get there I don't

really care but it's like a cool

destination to slowly work towards when

I do coaching sessions for other

entrepreneurs I find myself asking them

what's the goal then I would say things

like okay you know let's say a year from

now 12 months from now what are some

things you'd like to be celebrating in

the business like what are some cool

milestones and so they might say oh you

know I'd love to get the business to I

don't know 5K a month in Revenue you

know I've been thinking of growing on

Instagram I'd love to get my Instagram

following top 300K you know I've been

thinking I should probably start a

newsletter I'd love to start a

newsletter and grow that to X and you

think of making products i' have to make

a product that does this and this and

this and you know while I'm there I

should probably post on Tik Tok and then

yeah if I'm posting on Tik Tok I should

prob post YouTube shorts as well so yeah

those are my goals and I'm like okay

cool let's write all those down now look

at that list now if I could wave a magic

wand and make make any one of those

goals happen but only one you're only

allowed to hit one of those goals which

goal would it be and they're usually

like oh well I guess I'd love to get

100K profit in the business great that's

the one goal that is the one thing the

other stuff makes sense as a vehicle as

a path to get to that one thing but

defining the one thing is incredibly

helpful but incidentally one mistake

that I've not made is using chat GPT to

supercharge my productivity and if you

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easier one thing from it that I found

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the risk of plagiarism which is very

important to be aware of if you're

planning to use AI especially for me as

a writer like obviously I don't want to

plagiarize my writing content through AI

you can click the link in the video

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and the resource was very kindly made by

