As anyone who follows my journey knows, last year marked the launch of my marketing agency, Nordover Creative. While externally it seemed like a success, internally it felt like anything but. The sense of failure weighed heavily on me, and sharing this story would have been unthinkable just a few months ago. However, after deep reflection and a quest for understanding, I believe it’s essential to share where I stand now and why.

This isn’t about seeking sympathy but rather about being authentic with my experience and learning from mistakes. Looking back, I’ve come to see that what went “wrong” and how it happened might not have been the worst outcome after all, for reasons I’ll delve into below.

A bit of backstory: in 2018, feeling trapped in the US’s hustle culture after years of full-time travel, I yearned to reclaim the freedom and adventure I once knew. This longing intensified after a transformative journey on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. I realized that while I loved creating music, relying solely on art wasn’t fulfilling my aspirations for a different lifestyle.

Enter marketing—a field that promised flexibility, creativity, and the chance to blend work with travel. For six years, I poured all my energy into mastering online marketing, achieving success by conventional standards. Yet, despite hitting my goals, I found myself drained, disillusioned, and ultimately forced to let go of everything I had built.

What followed was a period of profound burnout and reflection, during which I’ve been recuperating and rebuilding. While I’ve reached a better place now, I’m compelled to share the lessons I’ve learned—the mistakes I’ve made—as a cautionary tale for aspiring entrepreneurs. So, let’s dive into the top 10 mistakes I made with my business, Nordover Creative, in the hopes that others may navigate their entrepreneurial journeys with greater insight and resilience.

1. Don’t Build Plan B

Put simply, don’t build something safe just because you’re afraid what you actually want won’t work out. Put another way, don’t build something to support your dreams elsewhere. While this can work for some, this is something I regret doing.

I haven’t actually allowed myself to commit to my real business vision. Having a Plan B can be tempting, as it offers a safety net in case things don’t go as planned. Nordover Creative was my Plan B – my fallback. Once I had enough success here, I thought I’d have a better foundation for the things I really wanted to do, especially in the creative sphere.

However, Plan B can quickly become unintended Plan A, consuming your focus and hindering your ability to give your goals the dedication and attention needed to thrive. 

Moving forward, I’ve learned the importance of burning the bridges behind me and fully choosing Plan A – my ultimate dream, trusting in my ability to adapt and overcome obstacles along the way. Not focusing on the safety net first.

2. Build Something You’re VERY Passionate About

Passion is the fuel that drives entrepreneurs forward, yet it’s easy to get caught up in pursuing opportunities solely for their perceived profitability. 

One of my key lessons was realizing the importance of building a business around something I’m deeply passionate about. When you’re passionate about your work, it not only fuels your motivation and determination but also translates into the quality of your products or services. Furthermore, your passion is what gets you through the tough moments, long hours, and self-doubt that comes with owning a business.

Moving forward, I’ve learned to prioritize my passions and align my business ventures with my interests and values, ensuring that every endeavor is driven by genuine enthusiasm and dedication.

3. Keep Your Offerings Simple

In the early stages of Nordover Creative, I made the mistake of offering too many services, thinking it would attract a wider range of clients. Having worked extensively in so many different kinds of marketing, I also just couldn’t make up my mind.

However, spreading ourselves too thin resulted in a lack of focus and diluted the quality of our services. I’ve since learned the importance of simplicity in business offerings. 

By narrowing down our services to those we excel at and are most passionate about, we can streamline our operations, deliver higher-quality results, and better communicate our value proposition to clients. These streamlined, higher-quality results also translate to being worth more to the client and being able to charge higher prices simply for being the best at what you do.

Moving forward, I would prioritize clarity and focus in our service offerings, ensuring that each aligns with our core competencies and adds tangible value to our clients beyond just delivering services.

4. Learn to Say No

As entrepreneurs, we often tend to say yes to every opportunity that comes our way, fearing that turning down potential clients or projects will result in missed opportunities. Sometimes we also feel we need to say yes to whatever comes our way for revenue.

However, saying yes to everything can lead to overcommitment, burnout, and ultimately compromise the quality of our work. 

Learning to say no is essential for maintaining boundaries, and preserving our time and energy for projects that align with our goals and values. Moving forward, I’ve become more discerning in the opportunities I pursue, prioritizing those that align with our business objectives and offer genuine value to both parties involved.

Having strong boundaries with clients is also critical – because if you don’t have boundaries here, every aspect of your business will suffer.

5. Bad Clients are Not Worth the Money

This lesson really should be number one, as one of the single biggest lessons I’ve learned is that not all clients are worth pursuing or retaining. Early on, I made the mistake of working with clients who were demanding, uncommunicative, or simply not a good fit for our services. 

I was regularly working with clients who had no idea what I did either, and therefore never understood the value of what I offered regardless of how well I did it or what a bargain it was.

While it may seem tempting to take on any client for the sake of revenue, the truth is that bad clients can drain resources, cause unnecessary stress, and damage your reputation. 

When you have a client messaging you the night before a holiday demanding a last-minute project that was never discussed, and then proceeds to harass you on a holiday – it’s probably time to find new clients. And learn to fire the bad ones, as I did. 

