Making mistakes as you start out with a home business is easy. You should make mistakes, in fact. But some mistakes you are better off taking the time to learn about before you make them, rather than after someone catches you making them.

Mistake #1: Faking it until you make it to excess.

Lots of people suggest that you “fake it until you make it,” that is, do your best to sound like an expert even when you aren’t. The trouble with this kind of advice is that it’s very easy to get caught with this kind of a philosophy.

There are the people posting faked Clickbank stats. The ones posting on forums asking for beginning advice on the very topic they’re claiming expert status on elsewhere.

I personally don’t believe in faking it, but if you must, at least do it on a topic where you can keep up the facade. When you get caught faking it the reputation can follow you for years, especially online where people can accidentally or on purpose find out things that happened years ago. And be prepared to take the consequences if you blow it.

Mistake #2: Trying to do everything on just one site.

If you’re a beginner, don’t try to take on the big sites that cover thousands of topics. Pick a niche. Sure, you can start a blog about your life, your take on finances, your favorite new electronics, what your pet did yesterday, funny pictures you’ve found online, books and movies you recommend, career advice, camping tips and more, but unless you have a serious gift you aren’t going to get a very interested audience.

People like knowing what to expect from a site to at least a degree. If you’re trying to cover everything, it comes down to the old saying about “Jack of all trades, master of none.”

Mistake #3: Spam of any kind.

Some people spam forums claiming that only email can be spam. Unfortunately for such “marketers,” just about everyone else disagrees.

Forums generally have very clear rules about advertising on them. If not, you can read them and quickly figure out the general etiquette that is accepted on that forum.

Odds are that flat out ads as posts will not be accepted, and will be deleted as soon as a moderator passes by. You may or may not be able to have business links in your signature. It’s your responsibility to figure out what’s allowed and to follow the rules. Otherwise you will never gain any respect for yourself or your business.

Similarly, skip buying an email list. If you can afford one early on, it’s probably not a legitimate list. You really don’t want to get shut down for spamming, and you certainly don’t want to deal with the fines if things get serious.

Mistake #4: Not worrying about credibility.

Many marketers don’t seem to care at all if they’re credible. I can’t tell you how many lists I’ve unsubscribed from because the list owner promoted obvious junk just for the money, with no care for what the people on his list really wanted.

Same for on websites. If you promote a product when you really don’t know anything about it, how credible do you really think you are? Who do you think you’re fooling?

Sure you can fool some people, as there are plenty of people out there who will believe anything they read. There’s a reason why spammers keep at it, after all. But for a sustainable business model building credibility will take you much, much farther.

Mistake #5: Sitting back and expecting results.

You hear all the time about earning passive income online. Passive income is a wonderful thing. But planning on it too early on is asking to fail.

It takes work to build a passive income. That’s not a contradiction. You do the work for however long it takes to get things going. From there you will still have to do some work, but the amount can be decreased. Stop completely and even passive income is likely to fade away.

Mistake #6: Buying every new product that you think might help your business.

Lots of people make this mistake over and over again. A hot new product hits all the big internet marketing lists. People are raving about it. So you abandon your progress with one product before you’ve seen any results, and hop to the next one.

You know, there’s a reason why I don’t like to buy hyped products. They’re a distraction to my business. I don’t find them to be worth my time or money.

The occasional product, sure. I have a copy of The Super Affiliate Handbook. I use Build a Niche Store. I’ve read other books and ebooks, and I use other products. But I keep it to a minimum; that is, how much I feel I can use effectively.

Pick an ebook to read or a program to use and really get to understanding it. Follow every step. Learn it in as much detail as you can. Do your best to make a profit from it.

Once you’ve done that you can consider buying something else. But if you constantly stop in the middle of the learning process, especially if you haven’t made any money yet, you’re going to end up wondering why nothing works.

Mistake #7: Giving up.

I was not an overnight success. Heck, sometimes I still struggle with what the search engines like to do to me and the rankings of my sites. But I keep going. And since I was able to earn enough money to keep my family going despite my husband’s job loss, I’d say I do pretty decently.

Too many people start a home business expecting instant success. Don’t expect it. If you’re one of the lucky few, congratulations, but if you’re like the rest of us it will take several months to a couple years to really get things going.

It can be hard to say when giving up is the right choice. It’s not after two months of throwing up ads and wondering where the money is. But if you’re failing at every business you ever try you do need to look at how quickly you’re giving up.

This is related to Mistake #5 above, as many of the people who finally give up on home business are the ones who hopped from concept to concept, product to product, company to company without every really focusing on anything at all.

Mistake #8: Taking on too much.

You have a life outside your home business right? Most of us do, whether we’re married or not, have children or not. You might even be running your business on the side as you work a regular job.

