Mistakes That Kill Startups

Startups are the new common business practice that sets the tone for innovation and creativity for an economy. They solve a massive problem and also help the society with what is known to be a disruptive solution. However, things that entrepreneurs tend to forget is where they might miss a chance and fall into the pit hole, thus ruining their entire hard work that they put into creating the business empire they had. Today I shall be discussing those top 8 mistakes that entrepreneurs should be avoiding for their startup. Missing out on these points could potentially kill any startup. So, stay tuned till the end!

1. Bad location: A common choice that any entrepreneurs go through is where should they set up their future startup. Choosing a location shall highly affect their chances to be noticed and this is one area the entrepreneur cannot make a mistake on. Choosing a location for the first time is normally seen to be constant over the first few years of business and messing up this could lead to loss of visibility in the community you are trying to serve. An entrepreneur should always choose a location where he knows that there is a potential market in order to get noticed. Even if the startup is an online startup, the location of the main office is very critical as employees will be able to travel easily thus saving the entrepreneur traveling costs for them.

2. Single founder: Since a startup is based on an absolutely new idea which is not existent in the market, it is always a wise option to have at least 2 founders. The sole reason for this is to avoid any misjudgments. If one founder makes a wrong decision then there will always be someone to look forward to for a second opinion. This way the startup shall not be in a position to fail at any cost. Having multiple founders also makes up for a better management and delegation of work.

3. Lack of money: This is one such problem that most startups face especially when it is the initial funding stage of the business. A potential entrepreneur might have a million-dollar idea but without sufficient funding the ideas go to waste. Not only does the initial funding play a huge role but also the continuous rounds of funding that is involved. Even if a potential entrepreneur is successful in getting the initial round of funding, the same should keep coming in until the business is 100% set to be on its own. If investors decide to cut the funding in the middle of the initial operations, the founders are left with a non-stable business which can potentially throw then into huge debt traps.

4. Hiring bad employees: This is one such mistake that most entrepreneurs tend to ignore. Hiring a good workforce shall give you the best results at all time. However, hiring an employee who is not only working to the given efficiency but is also more of a liability to the company than an asset, is a huge sign to step back and rethink the value of that person for the organization. Such employees just add to the expenses of the organization with no such valuable returns. This is more dangerous as because the startup is new and needs an efficient workforce to catapult it towards success. Hiring a bad employee just diminishes this process to a great extent.

5. Lack of effort: A startup or any business for that matter is like your own baby that needs nourishment, care and ample efforts from the entrepreneur in order for it to grow and reach a stage where the startup can feed itself. However, till the time that is happening, an entrepreneur should not, at any given point of time, stop the nourishment, care and efforts. Once these are stopped, the startup will start to fall and give in. This is when the entrepreneur has shown that there are no efforts given in order to sustain the business. An entrepreneur needs to be on the highest level of efficiency in order to grow the startup and to sustain it as well.

6. Bad planning: Even if your idea is worth a million dollars, it shall have no value until and unless the planning is strong and rigid. A poor planning can result into wrongful action taken, thus destroying the startup in its tracks. In order to avoid that, the entrepreneur should be efficient with the planning and should know what should be done, how it should be done, when should it be done and where should it be done. Once ticked all these questions the entrepreneur is guaranteed to find a much successful altitude when it comes to the triumph of the startup.

7. Wrong platform: Never under any circumstance should an entrepreneur vessel into a business that he is not familiar with or has no knowledge about. The entrepreneur should know where his skills lie and which are the platforms, he is most comfortable to work in. Ignoring this fact shall render the startup with no specialized expertise and slowly but steadily it will keep falling. This is one such point where most entrepreneurs miss and later on have no idea why or what led to the downfall of their startup.

8. Poor management: Finally, poor management speaks for itself. Having a management that has no particular benefit to the organization is like a liability more than an asset. A startup should never invest to work with people that do not have good management abilities. If they choose to do, they shall lose money on training at a great extent. For a startup it is crucial to have a good financial planning and understand that under no circumstance should they compromise with a poor management which could potentially ruin their financial plan, thus draining a lot of expenses.

To summarize:

Understanding the points that I mentioned today would make sure that an entrepreneur is ready for what is going to come towards him. Ignoring these points however will definetly render the startup useless and will lead to guaranteed failure. Hence, if you grind hard, your startup shall climb the ladder of success even before you shall know it.