Sidestepping the startup pitfalls so common in business is crucial to an entrepreneur’s success. Savvy entrepreneurs avoid these startup pitfalls by capitalizing on the experience of others, including tapping business mentors to help blaze their way.
Here are some specific startup pitfalls that business mentors can help entrepreneurs avoid:
Tackling a business you don’t understand. You might be a quick learner, but you’ll still spend time climbing a learning curve if you enter into an entirely new field. As a general rule, go with what you know — and if you don’t know it, utilize the resources of someone who does.
Funding faux pas. Don’t waste time and money securing the wrong funding from the wrong people; it pays to build investor relationships correctly from the beginning. Business mentors can help you to source potential angel and venture groups that have an interest in your particular niche.
Not selling from the start. Startups often focus all their efforts on getting everything just right, from funding arrangements to design details. Don’t forget to make sales your priority — bringing in critical cash flow and customers early on. Tap your business mentor’s network to build a customer target list and get you that first meeting.
Missing the big picture. Entrepreneurs often zero in on one area of their new enterprise — usually the area where they’re strongest. But all aspects of your business should grow in unison; from finance and marketing, to operations and staffing.
Starting from scratch. Seasoned business mentors will tell you that buying an undervalued operation and building it up will ultimately save you valuable time, money and energy.
Skimping on salaries. Great businesses are built by standout people, so take the time and spend the money necessary to build a solid management team and employee talent pool.
Photo by nookiez.
Avoiding Startup Pitfalls: An Entrepreneur’s Guide
July 8, 2008 by Rich | 2 Comments
In Advice, Entrepreneurship, Strategy
cassy on July 12th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I had notice many “entrepreneur’s” as what they call theirselves , who doesn’t really know what business they really want. They just emitate other businesses, especially if they saw that this business is successful. No proper management for the reason that the “entrepreneur” dont know about his business at all. So what will happened? ofcourse it failed. As mentioned above, go with what you know and what you love.
Young on July 24th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
You know, after going through some entrepreneurial resources and sites, I came across the Spirus Group (http://www.spirusgroup.com/), and they seem to have found a solution to many of the classic problems faced by would-be entrepreneurs. Specifically, they help you do all the initial development work for your company while you are still at your current job (business plan, hiring, real estate planning, suppliers, etc.) Seems like the right approach to give a business idea a chance to succeed while keeping the risk relatively low. It looks like they can also help with fundraising and a few other things. Worth checking out.