Everyone wants to have their own business, but only a few know all what it takes to actually start one.
For some people having their own business is just a dream that will never become anything more than an imaginary life they thought about during one phase of their life and then went back to live their normal -not agreeable- life. But “Entrepreneurs” are not “some people”, they are exceptional people who are willing to take risks and seize opportunities to achieve their dreams and make their ideas alive.
But don’t take uncalculated risks. Successful entrepreneurs like Kevin O’Leary don’t advise you to do so. Be smart, be ready, and have a high belief on yourself and your ideas in order to concretize them.
Remember that only 50% of startups remain in the market after 5 years.
Most of the successful entrepreneurs has acquired a lot of experience and knowledge before to take the plunge and becoming entrepreneurs. You might be a worker or student by the time you are reading these lines. Do you want to start your own business? Either now or in the future you need to be prepared to be sure to succeed in it.
The best way to be sure to succeed is to know all the deadly startup mistakes and how to avoid them.
And good thing for you, I gathered all the most important ones in here.
Here are the 7 deadly startup mistakes and how to avoid them:
- Lack of research
- Too much perfectionism & too little confidence
- Either blindly follow advice or refusing to listen at all
- Lack of focus
- Lacking a social-media presence
- Adapting fear based management
- Trying to handle more than what you can
Let’s see each one of them in depth:
1.Lack of research
Every business starts out of an idea. But not all ideas can succeed, as not all ideas can even become realities.
Have you ever heard of “Peeple“? If yes, you certainly know that it is the actual most hated app over the world. If no, just avoid it, and just for your curiosity, it’s an app that gives you the ability to rate other people in a rate from 1 to 5. Why would someone create something this evil?
Have you heard of “Paw Pals“? Not that too? It’s normal. How could the idea of a dating service for cats be appealing for the market?
You certainly need to believe in your idea. This is a must have attitude to succeed. But just cause you believe in it, doesn’t mean that the market will appreciate and embrace it.
You need to make all the needed research. To study the market, and see where would your idea will have its own added value to the market.
When you don’t do enough research, either because you are excited about your idea and starting a business. Or simply, just because you are lazy to go over all the important steps to start your business, so you decided to rush the research part. Believe me, if you do so, there are big chances that you are pushing your startup from a cliff, before even to start it.
The failure chances will be high.
2.Too much perfectionism & too little confidence
Starting without spending a lot of time in the research show that you have a lot of faith on your idea. But in the other side of the same coin. There are entrepreneurs who spend too much time planning, perfecting their plan, and lack the confidence to take the leap and launch their idea.
These entrepreneurs end up moving to slow, unable to use one of the best advantages of a startup business: The flexibility.
They complex the structure of the business before to start it. They are building walls and making problems that will only make their success harder.
Also, you are advised to take seriously the research step so you wouldn’t be afraid a lot of failures. But this doesn’t mean that this fear will completely disappear. You are going to keep having it. But you need to trust yourself and your idea so you will be able to launch your business.
3.Either blindly follow advice or refusing to listen at all
Entrepreneurs always have the good idea to seek advice from people who have succeeded and established a great reputation in the business world.
But you should never forget, that anyone’s success has been done because they were under some specific conditions.
Seek and follow advice, but never forget to do n°1: The research.
Because from the beginning to the end, when it comes to the success of your business, you are the first responsible of it and you are the best adviser to yourself.
But, don’t get too arrogant, okay?
Because adopting the attitude of someone who hear only himself and refuse to listen to the others, will not necessarily lead to better results.
So don’t be in one of the two extremes. Either you follow any advice you hear, or you refuse at all to listen to the others.
Be in the right middle. Listen to all advice but only apply the one that seems to be good for you.
4.Lack of focus
Usually, people can get easily distracted. The entrepreneurs who are running and managing businesses are even easier to distract.
When you start a business there are a lot of things to do. It’s normal that you feel overwhelmed. But you shouldn’t start stressing and panicking about it. Don’t try to do all of it in the same time.
It’s true that you need to get it all done, but you also need it to be done as good as possible.
Divide all the tasks into small ones, and do one by one. Don’t think about the others until you finished what you are doing, and it’s their time. That way, you will be fully focused. And you will do all the tasks in the best possible way.
Also, never forget about your initial plan and your research work. What you firstly established to be your way for monetization shouldn’t be changed after impulsions. Don’t start making too much change until you become far away of all your initial plans. It will costs you a lot of money, and when you are starting a business every dime counts. So be careful with all the expenses, and stay focused!
5.Lacking a social-media presence
This is one of the mistakes that I personally don’t get. Many startups avoid social medias because it is something that can “easily get fixed” according to them. That’s wrong!
Social media is one of the best ways to reach out to people, to your potential customers and also to keep a good contact with all your fans and the people who support you.
And it’s not as easy as the entrepreneurs who make that mistake usually think. Building a social media audience takes time. It will be long before it starts to pay off, but when it will do, it’s going to be excellent!
To not create some social accounts and post on them some quality content constantly, is one of the common mistakes, and easiest to avoid as a startup.
So don’t be lazy on that one!
6.Adapting fear based management
Entrepreneurs are tough and with a very strong mentality. But no matter how strong they are, the care they have for their startup can lead them to be aware and scared of all the risks that their business might face.
This usually led them to start making decisions that are the less risky. Even if risks can never have a probability of occurrence of zero. There will always be risks.
And there are better options to choose, that will bring more benefits. But just cause of some risks they will prefer to avoid them.
The most successful entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Sir Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerburg are all aware of the risks of failure and they have embraced it. By doing so, they allowed themselves to don’t settle, to keep trying and always get better results.
Fear can be good. Instead of letting it be a reason that hold you back, make it a reason that pushes you to work more to succeed.
7.Trying to handle more than what you can
A lot of startups try to be Worldwide and to expand their activity fast. They want to reach the top level without going through all the steps and this is usually a big mistake.
Maybe, just after that you landed your first client, you felt excited and happy. Then you decided to take it to the next level, but it’s too earlier and you will get a lot of difficulties that way.
Take things at a decent pace. Don’t push the growth of your business where it can’t be done.
Understand your limits as a new business, set reasonable goals and keep achieving them and growing slowly but surely. That’s the best way to grow, with falling apart in the process.
Mistakes will surely happen during any entrepreneur’s life.
They are a part of the risk that you decide to take when you choose to start your business. Just avoid theses 7 deadly startup mistakes and you will be fine.
For the other mistakes that you might do, they are happening for one reason. They will make you better if you learn from them.