Knowing how to identify and avoid the main mistakes of entrepreneurship is important so that you can eliminate this risk factor from your business or project. We all know that building a business from scratch is not easy. It requires courage, cold blood, a warrior’s disposition and much, much common sense, especially in these moments of crisis like the one we are facing.
Faced with this fact it is necessary to make it clear that whoever judges the mistakes made by entrepreneurs, takes the name of the market, and is made up of a ruthless jury that has no compassion for their effort and good will. Therefore all care is little.
Here is a list of the main mistakes of entrepreneurship, a series that simply cannot happen if you want to be a successful entrepreneur:
Lack of Proper Planning
You don’t need to assemble a document that addresses the business for the next ten years, but drawing up a minimum business plan is critical to the success of the endeavor. It is fundamental to conceive a very objective and viable material, such as a good “flight plan”, where it is clear where you want to get to, when and in what way. If you don’t know where you want to get to, you won’t recognize when it happens.
Do not validate the idea
Another one that can be incorporated in our list of the main errors of entrepreneurship is to post everything in an idea without first testing it. Ideally, you should submit your project to an idea validation process before going to a final stage.
Ideally, you should do a small-scale test, even if the product or service is not yet developed, to get an idea of its acceptance and be able to correct whatever is necessary before going into a large-scale production stage.
Progressive business decapitalization
The project is going well, the first customers came and seem to be satisfied. Little by little the company is consolidating and gaining space in the market.
Ready, intoxicated by the still incipient success, the partners get together and certain that from now on only other successes and more and more contracts will come, they start to make unnecessary investments, disperse resources with corporate uselessness and other superficialities.
They create a culture of financial displicity, which little by little weakens the business, eliminating its sustainability in the medium and sometimes even in the very short term.
Disorganization
Disorganization is definitely one of the main mistakes of entrepreneurship. Run from it, it’s one of the most serious sins. It causes insecurity for you, your employees and partners and ends up reflecting before the customers. It causes permanent bleeding in the business, consumes time and brings complications, besides undermining all the planned initiatives.
Anxiety, impatience and hastiness
It is obvious that any risky project causes anxiety. It is almost impossible to avoid this feeling in some phases and situations. But this cannot dominate the decision process. It must be faced with a normal feeling, but it can never guide the management of the company.
When it comes to acting, patience and concentration are needed. It is very important to keep your head in place and face obstacles and adversities as components of a game.
Incompetent
Do not wish them on even the worst enemy. Simply eliminate them from professional coexistence. They bring nothing good. They delay activities, demotivate the competent and create an atmosphere of general wear and tear.
It is interesting to note that when we refer to incompetents, we refer to all levels of incompetence, including emotional, which often comes disguised as a person “with difficult genius”.
Exaggerated optimism or pessimism
Remember to maintain a certain healthy skepticism. Self-criticism helps a lot to adjust expectations and avoid costly disappointments. In this case, we believe in the popular saying, that virtue is in the middle. Therefore, entrepreneur, not so much to heaven, not so much to earth. But above all, count on unforeseen events. Count on delays, punctures and always act well in advance.
Finally, follow your path firmly, without forgetting that to undertake is above all, a lifestyle, a constant state of mind. Knowing what the main mistakes of entrepreneurship are and how to avoid them, you can greatly reduce the chances of failure or stagnation of your business.