Running yourself into the ground is a great way to burn out on any home business. Make sure you give yourself time away as necessary.

For example, I find it amazingly refreshing to just go and play with my kids for a half hour. I can come back to whatever I was working on nicely refreshed. Yet it’s just as easy to tell myself that I don’t have the time, and keep on being stressed, working less efficiently because I’m so drained.

But beyond that is trying to run more sites or a more complex site than you’re really up for. Make your life simple, especially at first, and keep things simple. Focused. Pick a target and aim at it. Learn as much as you can about your chosen market to help your business succeed.

Mistake #9: Not knowing when to outsource.

Ah, my own greatest weakness! I rarely outsource. But if you can stand to do it, outsourcing will benefit your business tremendously.

Sometimes it can be as simple as finding a quality resource for private label articles. This can be difficult, as there are more junk PLR sources than good ones. But you can save a ton of time when the research is already done for you.

But you should also consider outsourcing things such as website design, bookkeeping and any repetitive work that really doesn’t require your personal attention. The more you can focus on the things that are directly earning money for you, they better you are likely to do with them. A virtual assistant can be a huge help.

Outsourcing the wrong things can add to your work, so it’s something to be careful of. But once you find someone who does high quality work for you, try to keep him or her. It’s much easier to work with one person over and over than to have to explain yourself to every new person you try. And you’ll also know better what to expect in terms of quality.

Have I made these mistakes? Hmm… some of them. Definitely not all. #8 and #9 probably give me the most trouble still. I love what I do and I keep coming up with more ideas. Makes taking on too much really easy to do. But to let anyone else touch MY work? MINE! Except when I manage to let go just a little bit.

There are plenty of other mistakes you can make, of course. Feel free to share the ones you find to be challenging.

Mistakes are natural when you run a home business. For most of us it’s how we learn to work better. But sometimes the mistakes you make are ones you may have already known enough to avoid, had you just thought about it a little bit more.

Mistake #1: Expecting instant results

This is a common mistake in the work at home crowd. It’s easy to make because people want to believe it, and a very, very few people do succeed just about instantly. But they are a very small exception, nothing even close to the rule.

If it were that easy, there would be a lot more rich people working online.

Mistake #2: Charging too little

This one applies primarily to people who are selling something of their own. If you can set the price it helps if you test to figure out what you are really worth. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling a service, a physical or electronic product. If you haven’t considered what your time is really worth, what your products are really worth, do so.

This can apply to affiliate marketers too. If you’re doing well selling a product, have you ever considered asking for a raise? If you have a good track record, many merchants will consider it.

Mistake #3: Treating your business no better than a hobby

Many people fail because they don’t take their business seriously enough. They let anything and everything distract them from their business. They may even let hobbies take precedence over their home business.

Running your business like a business means setting work hours. It means separating your personal and business finances. It means keeping track of your spending.

Mistake #4: Doing it all yourself

You can do a lot yourself, but odds are you aren’t an expert on everything.

Hiring any sort of help can be painful. It’s hard for many to give any part of their efforts over to someone else. It also adds up financially. But it is often the best possible decision you could make for your home business.

A good virtual assistant, for example, can handle things like routine emails and some of your marketing tasks. You may also need a lawyer and a bookkeeper. You may want to consider business insurance, and a good insurance agent can help you to figure out what you need.

Mistake #5: Taking on too much

Many people get extremely ambitious with their home businesses. You’ll see people take on multiple network marketing opportunities, or 100+ websites, or more clients than they’re ready to handle.

This problem is particularly acute if you fall for it before you’ve established yourself in one venture. Many network marketers find many opportunities interesting, and take on multiple in hopes of marketing them together. And that can work for some products.

But if you haven’t figured out the basics, haven’t figured out your niche, haven’t learned how to deal with what your customers need it’s a huge mistake. It goes similarly for running multiple websites.

If you’re offering a service a lot of clients can sound good at first. But if you take on too much you’re quickly going to have to learn to subcontract, work serious extra hours, or ruin your reputation. It pays to know how much work you can handle and what you’ll do if too many people want your time.

Mistake #6: Paying too little attention to your family

The right home business is addictive. You’ll want to spend time on it, lots of time. But you lose track of the things that should matter, such as having time for your family and friends.

This goes along with having regular work hours. While sometimes it may be necessary to work more hours, regular work hours allow you to take time off to relax. You need it and your family needs you.

Not taking this kind of time can actually limit your productivity. Your mind needs some quiet time, relaxation. Wasting your work time feeling guilty that you haven’t done anything with your family for a long time can slow you down. Failing to take your regular time off can also encourage you to take time out of your schedule, out of sheer guilt. It’s not good for you.

There are many more mistakes you can make with a home business. What other mistakes can you think of?