Every professional dreams of one day starting his own business. You might be skilled at what you do, but a business requires a diverse set of skills to operate properly. Many jump in the pool without properly understanding how to run a company. This is the reason why 90% of all startups fail within five years. Here I have shared some of the most common mistakes that lead them to failure.
Setting Unrealistic Goals
All new businessmen have some expectations from their businesses that are just not true. People think being a businessman means sitting in an executive office, ordering others to do work, and earning millions. As soon as they start their company, they are unintentionally doing their best to become a boss. They don’t want to do any work by themselves other than making decisions. Furthermore, they expect big profits too soon. You need to set only SMART goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.
Not Building a Brand
How can someone trust you with their money when they don’t know you? You are just getting started in the market. So, you should work on building an identity first; otherwise, you will lose a lot of big clients forever. You create your identity by following the practices of building a brand. Internet and digital marketing have made it quite easy to get you recognized by your market.
The best approach would be to post articles as a guest on different relevant websites. Thousands of your potential customer that visit those websites will read your article and learn about you. It will help you present yourself as an industry expert. You are going to need the help of a blogger outreach agency like globex outreach to find relevant sites for you, contact their owners, and write an article to post on your behalf.
Hiring Unqualified Staff
Skilled people don’t want to work for a small business that is just getting started, whose future is uncertain. Since they have real skills, they would go to large enterprises where they have a secure career with many other benefits. You, as a small startup, would only attract fresh or unskilled professionals. There are going to build what you will offer to your clients. You won’t be able to offer quality with such a team. You need to offer something to those skilled people so they will work for you. Otherwise, you are building a weak foundation for your company.
Not Doing Enough Research
Every new businessman has stepped back dozens of times before taking this one step. They come with ideas and plan to start it and then back down when they see something is too difficult. It makes them think that they can do nothing but plan and that they need to take action, which is actually right. However, when they finally muster up the courage to take the step, they don’t think twice – now that’s a mistake.
You have to think twice or even dozens of times to find all possible problems and outcomes. You should do marketing research so you know what you are about to do, whether it’s scalable or not, and how long will this market survive. Furthermore, you need to know your competitors, come up with a unique selling point, and find pain points of your target audience.
Giving Up too Soon
How long do you think it would take for a business to scale? One month or six months, maybe? The truth is there is no such timeline. You should know in your research phase whether your business would work in this market or not. Even if it is new in this marketplace, there must be something you saw that you thought to start a business here. Keep that thought in mind and stay persistent. If it’s not working, see where you might be lacking and change your strategy. Make sure you have at least one year of investment when taking such a step.
Not Planning Long Term
Most startups only look for short-term benefits, which is not wrong. After all, how would you run a business if you are not getting any return? However, use some of that return and invest it for the long term benefit of the company. For example, you should know the pipelines that bring work for you and how long they will survive. You should look for the shortcomings of your team and invest in improving them.
Not Investing in Marketing
People think about starting a business when they become experts at their jobs. They usually have exceptional technical skills; however, they also need marketing skills. You might take a step with one client, but that works only for a short time. You will need more work and a bigger team to be able to afford business expenses. Don’t shy away from investing in marketing or you will find yourself paying your team without any work.
