ATB ENTREPRENEUR CORNER The 4 Most Common Mistakes Early Entrepreneurs Make By A J Agrawal DON’T JUST SELL, FIND OUT HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE One of the difficult parts about being an entrepreneur is forcing yourself to look at things outside of the numbers. Although being able to land customers is essential, in the early stages you need to take time to find out the value you can provide. Being a smooth talker to land clients without first validating your business model is a recipe for disaster. We see this all the time with companies who raise huge rounds of funding then somehow fail. Why do so many of these startups shut down despite all the capital they’ve raised? Because they didn’t take time to prove their business model before trying to scale it. NOT SEARCHING FOR CUSTOMER FEEDBACK When you start your own company, you usually get an inflated title like CEO. But many entrepreneurs forget that although their title is CEO, they’re starting from ground zero. And even in established companies, the CEO is still employed by her customers. Caught up in beliefs that they can predict the future, founders push their vision and ignore their customers. Even with movements like The Lean Startup, there are still a great number of startups that don’t get feedback from buyers. The main reason for this is that it takes time and a small ego to listen to your customers. You have to willing to admit you’re wrong, and treat your company like a science experiment. Always remember that it’s the customer not you that is the visionary of your company. FEARING FAILURE A lot of companies have a great product and team but fail to execute. Often, this is caused by a fear of failure. A true entrepreneur is not one who knows all the answers, instead they are the ones who will launch a rocket ship and paint it on the way up. You should never try to rush a decision but there are times when you just need to go with your gut. When it’s one of those times, make the decision, live with the consequences and move on. Failure is just part of the road to success. See link for full article - entrepreneur/article/241589
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 12:20:00 +0000
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