When you’re first starting an e-commerce brand, there’s a lot coming at you.

Advice from friends and family. Opinions from manufacturers. Things you’re seeing online that make it look like everyone else has it figured out. It’s very easy to start making decisions from a place of pressure instead of clarity.

I see these mistakes pop up in my clients all the time. If you can catch them early, you’ll save yourself time, money, and a lot of unnecessary frustration.

Here are three that really matter.

1. Trying to Sell to Everyone

This one is sneaky, especially in the beginning.

Your first customers are often people you already know - friends, family, acquaintances - and they tend to have a lot of opinions: what you should sell, what colors you should add, what they think would do well.

Then you start talking to manufacturers or private label companies, and they have opinions too. They’ll tell you what their bestsellers are and what you need to include, but what sells well for them is not the same thing as what will sell well for you.

I remember when I was first launching my brand and looking for lipsticks. A rep showed me these frosty pink and purple shades and told me they were top sellers and that I had to include them.

And I knew immediately - absolutely not.

No offense if you love a frosty lipstick, but I didn’t. More importantly, my customer didn’t either. I knew who I was creating for, and those colors weren’t it.

So I smiled, said thank you, and moved on.

That decision mattered more than it might seem. You have to be able to stand behind every product you put out into the world. You have to love selling it, recommending it, talking about it.

Not everyone is your customer. And the sooner you make peace with that, the easier everything else becomes.

2. Creating Too Many SKUs Too Early

This is an expensive mistake and honestly, I made it myself when I first launched my company.

I started with way too many products, and they were coming from different manufacturers that all had different MOQs (minimum order quantities). Some things I was making from scratch in my kitchen, while other products were coming from a handful of private label and custom manufacturing companies I was working with.

And it made everything more expensive.

Instead of going into it with a lean financial mindset, I was trying to do too much at once.

Every product you add requires money upfront - whether that’s manufacturing, ordering inventory, or both. It also requires literal space. You need room for finished goods, packaging, and sometimes components or bulk ingredients depending on how you’re producing.

Every product you add requires money upfront - whether that’s manufacturing, ordering inventory, or both. It also requires literal space. You need room for finished goods, packaging, and sometimes components or bulk ingredients depending on how you’re producing.

When you launch with too many products, you’re spreading your resources across things your customer may not even want yet.

And then something else happens - it becomes harder to actually sell what you have.

You can’t effectively promote everything at once. So some products get more attention, others sit. The ones that sit don’t sell, and because they’re not selling, you don’t promote them. It turns into a loop that’s hard to break.

You end up with money tied up in inventory that isn’t moving and a brand that feels scattered instead of focused.

The better approach is to start smaller and clearer. You can always add more products - in fact, you’ll need to. Newness gives you something to talk about and a reason for your audience to come back.

Have the wish list of what you want to create in the future. Keep that vision, but I wouldn’t recommend launching everything at once.

3. Relying on Social Media Alone for Sales

This is a big one and it happens all the time.

If you’re an influencer with a large following, social media can absolutely drive sales. But if you’re starting from scratch, relying on it as your only channel is going to feel slow and frustrating.

In the beginning, your easiest customers are real people who can experience you and your product directly. People who know you. People who meet you at events, markets, or through mutual connections. People who can see, touch, and try what you’re offering.

That’s where momentum starts.

For me, a lot of that came from the theater community as that's where I had spent my time. I had multiple performers from Broadway shows using my products. At one point, all of the women in Hamilton were wearing our foundation. I had numerous Elphabas from Wicked who needed help caring for their skin after wearing heavy green makeup night after night.

I showed up in person - doing quarterly markets where I rented a room in a rehearsal space where actors were already going to be. Opportunities like a holiday pop-up shop at Lincoln Center during The King and I came about because I had a friend in the show. Cast members came by when they weren’t performing on stage, and I got to meet people face to face.

That’s what built trust. And that trust turned into word of mouth, which turned into more customers.

Social media can support your growth, but it’s rarely the thing that builds it from zero - especially if you don’t have a large ad budget behind it.

You have to go find your people and show up for them.

If you stay clear on who you’re serving, keep your product line focused, and build your business around real human connection instead of hoping the algorithm picks you, you don’t just grow faster - you build something that actually lasts.

If you want support from someone who has navigated the realities of building, scaling, and eventually selling a product-based business, you can learn more about coaching here.