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# I Made a $30,000 Mistake In The First Month of Owning My Business
- URL: https://www.christianrawles.com/i-made-a-30-000-mistake-in-the-first-month-of-owning-my-business/
- Published: 2022-05-06T13:58:00.000Z
- Updated: 2024-02-19T05:13:24.000Z
- Description: After spending $30,000 on a new trade show booth I learned the lesson of walking before you run.
- Author: Christian Rawles
- Tags: Entrepreneurship, Blog

Twelve years ago, I bought the company where I had been employed.

I was excited. I was optimistic. I was ready to grow revenue like you've never seen.

Because I had been working there I knew that we needed to replace our trade show booth. I wanted to make an impression and show that the brand had been updated and was setting a new course.

## After spending $30,000 on a new trade show booth I learned the lesson of walking before you run.

I thought that I knew what would work and I paid a pretty price for it. Instead, I should have bootstrapped a booth together with minimal investment and gathered more information on what was actually required.

Instead of finding the minimum viable booth set up and iterating from there I threw money away trying to make a big impression.