There are 20 MAJOR startup mistakes that small businesses and business owners make that are major glaciers to their Titanic. Today I will be going through the first 10 BIGGEST startup mistakes and why you should avoid them!
Biggest startup mistake 1.
Your business has no potential for future profitability.
Just because you like it doesn’t mean it’s good. If I came up with a product, offered it at a County Fair, and a hundred people bought it over the weekend, THAT tells me something. It if hardly sells at all, that also tells me something as well. It tells me it’s a bad business idea.
biggest startup mistake 2.
Waiting for perfect.
If you’re waiting for the perfect time to start a business it’s never going to happen. There is no time that there’s never that degree of certainty when you’re starting a business. Therefore, don’t wait for perfect.
biggest startup mistake 3.
Borrowing too much money makes you lazy.
You’re not building a dream house when you’re creating a start-up. Borrowing too much money makes you lazy, because when you only have a little bit of money to start, you guard every penny like you’re running out of oxygen. I like to go into a business with a certain amount of money and if I burn through it without profit it means it’s a bad idea.
biggest startup mistake 4
You give ownership away.
When I got started, I gave someone 50% of my business for a $10k investment. It ended up costing me over $50k to buy the business back from him later that year.
biggest startup mistake 5.
Your pricing is too low.
The last thing you can afford when starting out is to be is the lowest-priced person in town and that’s a huge, huge mistake, because it limits your ability to be successful for the sake of being competitive on price.
biggest startup mistake 6.
You have no marketing plan.
You need to have a strategic long-term plan on your messaging. If you don’t know how you’re going to sell your product that’s a huge mistake.
biggest startup mistake 7.
Hiring family and friends.
I find it allows me to be a good family member because they don’t work for me and allows me to have a great friendships because they don’t work for me. I would rather hire people who are superstars at what they do. So don’t hire family and friends.
biggest startup mistake 8.
Hiring volunteer professionals.
I know this is helpful for getting by in the first 3 months on a small investment, but it’s time for you guys to take off the training wheels. I don’t want volunteer professionals.
biggest startup mistake 9.
You try to cover every base.
Just cover home base. What does that mean? It means selling your product.
biggest startup mistake 10.
You forget that image matters from day one.
The day you open your business you want to know exactly what you want your company to look like because that is what matters from day one.