the lovely team at HubSpot who are also

very kindly sponsoring this video and

anyway let's get back to it and mistake

number three is not recognizing that

there are always multiple paths to get

from A to B and so for example last year

when I think we were aiming for 5

million in business revenue and we

actually hit the goal I knew that one

path of getting there I make just make

more videos I knew that another path of

getting there was like sell a course

like sell like a $1,000 course like I

don't know 5,000 times and that would

get us to 5 million I did not appreciate

that you could do a high ticket offer

that had customer success baked in in a

way that wasn't tied to my own time I

did not realize that I could potentially

try and build software I didn't realize

for example that there might have been

an easy path to 5 million by doing a

service-based business selling to other

businesses I didn't realize that there

might have been a path to 5 million in

Revenue doing corporate consulting or

doing Learning and Development courses

and workshops for corporations who have

loads of money these are just a few

examples and these are probably not

going to Vibe with where you are in your

life I suspect because they're specific

to my situation but the point is with

any destination we're trying to get to

there are always multiple ways of

getting there some of those paths are

things that you will know about but some

of them are going to be things that you

don't know about so what do you do about

the unknown paths what I really wish I

had done is firstly read more books

specifically about how to get from A to

B I would probably posted on Twitter to

be like hey my goal is to get the

business do 10 million in revenue or

whatever the thing might be can anyone

recommend any books that I might find

useful but more importantly than that I

wish I'd spoken to people I wish I'd

spoken to people who had done that thing

already I know through my network lots

of entrepreneurs who were doing 5

million Revenue last year I did not

think that I could just message them and

say hey man you know I'm trying to get

the business from X to Y I know you've

done it would love to hop on a zoom call

if you can share any advice I didn't

realize that I could hire a coach who

has done the thing before and grown a

business because I thought well how am I

going to find someone who's specifically

grown a YouTube channel from this amount

to this amount and specifically grown a

business based on a YouTube channel it's

like okay maybe there aren't that many

people out there who have done it

specifically with a YouTube channel but

the principles of business and life are

broadly the same regardless of which

particular business vehicle you happen

to be in there's a phrase um from a book

by Ben Hardy and Dan Sullivan called who

not how when you're thinking about the

path of getting from A to B don't start

by thinking how am I going to get there

instead think who could possibly help me

along the way and now you know we've got

a goal of hitting 10 million in business

sometime next year cuz why not it's kind

have a fun goal and like there's this

cool like visual that I I sometimes

think about there's like a window and

there's like a be and the bee keeps on

it's trying to get through the window

and it just keeps on hitting the window

and keeps on hitting the glass and keeps

on like bouncing off the glass and the

bee doesn't realize that actually if it

just sort of went out a bit and sort of

went like 5 m that way there's actually

a hole in the window and it can just

like go there and that is like the

unknown path that the bee doesn't even

realize exists uh whereas if the bee had

spoken to someone who was already on

that side to be like hey man how'd you

get to that side they'd have been able

to say oh just go 2 m down the road and

go through the hole in the window bit of

a contrived analogy but but you get the

idea and so the real mistake was this

when it comes to getting from A to B

there are always multiple Parts there

are the parts you know and then there

are the parts that you don't even know

exist so it's worth spending a little

bit of time speaking to other people who

have been to destination B and Beyond to

be able to tell you what am I missing

here like you can plan out a strategy

and run it past them and hopefully

they'll be able to poke holes in it and

say have you considered doing this it

might be a lot easier oh and by the way

if you're interested in learning what I

have personally learned from my CEO

coach Eric he and I have actually

partnered to create a completely free

business coaching bundle and this is

basically a collection of worksheets and

prompts and templates and a couple of

like video courses as well along with a

free copy of his book these are some of

the things that really helped me when I

started working with Eric about 2 years

ago they were completely free for you

guys and that'll be linked down below if

you want to check it out all right now

we come to mistake number four and

mistake number four was a mistake of

focus I mean focus in the sense of even

when I had a goal and I had a clear path

of getting there I was just trying to do

too many things at the the same time and

this is something that I still need to

keep on reminding myself of splitting

your focus and your attention in

multiple different areas usually leads

to very little progress being made in

any of them and there's a nice little

visual for this like if this is you this

little ball one thing that could happen

is your energy could be scattered in all

these different directions and this is

what it would look like or alternatively

if you just decided to focus and just

focus on just one thing your energy

could go in this direction and this is

what this would look like and you can

see this second one is making a lot more

progress than the first one where the

energy scattered in multiple different

places like the periods of my life where

I made the most progress on the book

were not when I was trying to juggle

doing the book with doing videos with

running the business with like I don't

know trying to get jacked it's like I

was I was focusing on so much so much

stuff that I wasn't really making

progress in any of it but when I decided

to okay for these next two weeks the

only work rated thing I need to do is

focus on the book and when that was the

case I made so much progress on getting

the first draft out and getting the

editing done and all of the stuff along

the book journey we really want to be

focusing on as people say the 20% of

efforts that are going to get us 80% of

the way to the goal and so a question

that I would love for you to think about

here is if I could only focus my

attention and energy towards one thing

in my work and in my health and in my

relationships what would that one thing

be what is the one thing that if I

really focused on it for the next let's

say month I would make enormous progress

towards my goal all right so moving on

to mistake number five mistake number

five that I made and still continue to

make in various degrees is the mistake

of trying to do things in parallel

rather than in series now for example if

you've done phys you will know that a

series circuit looks something like this

so the current goes through one

component in the circuit and then it

goes through the next and then it goes

