You take a risk when you start a business. Starting a business is as scary as it is exciting because the odds are that you’ll fail but when you find success it’s astronomical that all the previous failures and not giving up are all worth it.
The fact that between 60 and 90 percent of new businesses fail doesn’t make for an encouraging reading but you can learn from the mistakes that led to their failure so you don’t make the same mistakes. Yes, businesses sometimes fail due to reasons beyond the owner’s help but more often than not, they fail because the owner was self-destructing.
Here are the common mistakes people make when starting a business.
Picking the wrong team
Businesses are driven by employees. A good team can drive the sales and boost the morale at the workplace and also save you the headache of having to closely supervise them. An unqualified workforce not only produce low quality products and services but will also repel customers from your business by handling them poorly.
Picking the wrong team means that you are already starting the business on the wrong footing. You can be a successful business owner
While startups usually have limited funds to hire the most experienced personnel, it’s not an excuse to fill your company with your unqualified family members and cronies.
Thinking you know it all
A generous dose of self-belief is essential in becoming a successful entrepreneur. However, there’s a clear line between believing in your ideas and being a know-it-all. This mostly leads to resounding failure.
As an entrepreneur, you cannot do everything and neither can you know everything. This why you need to hire a team of professionals to help you realize the dream. To avoid inevitable failure, you need to trust the competencies of your employees – after all, you hired them because they were qualified.
More importantly, you must be willing to learn. Get a mentor, read books, keep up with current affairs through news sites Mid Day Daily, and learn the market dynamics.
Not marketing your business
A common misconception among new business owners is that you’ll automatically acquire customers as long as you create a good product so you don’t have to market it. This is one of the leading causes of business failure.
In business, you need reputation and credibility to attract customers, none of which a new business has. To even get noticed in the market, you have to put in place aggressive marketing strategies besides providing quality products and services, otherwise you will never get any customers and your business will fold up.
Striving for perfection
Of course, you should give the best to your customers, or at least try to. It however becomes an issue when you delay making important business decisions because you want to get everything right.
This includes the decision to launch the business itself. You will want to understand the market, build a team, get the timing right and have a sound business plan but the longer you take to start, the more the business climate changes and your plans might come to nought.
