Are You Committing These Startup Mistakes?
Disregarding Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is one of the most insightful ways for figuring out how to manage your business from its initial setup to the time it’s already gaining momentum in the industry. You may think that it’s a minor part of running a business, something that you can ignore, but it’s extremely advantageous for you if you utilize customer feedback cleverly—especially the negative feedback. Some say that positive feedback is useless, and only in the negative feedback can you really learn and continuously improve. When it comes to accepting feedback from clients, never take the negative feedback personally.
Underselling Your Product
The lack of confidence in some startup businesses reflects very clearly on how they market their products. While it’s okay to be realistic and not oversell your product, underselling it could have the same negative effects, maybe even more. If you believe in your product wholeheartedly and that you have something unique to offer in the market, it should be obvious not only with all your collaterals, but also in your pricing. Knowing just how much your product costs implies conviction, and people recognize and respect that in startup businesses.
Rushing the Hiring Process
In launching a startup business, one of the things that entrepreneurs seem to rush into without second-thoughts is hiring the initial team that will make up the company, a scramble to simply fill the positions. However, you need to spend more time deliberating who you want to join your team. Consider not only the candidates’ technical skills, but also their commitment to a business that is just starting. In these cases, loyalty and commitment are invaluable assets to consider in the hiring process.
[Tweet “Are you committing these #startup mistakes? Assess + Correct = Success, find out here:”]Replicating Other Business Models
There have been too many newbie entrepreneurs who have fallen into the trap of thinking they can create a successful startup business by replicating a successful business model to the dot. However, no business is alike, not even the ones that are in the same industry. A successful business model is one that was built around the understanding of its specific product and its target market. Copying someone else’s business model is not only lazy, but also practically a blindfolded, high-risk quest towards uncertainty. Remember that instead of anticipating success within the first few months and not having contingency plans, you should focus your attention more on knowing your product inside out, understanding your target market and following it closely, and then building a business plan around it. Always be ready to modify accordingly.
Spending Money Recklessly
You need to understand from the get-go that you are very likely to run out of money before you make any real profit. Some new entrepreneurs think that establishing a startup business means immediate profit for them and that they will be able to earn back whatever they spent within a specific time period. However, the truth is that you need to be mindful of where you spend your startup budget and always have a contingency plan, especially when it comes to handling money.
Although these startup mistakes are common, they are also things you can avoid with the right planning and foresight. Correcting these startup mistakes early on will put you on the path to success.
[author image=”https://smarthustle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/headshot.jpg” ] Roch Lazarte is a copywriter, social media strategist, spoken word poet, and teacher. On a good day, she writes features on business and management. On a bad day, she writes poetry. You can reach her at CEOSuite or on Twitter at @CEOSUITEGroup. [/author]