7 Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make while Building their Startup
By: Amir Khan
Tags: Startup Mistakes, Startup Lessons, Entrepreneurship, Founders, Founder Advice

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If you ever wonder what mistakes you can avoid when starting up a business, here are seven tips that would help you become successful in this journey called entrepreneurship.

1. PUTTING MARKETING ON THE SIDE

Most entrepreneurs accept that marketing is essential, but few of them recognize marketing as their top priority. Don’t look at marketing as the last item on your list. Relying only on free public relations (PR) and word of mouth will lead to fewer sales. Invest in creating a marketing strategy that will help you drive competitiveness and success for your business. Calculate how much your competitors are spending on marketing and investing in yours by paying content marketing, PR, and paid advertising. This marketing investment would lead to a high return on investment (ROI).

2. THINKING THAT YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH ALL THE WORK BY YOURSELF

It is understandable that at the beginning of this journey, you want to do all the business aspects to save money. However, there are tasks that you might want to allow other people with specific skills to take care of some parts of the business, like investing in an accountant. Partnering with an accountant to help you file taxes and plan for the future will set you up for long-term success. Accounting mistakes can hurt the overall health of the company in the short and long term. In general, hiring the right individual would leave you free time to focus on other areas of the startup that need more attention.

3. TAKING TOO LONG TO LAUNCH

A new business enterprise involves a lot of risks, but it does not mean that everything needs to be perfect. You can start making the changes in the business strategies and structure along the way. Customers will demand certain products or features that can be modified with time. For instance, Jeff Bezos didn’t start its business as the largest retailer. Amazon started as an online merchant of books and later began selling a wide variety of products.

4. NEGLECTING LEGAL PROTECTION

As a new entrepreneur, it is easy to become so caught up with work. However, neglecting responsibilities like legal protection can hurt the future of the company. Founders agreement, proper privacy policies and other compliance-type items can really hurt your business if you don’t address these legal protections in the beginning.

5. ASSUMING THAT YOU NEED TO RAISE LARGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY

For any entrepreneur, it is important to find resources necessary to make the product inexpensively enough and in a high quantity so that you can make a profit. As Steven Straus said, “For the business innovator, a great idea can be a loser if it is so expensive to create that it can’t make money”. However, innovators can take this idea to the extreme by assuming that raising large amounts of money is the key to success. Bringing an innovative product to the market is usually stressful and expensive. Still, it is better to earn money on a smaller scale for your startup. Once you have proven that there is a demand for your product, it will be less challenging to raise money. Potential investors will be attracted to your company because they will see your company as more valuable; therefore, it would be easier for you to raise money.

6. NOT RESEARCHING COMPETITORS

Getting caught up in love with what you are doing can lead to overlooking the business realities. Research your competitors in advance and learn from them. This homework can prevent many disappointments.

7. LETTING PERSONAL ISSUES GET IN THE WAY

As Mother, Teresa said, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” Focus on what you have today, put down the best effort, and don’t let outside circumstances affect your attention to the business and your personal well-being. If you want to be successful in your new startup, don’t let personal issues get in the way.

Accelerators are often very helpful in providing you the guidance needed to avoid these mistakes. If you are working on a startup idea in the sector of Mobility, Autonomy, AR/VR, Robotics, Logistics, Cybersecurity and 5G — Check out MARL Accelerator.