Money mistakes to avoid when starting up?

Start a Business

Topic summary

The discussion centers on common financial missteps when launching a business, particularly premature spending on paid advertising.

Primary mistake identified:
Multiple participants invested heavily in Google Ads and Facebook Ads before understanding their audience or optimizing their foundation, resulting in poor returns.

Recommended alternative approach:

  • Build organic reach through content marketing, email lists, and partnerships first
  • Ensure the store/website is simple, fast, and user-friendly before advertising
  • Implement SEO strategies to generate free traffic
  • Partner with micro-influencers for authentic visitor engagement
  • Only deploy paid ads after messaging and infrastructure are proven

Additional cautionary tale:
One participant hired an external developer who delivered poor results, prompting them to learn store-building and optimization independently.

Current status:
The conversation remains open with participants seeking practical guidance on implementing organic content strategies, starting SEO efforts, and building early-stage social proof for new businesses.

Summarized with AI on October 24. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
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No judgement passed. I’m here for stories.

What’s the biggest money mistake you’ve made on the early days of your business? I will go first. I invested in Google Ads, Facebook ads. Don’t get me wrong; they’re both good tools but that doesn’t mean they spontaneously work effectively or bring in orders as I would have expected.

Where would you focus your budgets on if you could do it all over again?

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I also burned through a chunk of my budget on ads too early, without fully understanding my audience. If I could start over, I’d focus more on building organic reach content, email list, partnerships. Ads only work well once you’ve nailed your message.

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We also made this mistake at the start. We spent on ads before the store was ready. Later we learned to do it in steps:

  • First, make the store simple, fast, and easy to use
  • Next, work on SEO so people can find it free
  • Build email list to keep in touch with buyers
  • Use small influencers to bring real visitors

Best way: Fix and grow the store first, then use ads. This makes ad money work better.

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Hiring a stranger to help me build up my store and it results in a mess. I paid a lot of money and owing to this situation, I start learning how to build up my own store and check different articles to optimize.

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@siaenko How does organic reach content work based on your experience? How do we go about it?

@CodeHazel Agreed on a simple design speeds up the loading time. I’ve heard people talking about SEO maybe a bit too much on talking. Where and how to get it started with store seo?

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SEO strategy is really powerful to gain organic traffic.
For this you must have a Social proof and your website should be easy to navigate and fully optimize.
if you need any help regarding the SEO then drop me a message in p/m
Thanks

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@The_ScriptFlow Would you share some practical tips here to get things started? For example, how can a new business to build their social proof early on?