Starting a business requires a lot of time and hard work, not to mention the risks one have to take. Sometimes, unexperienced entrepreneurs do things that eventually may burn the whole deal to the ground. The same lack of experience or knowledge may make them fail at some basic understaanding of the field they want to proceed in. Out of all those mistakes, there are 4 more common ones.
Mistake #1: Hiring Many People Fast
Having a good team by your side is crucial for your startup’s success. However, the word “team” here means more than a group of people. This is something many hiring managers forget when looking for candidates. Before hiring many people to handle the work, it’s good to remind oneself what makes a good team.
Besides, while you can deal with the work yourself, do so. Startups go through rises and falls all the time, and hiring a whole team on the rise doesn’t mean you’ll be able to keep them on the fall.
Mistake #2: Hiring an Executive with a Wrong Mindset
For the good of the young companies, many entrepreneurs hire executives from big enterprises. However, many of those have a wrong set of skills or are unexperienced in the startup area. They may be pretty successful when it comes to a large company, but they will do more harm to a new player than good. So, before you as a founder make the final decision, be sure you have an insight into the startup-related experience of your future executive.
This also applies to managers of different levels, by the way. Handling a huge company is difficult and requires lots of skills, but a promising startup is a totally different kind of struggle.
Mistake #3: Not Understanding the Needs of Potential Customers
The lack of research or a simple misunderstanding may make your business fail right from the start. Some businesspeople focus on trends rather than real needs of their potential customers. Make sure you do enough research before starting your business. You may find the necessary information in the articles on small business and entrepreneurship – a collection made by a blogger Daniela Bucatele.
As you proceed and establish your company, connect to your customers. Let them express what goods or services they want you to provide them with. Don’t be driven only by your own assumptions on what they might need.
Mistake #4: Spending ‘Success-Money’ on Something Unnecessary
If money start pouring in as your company develops, make sure you use it wisely. Many businesspeople make a mistake of moving to a huge office, sign a contract with an expensive PR company, or throwing a luxurious party for their employees, spending all the money on that.
Think long-term and ask yourself whether the solution you think is right actually is. Do you really need a huge office with its increased electricity bills? Will that PR turn into profit when you’ll have to pay for it even during the bad months? Does that party really matter if the next day you won’t have enough money to pay salaries? Make wise choices to secure the budget of your company in a long run.
