Building a business from scratch is definitely not an easy task. As an entrepreneur, you will make a lot of mistakes and face failures along the way — not a big deal as long as you are ready to learn from your mistakes and try to avoid them in the future. That’s how most entrepreneurs learn and grow. But once you are in the business game, you can’t afford to make blunders constantly. You have to play real smart to win a competitive edge over others and for that you must be aware of some fatal entrepreneurial mistakes that can ruin your business!
1. Trying To Be A Know-It-All
Never play a know-it-all, especially if you have just stepped into the business world. Why? Simply because you are not! Running a business is all about learning and gaining knowledge. It’s really not possible to keep up with the dynamically evolving market, if you don’t try to learn. So whether you have experience of doing business or you are a startup, make the most of every opportunity that helps you broaden your vision.
2. Starting The Business Without Infrastructure
It’s true that now you can start your own business without any setup — but definitely not without an infrastructure. Planning is probably the most important aspect that lays a strong foundation for your business to grow — and if you are not focusing on the infrastructure if your business, you are making a terrible mistake!
3. Choosing The Wrong Partner
First of all you don’t necessarily need a co-founder, if you are starting your business on a small scale. With strategic planning and organization, you can handle your business yourself too. But if you think that its too big of a responsibility for you to handle alone and you need a business partner, then be really careful in picking the co-founder. Make sure that the co-founder is mentally compatible with you — you need someone intelligent to make important decisions, so choose someone who can compliment your entrepreneurial skills and support your ideas.
4. Focusing On Growth Only
Your business can’t grow, if your strategies are not dynamic. As an entrepreneur, you have to think in multiple directions while making decisions. If you are focusing on business growth only, and not on the quality of services, it will impact your business eventually. Achieving a balance between growth and quality is the key to success in business.
5. Expecting Customers To Spot You
Do you really expect customers to find and follow you when the market is already buzzing with so many entrepreneurs offering promising services? Definitely not! If you want your customer base to expand, you will have to be where your customers are.
6. Underestimating The Importance Of Technology
Regardless of the nature of your business, you must be technology savvy if you want to be a successful entrepreneur. That’s because today technology is everywhere, and you can’t keep up with the competition if you don’t make the most of technology.
7. Obsessing Over Competition
Acquiring success as an entrepreneur is not just about worrying about the stiff competition in the market. Of course it matters, but you have to focus in other important aspects too, like self-evaluation and understanding the mindset of customers. As Mark Cuban once said, “Focus on building the best possible business. If you are great, people will notice and opportunities will appear.”
8. Financial Mismanagement
If you are not managing your finances, your business can crash down like a house of cards. You have to spend really wisely — hiring a financial advisor can be really helpful in avoiding financial blunders.
9. Expanding Without Planning
Expanding the business without any planning is another common mistake entrepreneurs often make. The “Jack of all, Master of none” policy never works in business. Expand your business only when you are financially stable and have a strategic plan.
10. Not Hiring Competent Employees
Your success heavily depends on the competence of your employees. So put in your best efforts to pick the best fit for your business.
11. Ignoring Customer’s Response
One way to evaluate your business is asking customers to give feedback. Often entrepreneurs don’t understand the impotence of customer’s response, but it can really help you spot your weaknesses and understand what customers expect from you.
12. Missing Viable Investment Opportunities
Entrepreneurs who wait for the “right time” to invest don’t stay long in the business game. Opportunities will not knock on your door — you will have to spot them and make the most of all viable opportunities.
13. Denying Professional Help
If you need help, admit it! Learning is an ongoing process and there is nothing bad in seeking professional help. Entrepreneurs,who deny help and try to resolve issues on their own end up making blunders.
14. Not Keeping Up With Market Trends
You don’t want to be left out, do you? The marketing is changing dynamically and you can only keep up with if you stay updated about current trends. Elon Musk offers this great advice: “Constantly think about how you could be doing things better and keep questioning yourself.”
15. Investing Too Much On Workplace Setup
Invest wisely: wasting your capital on workplace setup when you don’t even need it, can affect your bottom line negatively.
16. Not Spotting Target Audience
You must know your target audience to reach them. You can’t communicate and form a bond with your customers unless you understand their mindset and for that you need to know who your target audience is.
17. Poor Marketing
Your marketing strategy should not be for a specific group of customers. Successful entrepreneurs focus on dynamic marketing strategies that address all types of customers.
18. Choosing The Wrong Platform
Choose the platform that’s most engaging when launching your products. For example, you can choose social media to market your products because almost everybody is active in social media these days.
19. Being Too Mainstream
Be innovative! Implementing the same ideas that everyone else is using will not help you stand out of crowd.
20. Not Working On Entrepreneur Skills
Last but not least, keep striving for improvement. Never be satisfied with what you are today — you always have some room for improvement. Successful entrepreneurs observe their flaws and work on them. Your failures can lead you to the success you have always dreamt of, if you take them as lessons and now that you are familiar with common mistakes that entrepreneurs often overlook, try to avoid them!
Featured photo credit: RYAN MCGUIRE via gratisography.com
