Common Startup Mistakes

Let’s be honest, it’s not easy becoming a startup. However, many young people are trading their job on a cubicle for this business model since the upside of it is a handful of opportunities to grow faster (within investment and aspirations); some of the times pondering over if making a large investment on a small company that will take them a considerable amount of time will make a safe profit and serve a greater number of customers. If you are not quite familiar with what launching a startup involves, in this post I’m going to give you a ground-based explanation.

Several years ago, the word ‘startup’ basically meant that you were up and running somewhat smoothly, but nowadays young people are facing with many challenges and some of them have just no preparation and knowledge but so many hopes for success. The startup environment has a lot to offer to new entrepreneurs who have their heads full of innovative ideas and projects, there is no doubt; but the startup company has to move quickly if it wants to go straight to the top of its niche. And why is that? Because startups are mainly ‘emerging companies’ which are only supported in technology and quality with a high level of projection but with lack of resources or financing that most entrepreneurs face when a business is just beginning. Below I will enlist the 5 startup mistakes to avoid that ever so often entrepreneurs make because they look for the wrong reasons to startup, which will show whether you are moving towards your business goal, or moving away from your primary plan.

1. Not Thinking Big Enough

In order to succeed as a startup you’ll need to work first with the right mindset. The wrong idea that many entrepreneurs have to startup a tech-business is that they will make easy money by simply performing upon a small segment of consumers that they think their business can handle – “because it’s safer you know?” but as a startup

[ a right mindset is a must ]; you are shortening distance between two points and therefore creating brand new effects on consumers, better than what already exists, and if you are not determined to stretch your skillset into unexplored territory and cave in with the fact that startups do not place limits on its growth, your aspirations to get as big as possible, even if the industry tells you it’s not possible, will be knocked down ASAP.

2. Not Knowing the Importance of a Co-Founder

First; not having a co-founder is a real problem. As I mention above running a startup it’s not that easy for you to handle on your own, tech businesses required from large investments and business partners who have a wide knowledge of the technological environment nowadays in order to be funded with the right foot and watch a quick progress. A like-minded co-founder is a key element within your startup plan, say you might have a groundbreaking idea, but the moment you need to build your idea into a tangible invention you realize that you do not have deep technological skills or the ability to sell it with speed. Good news for you is that co-founders can usually be found among the people you have known for a while, such as your college friend, a family member or bumping with an investor who is interested in your idea in a ‘startup meetup’. But pick wisely, you may come across with a huge surprise if you don’t pay attention to the behavior of the potential co-founder before he jumps into your bandwagon.

3. Not Executing Fast Enough

Many entrepreneurs think that they can just sit back and let their business run its core at a slow but safe pace; I can assure those startup companies are, if not dealing with backbreaker challenges within their market, already dead. If a startup does not run rapidly, it is not considered a startup. It’s just a small business operating with fixed boundaries. Why is that? Because the business model tends to change if not one, several times in an environment where you aim to grow as quickly as possible, since the lifespan of the startup can dreadfully fail if you do not take out your best assets within the market before anyone has accelerated its tactics.

4. Not Having a Business Background

There is said that to become a money-making CEO you don’t need to know anything about business. Well as easy as it is to say it, is also easy to sink in the millpond of failure if you don’t have previous knowledge of how your core business has been acting since time ago and accept business practices as they are; I don’t mean to make it rain in your parade, what I’m telling you is that you should go deep in your industry to understand which are the profits and loss of starting a business, regulations, cash-flow projections, how to negotiate with investors, etc., before you launch your startup in the right direction.

5. Choosing the Wrong Setting

Several startup companies owe their success to the right location; the majority of them came up from tech hubs and incubators that allowed them to scale up quickly since they were known by a higher amount of consumers and go along with the growth in other markets. Once a startup owns the right location it ceases to move quickly, however choosing it is no picnic – as an entrepreneur you should pay attention where will be the place where potential clients will look up for you.