through the next whereas a parallel

circuit looks something like this where

a current is splitting itself and going

through all three of the components at

the same time and then rejoining now

again it speaks to this idea of focus I

used to think that the appropriate way

to get things done was to do lots and

lots of things in parallel juggle lots

of things at once in the hope that I

could make progress in all of them but

what I've really realized over the years

is that there's enormous power in doing

things in series and doing things in a

sequence so let's say I was a YouTuber

and I knew I wanted to create an online

course because that would help me you

know make money in a way that was

decorrelated from me just making YouTube

videos I would probably be totally okay

with taking a break from making YouTube

videos for like 2 weeks just to be able

to focus on the course because that is

the next Domino that if that Domino were

to fall now every time I make videos in

the future I can plug the course even

when it comes to my health you know one

thing I said to Dan go who is my health

coach he's great he's got a YouTube

channel link down below one thing I said

to him was like hey man you know I want

to build muscle and I want to lose fat

and I want to become more flexible and I

want to become more mobile that's my

goal for the year and he was like okay

that's fine but it is very hard to do

all those things at the same time so why

don't we sequence it why don't we start

by bulking where you gain muscle and

then we can do a cut where you lose fat

and then once we've done that then we

can worry about kind of thinking about

your flexibility and Mobility how does

that sound I was like okay yeah that

makes sense I've learned the power

sequencing rather than trying to do

everything in parallel just think what

would this look like in series what

would this look like in sequence rather

than trying to do everything everything

all at once all right mistake number six

that I made is kind of going back to a

little journey destination analogy so

you got where you are at Point a you've

got where you want to be at point B and

you've got various paths to get there

and maybe you're carving your own path

or you're picking a path that has

already been trotten so you you know

youve decided you want to go on that

path the thing is we're never actually

going to stick to the path we always

tend to deviate from the path that we've

set and we need something to tell us are

we on the right track or are we not on

the right track and when it comes to

business and often even when it comes to

life that thing is metrics it is numbers

because numbers don't lie if it's a

business you can figure out like what

are the metrics that I would need to be

hitting to make sure I'm on track and

then you can track those metrics and as

they say what gets measured gets managed

what gets measured gets improved and

then you can see what's happening when I

needed to make progress on my book and I

wasn't making the progress until Eric my

CEO coach said okay why don't we just

track the number every day I want you to

just track in a spreadsheet how many

words did you write today and I started

tracking it and I was like oh I'm only

writing 400 words a day is that meant

that I could either work harder on doing

more words or I could change the goal or

I could change the path to get there in

almost everything in life you can use

metrics to figure out are you on track

with where you want to be when it comes

to the gym doing a dexa scan every now

and then taking progress photos

measuring your biceps and stuff can

really help in figuring out are you

actually on track at the same time uh

whenever you do set a metric for your

business or for your life it is worth

recognizing that every metric has

unforeseen side effects if you set a

metric of weight for example if you're

trying to get Hench or whatever the

unforeseen side effect is that you could

become obsessed with gaming that number

rather than actually thinking about the

true goal I think this is called good

Hearts law or something where a metric

is trying to track something but then

the metric itself becomes the goal and

people start going towards that rather

than towards the thing that the metric

is trying to point towards and then

mistake number seven that I've made in

my business throughout the whole time

and still continue to make is not making

enough time for thinking now this is

something that Keith Cunningham WR

writes about this in the book uh The

Road Less stupid which is basically a

book of journaling prompts whereas whole

thesis is that once a week for at least

an hour you want to spend some time with

you and just a notebook and a pen and

you want to be thinking you want to be

thinking about your business you want to

be thinking about your life and he gives

a load of different prompts that are

really helpful in thinking is my goal

correct is my path correct is the system

that I'm using to follow that path

correct are my metrics legit so here are

some really useful prompts from this

book for example what shortcuts are we

attempting to take that are not

shortcuts but rather mirages of greed

laziness or impatience over the next 100

days what are the things that I must do

less of to make room for the things I

need to do more of great question what

are the three things I could begin doing

that would get me 80% of the way there

where have I optimized for easy instead

of outcomes where am I inconsistently

executing the right thing where am I

consistently executing the wrong thing

where have we substituted our Judgment

of what we want to deliver for what the

customer actually wants where have we

done a poor job of posting the speed

limit explicitly setting expectations

deliverables and outcomes what are the

backpacks I've been lugging around that

are no longer useful this this book has

like dozens and dozens of these prompts

you know one thing that we've instigated

for our whole team is something called

Clarity hour which is every Wednesday in

the afternoon where everyone has to hop

in the same Zoom call and then you've

got we've got a turnoff slack and all

devices and everything and everyone just

has a pen and paper and just we sort of

works individually through thinking

about their area of the business and

these prompts can really help in sort of

guiding the direction of thinking and

actually you know the thing that most

moved the needle for our business was

when I created a course called the

part-time YouTuber Academy and I came up

with the idea

when I was in a coffee shop in Cambridge

in like the summer of 2020 and I

happened to have a notebook and a pen

with me and I was just sort of drinking

coffee and just like journaling with a

notebook and pen and after a bunch of

journaling I just sort of came up with

this idea that hey what if I just made a

course about how to do YouTube cuz

people seem to ask me about it think

it'll be easy enough to make the course

let's just do it and that course

completely transformed our business

basically overnight we expected to sell

like I don't know 10 seats for the first

cohort we ended up selling 350 seats we

made like $300,000 in a week it's the

most money I've ever seen in my life and

that of course just the part time youber

Academy and its accelerator which we

added onto it has made our business

several million dollars over the last 3