There are too many entrepreneurs out there in this world. But not every single one of them succeeds in the business world. Making the wrong decisions, listening to the wrong people. Making a good product is not enough. You have to know the marketing strategy and how to stay at the top? Because today, it’s really easy to overtake someone else, Where you know the dos and don’ts of the business world.
“Starting your own business isn’t for everyone, but for the right people, it’s much better than climbing the corporate ladder…Brian O’Reilly
Today I’m going to talk about “8 mistakes first-time founders make when starting a business.” Starting your business is a good idea if you know what are those things that you need to avoid to be a successful business person.
“Never start a business just to make money, start a business to make a difference.”
Mistakes That People Do When Starting A Business
- Not Believing in Your Own Ideas Enough
- Waiting For Someone To Coach And Guide You Through It
- Hiring The Wrong People
- Not Communicating With The Clients
- Choosing The Wrong Co-founder
- Starting Your Business, When They Are Already Broke
- Putting Too Much Pressure On Your Mental Health
- Starting a Love Relationship With Your Employee
1. Not Believing in Your Own Ideas Enough
How can you make another person buy your product when you don’t believe in it in the first place? You have to be confident enough that your product is good enough and can make a change. Some people have business ideas. But they are never able to sell their ideas to the investors and the clients. Because they are not confident enough in the first place. You got a new flavoured water idea to sell it to your clients. You act like you made an elixir instead of simply flavoured water. Not having enough confidence in your product is your first step towards failure.
2. Waiting For Someone To Coach And Guide You Through It
You can’t expect someone else to come and take your hand and guide you through every single step of the way. When you start a business you are on your own. Just because you went to an individual and asked them for advice and investment in your company and they are not interested in your ideas doesn’t mean you should back down and give up the dreams of your business. You need to keep on trying and never giving up is the only way to go. Don’t lean on somebody for advice and support. If they are not giving you the time of their day?
3. Hiring The Wrong People
When you are a first-time entrepreneur. It happens that you are trying to hire people who are cheap and with basically no experience. Those people are bound to make mistakes. Which you cannot afford. You have to know the people who work for you and then you need to decide who you should keep and let go? The final call should be yours not anybody else. As a starter, you have to micromanage every single detail and every person related to your company.
“People forget that all start-ups start at zero. You are growing no matter what. There are always first movers. There is always a customer out there. You get to make the rules.”
4. Not Communicating With The Clients
Communication is the key to every relationship. Personal or professional life without communication you for sure going to fail. Not interacting with your clients daily also can be the demise of your company. No matter what, talk to your client find out what they want, if they changed their mind about something? If nothing else call them to ask them how they are doing? Letting your clients know you care about what they want and about their well being? Build your trust with them to make sure they are satisfied with you and got enough faith and trust in you. Make sure in the future they don’t go to somebody else instead of you.
5. Choosing The Wrong Co-founder
Let’s just say choosing the right co-founder is never easy. Sometimes it turns out that you never needed them in the first place. I can go-ahead tell you from my personal experience. It’s not business-related but I think so many people in the business world can relate to it. I had this idea about a story and I wanted to write a book about it. But I didn’t even know where to start in the first place. So I went to one of my friends who shared my passion for books and stories. I told her my idea and asked her to help me with co-writing and editing it because I wanted to self publish it. She loved the idea of the story.
We started discussing details about it then I jumped into writing a chapter that’s where everything started to fall apart. We were always arguing over every single detail where I wanted to keep something, she wanted it gone. It was happening each day and it frustrates the hell out of us. Finally, we decided that we are not meant to be co-authors ever we should leave this project here and save our friendship and I can continue with writing the rest of the story. But after what happened, I gave up the idea of ever writing that story. The same thing happens in the business world. Maybe at first, you agree to everything but later when you are running the company that’s where disagreements start coming up.
6. Starting Your Business, When You Are Already Broke
Most people make a huge mistake. When you are starting your own business? You need to make sure that you got a roof over your head and food on your table make sure you don’t jeopardize that no matter what? Your business might go downhill. For a single person, it’s ok to put everything on the line because then it’s only them they need to worry about if things went south. But for family men or women if you are putting everything on the line even your house? Not only your professional but also your personal life is going to fall apart because of that. And I have seen families falling apart because of that.
7. Putting Too Much Pressure On Your Mental Health
No matter what some people might think for a business person? You are allowed to have a life outside of your office. You can’t work 24/7. Some people just take work overload and not getting enough sleep because you are stressed about something in your office. You should spend time with your family and your friends and a little bit of fun time. Because putting that much pressure on yourself is not good for your mental health.
8. Starting a Love Relationship With Your Employee
It is never a good idea to start a love relationship with your employees. They are there to help you out and fulfil the client’s requests. You might have to face legal issues which are never good for a start-up company. Your employees going to start gossiping about you. It also can be upsetting for some employees. When someone is gossiping or bad-mouthing you. You might end up firing them.
“Life’s too short to learn from your mistakes. So learn from others.”