Entrepreneurship is never easy. You start small - small resources, small team, small budget - but a big idea that could change the world. This is usually the case and although it’s not fair, it’s the reality of the world we live in. Along the way, you have to be careful about how you navigate and scale. In this guest blog, Harry Conley of Lucky Assignments, shares his tips from experience on how you can avoid a number of common startup mistakes.
Guest Author: Harry Conley, Lucky Assignments
As an entrepreneur, you are probably doing your best to give your idea the right head start, to establish a strong company and to make sure that everything is as it should be. But, in the business world - especially with startups, mistakes are bound to happen. After all, you are taking risks, innovating, changing the world and in that setting, there are some things you can’t avoid. However, there are some recurring mistakes entrepreneurs make and if you know about them, you can learn to avoid them. Here are 5 common startup mistakes every founder should avoid.
When you just start out, you are so in love with your idea that it can be hard to focus on other things, especially marketing. But if you want to succeed, marketing is necessary. And not just some willy-nilly marketing but a proper marketing strategy that will bring you success. When you do your business plan, make sure that you have thoroughly worked out your complete marketing strategy from the moment your company is born to the moment you reach your goals.
Entrepreneurs are the people who think that they need to do everything in their company. And in a sense, it’s understandable - it’s their baby, their idea and their life that will be most affected if it doesn’t work. However, you need to realize that you don’t have to do it alone.
"Hire a team you trust and delegate your tasks to them. That’s their job. Make sure that you do show your team that you trust them and that you understand that they are all professionals who can help you. You will build a better motivation for them and you will prevent your own burnout.”, says Ellinor Bury, a tech editor at Draftbeyond and Research Papers UK.
Starting a company is never easy. But most of all, it’s never cheap. You need to come into this with a full understanding of what it will cost and how you plan to get this money. Hire someone knowledgeable in the finance area to help you calculate all of the costs at the outset - there are many things you probably never thought about. This is especially necessary if you need funding because you can easily get sidetracked and get less money than you really need.
“Many entrepreneurs think that there is no way that their idea can fail. But the truth is that most of them do. So, having a solid plan for when and if this happens is a good idea. You should create this at the very start to prevent failing too hard," says Jonah Curtis Black, a business blogger at Last Minute Writing and Writinity.
Just like with backup plans, it’s a mistake to think that there won’t be any hidden costs or that there won’t be any mistakes that will cost you a ton of money. It’s much better to play the saf card and always have some emergency funds in case you need them. This is a necessity, just like the backup plan or proper marketing strategy. This doesn’t mean that you are doubting yourself but rather that you are a smart businessman. Make sure that you do have some emergency funds because you never know what can happen.
Being an entrepreneur means that you are doing something different and that you are bringing innovations to this world. As such, you are bound to make mistakes - some of the biggest innovators of our and past times made many mistakes in their process of innovation. However, if you know about these mistakes and if you know what can happen if you are not careful, you can learn to prevent them and create a better environment for your company to prosper in. Make sure that you are aware of these mistakes and that you do your best to avoid them.
The opinions of our guest bloggers are their own and not those of 1871.