Top 5 Ways To Crash Your Start Up [And It’s Not What You Think]

We are in the age of the start-up.

It seems that everyone has a fledgling business or at least has an idea of starting one. Do you want to join them? You don’t have to hand in your resignation letter right away.

You can launch your business, build it up gradually and then leave your 9 to 5 job once it gets successful.

The problem is that many start-ups never actually become successful and crash, taking a lot of the owner’s cash with them.

Before you think about starting your own business, take a look at the top 5 mistakes that failed entrepreneurs have made.

 

#1 Failing to prepare everyone and everything in your life

Starting up a business is grueling and will affect every aspect of your life. You must warn your friends and family about what is about to happen.

It may come as quite a shock. You will need their support to get you through those tough early days when there never seems to be enough hours in the day.

You may need to your partner to pick up the kids more often and the kids may need to help out with additional chores. This needs to be discussed and agreed beforehand to prevent conflict.  Having a great work life balance is a the best way to deal with this issue.

 

#2 Going at it too aggressively

Yes, huge initial growth is exhilarating and every start-up owner craves it but there is such a thing as too much too soon when it comes to business.

You don’t just want growth, you want sustainable growth. Expanding your product line is sensible but only if you have the resources to do so effectively.

If you have a sudden rush of cash income from sales, think carefully about how you re-invest. It could make the difference between boom and bust.

 

#3 Trying to do everything yourself

You cannot be an expert in all the disciplines required to run a successful business. Perhaps you are not an expert in any of them and you simply came up with a killer idea?

You must buy in some expertise for the things that will really matter or you will end up making some huge and costly mistakes http://theprauthority.com/making-mistakes-comes-writing-press-releases/ .

 

#4 Failing to do the math and act on it

Irrespective of how you feel about maths and calculations, they are your friends when it comes to doing business. You simply must collect that data.

Then you need to analyze it and use it to create key performance indicators or milestones. These will show you what is working and what is going horribly wrong.

Ditch the disasters and build on your successes. Analysis can be carried out to compare products, marketing campaigns, social media posts and just about any other activity that you carry out. There is plenty of software out there to help you.

 

#5 Thinking success comes instantly

The biggest mistake that new business people make is thinking that their enterprise will be a roaring success in the first week of trading. It can take years to build up a successful business and to attract loyal customers.

You just have to be patient.

Have you run a startup?  Why did it fail?  I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic in the comments below.

Cheers!