Beginner Entrepreneur Mistakes You Have To Avoid
Entrepreneurs do make mistakes. That is completely normal. The first time entrepreneur will naturally make even more mistakes. This will help you to learn but the truth is that some of the mistakes are incredibly easy to completely avoid. Always avoid the following.
Believing That Friends Make Great Partners
Some will tell you that you have to build a business with friends while others say that this is an incredibly bad idea. Both sides of the debate can be right. The problem is to understand the fact that you are doing business. Friendship basically means that you communicate well and are honest with each other. It does not mean that you will be able to succeed together.
If you cannot be objective and you cannot properly structure everything that you do in a business partnership if you work with friends, you should not work with friends. It is as simple as that.
Equally Dividing Profits
Most first time entrepreneurs will fail at understanding structuring founding equity when they start a business with someone else. Founders think that they are all equal but this is definitely incorrect. You should always consider the following when deciding how much of an impact founders have in the start-up:
- value brought to the table
- how much is contributed
- perception of the founders in the marketplace
- the commitment to the company’s cause
Believing That Building Something Is Enough
Entrepreneurs naturally believe that their product is great and that it will be really successful. You need to think like that in order to succeed but building something does not actually mean that you are going to succeed in the future. Adoption is a huge problem for any product.
After launching the company, you have to work so much on practically everything that you are going to do, starting with creating marketplace awareness. As a first time entrepreneur, you cannot rely on something you created in the past. Understand that real work starts when clients use and gain benefits from what you sell.
Believing That Products Are Great As They Are Easy To Use
This will be a shocker for many but people do not necessarily use the product that is the easiest to use. Also, believing that your product is in its best possible usage state is quite naive. In most situations the products end up being adopted after taking in feedback from users and making different changes. Think about the number of new products you adopted in the past few years. There is a high possibility that the number is not that high so why should it be for the business you manage?
Not Understanding What It Means To Be An Entrepreneur
Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs think that when they open a company they will end up working a lot less and success will come. Many see entrepreneurship as the American Dream many years ago. Startups will rarely fail out of the blue and the same thing can be said about success.
As an entrepreneur, you need to keep learning, adapt and work so much more than your average employee. Most of the job focuses on being objective and understanding the market that you operate in. Being an entrepreneur is not a dream job. It takes a lot of dedication and in most situations it is a way of life.