Moving forward, I’ve learned to prioritize quality over quantity when it comes to client relationships. By being selective, aware of red flags, and focusing on cultivating partnerships with clients who align with our values and appreciate our expertise, we can create mutually beneficial relationships that contribute to long-term success.

6. Don’t Skimp on Paid Tools

It’s easy to hesitate to invest in paid tools and software, opting instead for free or low-cost alternatives – such as doing it yourself. However, I soon realized that cutting corners on essential tools can hinder productivity, efficiency, and overall business performance and relied on them heavily thereafter.

We live in an amazing time for business owners. For as little as $15/month we can access some truly amazing business tools that just simply didn’t exist 10-20 years ago. Some of these can replace the work of one person’s job just a few years ago. While it’s essential to be mindful of expenses, investing in high-quality tools can often yield significant returns in terms of time saved, improved functionality, and enhanced capabilities. Trying to do every menial detail yourself will stall your growth. You can find a list of my favorite time-saving tools here. 

Moving forward, I’ve learned to prioritize investing in reliable and effective tools that streamline our operations, improve collaboration, and deliver superior results. By allocating resources strategically to invest in the right tools, your business will have a far better chance of operating efficiently and creating more time, savings, and room for growth.

Furthermore, I’d lean heavily on AI tools – you can’t afford not to.

7. Know When You Need to Outsource

It’s easy to want to try to handle every aspect of your business single-handedly, from marketing and sales to operations and client management. Especially when you’re a perfectionist.

My business grew too quickly, and I just as quickly became overwhelmed and realized that I couldn’t do it all alone. Delegation is the ultimate business hack. 

By hiring individuals (who can usually do the job better than you) or outsourcing certain functions, I can focus on high-priority tasks that leverage my strengths and expertise, while also ensuring that all aspects of the business receive the attention they deserve. It’s also important to regularly look at your finances and make sure you charging enough to pay what it costs to get the work done – including other contractors or employees.

Moving forward, I’d build a business with delegation in mind first. By not having an overloaded plate, as a business owner you can navigate challenges more effectively and focus on growth.

8. Have Too Small of Margins

Maintaining healthy profit margins is essential for the long-term sustainability and growth of any business. However, one of the mistakes I made as an entrepreneur was setting prices too low and failing to account for all expenses and overhead costs. 

This resulted in razor-thin profit margins that left little room for growth or unexpected expenses. 

Moving forward, I’ve learned the importance of pricing products or services strategically to ensure adequate profitability. By conducting a thorough cost analysis and factoring in all expenses, including overhead, labor, and materials, I would establish pricing structures that support sustainable growth and profitability. 

Additionally, regularly reviewing and adjusting pricing to reflect market conditions and changes in expenses ensures that we remain competitive while maximizing profitability.

9. Fearing Failure

Fear of failure can paralyze entrepreneurs and prevent them from taking necessary risks or pursuing growth opportunities. Early in my entrepreneurial journey, I allowed fear of failure to hold me back from pursuing ambitious goals, enforcing boundaries, and doing things that scared me.

However, I’ve come to realize that failure is an inevitable part of the entrepreneurial process and can often lead to valuable lessons and opportunities for growth. This is a really hard one for me, and over time it’s no less painful.

However, the only real route to success is failing your way to it.

10. Not Having a Niche

Despite having worked in branding for so many years, one of the biggest mistakes I made was not clearly defining a niche for my business. However, I was focused more on profits rather than purpose – which means even I hardly knew what I was doing and why. This is closely tied to #2 – there was no passion or “why” behind what I was doing, and for whom.

Your niche is directly related to your value proposition. Without a clear target market or specialization, I struggled to carve out a unique spot from competitors and attract clients who valued our unique expertise. 

Moving forward, this is something I wouldn’t start a business without. By focusing on a narrow market segment or specialized service offering, one can better tailor their marketing efforts, attract high-value clients, and command premium pricing. 

Additionally, establishing a niche allows us to develop deeper expertise, build credibility, and foster stronger relationships with clients, ultimately driving growth and success in the long term.

So, What’s Next?

Now that I’ve divulged all of my recent failures, what’s next, you might ask?

For the time being, I’ve been working towards completely shifting my mindset about life in general – especially relating to business or any future projects I take on. This is very personal as within this experience I’ve learned a lot more about who I fundamentally am, as well as who I’m not.

I’m not the hyper-productive, driven, detail-oriented, conscientious machine that I’ve thought I had to be for any level of “success”. I actually detest lots of details, live in my own idealistic world, hate the need to “be productive”, and am a very sensitive, creative soul. Now that I’ve burned through every ounce of willpower I had left to prove to myself (poorly) that I can be whatever I want, I’ve decided to switch and lean into how I am and build from there.

What that looks like is still to be determined. If I could spend 80% of my time doing fun, creative things and 20% doing more challenging mental work – that would be about perfect. 

Allowing myself to write and blog is a huge step. I’ve wanted to blog for over 10 years now, and I’m tired of this being on hold. I also want to take photography and eventually cinematography more seriously and make space to grow in these areas. Who knows, maybe music will come back into the picture again given that I have an album’s worth of unrecorded songs.

Either way, whatever business or projects I continue with in the future will be centered from a place of fullness to share, not scarcity.