Entrepreneurship is a difficult path to pursue and an Entrepreneur has to be a difficult nut to crack, the ultimate acid test towards success is starting a business and sustaining it with the right momentum. There are a lot of different challenges and obstacles that bring about their contribution towards success, one step at a time. The most fatal mistakes that an Entrepreneur makes are also the most obvious or common. Here are some of the major mistakes you can avoid while starting up and lead towards building a business that stays on the top of the game.
- Vision is Key – Any business idea can be good if it has the right kind of vision and ideals behind it. The problem with most of the star-ups is that they usually start with a bang but that is the end of it. A lot of people focus so much on the bang that they don’t know that there is a timeline beyond the bang and that is where a vision or a direction comes into play.
- Strengths v/s Weaknesses – What a business needs are to know both its strengths and its weaknesses, no one and nothing is unbreakable. What a lot of failed businesses don’t know is everything is solvable and that is accomplished by embracing both the positive and negative aspects of pursuing a dream and a vision.
- Problem Solving – A successful business is not one that offers means to an end, but an end that eventually justifying all the means. Nothing is trivial or worth ignoring when it comes to Business. Everything, every little step, every little act, all of what goes down with a startup is leading up to something extraordinary and as an entrepreneur it is your job to know what action needs to be taken at what point in the journey towards greatness.
- Assessment of Financials – It is nothing less than obvious when a business is starting up in the head of the entrepreneur, there are a lot of dreams and aspirations that one has from his / her startup venture. The biggest problem in this is the fact that there is little to no room for assessment of financials and the allocation of the funds (which are usually limited) to the correct departments or aspects of the business. This mistake or insight usually leads to a key conundrum that a lot of startups fail to consider or factor in.
- Competition Assessment – Knowing who you are competing with is highly important when it comes to starting up in a market with existing players in space, it is imperative to know what their challenges are, and what they’re doing well. It is this general sense of being aware of situations that will lead to knowing what the end consumer will be willing to spend for in a market where everyone is making similar mistakes and too afraid to make new ones.
- Set Goals – Knowing what you want to accomplish as a result of starting your business venture is one great way to make sure you do. What will the business look like in 1 year, 3 years and 5 years from now is a question every entrepreneur should ask themselves. This helps the business to reach a level of higher life expectancy in comparison to the businesses which have no distinguishable or measurable goals.
- Build a Great Team – A good business team brings a variety of experience and skillsets to the table. It is usually seen that new ventures (especially challenging ones) build teams in a hasty manner which usually doesn’t work out well for the venture or the team behind it.
- Know your Core – Every aspect of the business is of utmost priority, right from choosing the right name to the right kind of scale for the business to the right team allocated to do the work for the vision of the company but most important of them is to know the core of a business when it comes to its offerings. Be it a product or a service, the core of a company is what determines how the company is going to conduct itself and how the company will proceed to grow.
- Great Marketing – It is important to create excitement and demand for your product / service and use a variety of communication channels to do the same, this is what makes way for putting in an effective sales strategy and a customer strategy into action. In a market where the attention span of the consumer is very limited, it becomes more than important to grab eyeballs or make thumbs stop.
In the words of noted American Advertising Leader, Howard W. Newton “People forget how fast you did a job-but they remember how well you did it.” This is what every entrepreneur has to know and apply when it comes to starting your dream venture. These and many more such challenges are what shapes your direction towards Entrepreneurial Excellence and greatness. So, go on follow your dreams.
About the Author:
Yash Bhatt is the Co-Founder and Head of Operations at SQuare Consulting (INDIA) .His passion is to study and understand the trends that will work in the future by evaluating present consumer buying behavior. He primarily helps entrepreneurs sustain businesses for their growth and makes sure that stays relevant to the expectations of consumers and builds value for the market.
