Small business insurance from £5.13 a month.Get a quote.
ENTREPRENEUR HANDBOOK
  • Start a business
  • Buyer guides
    • Finance & insurance
    • Software & services
  • Topics
    • Finance
    • Insurance
    • Technology
    • Marketing
    • Human resources
    • Legal
    • eCommerce
    • Leadership
    • Procurement
    • Investing
    • News
  • More
    • Advertise with us
    • Subscribe
    • Privacy policy
    • Terms of use
    • Contact us
Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
  • Finance
  • Insurance
  • Technology
  • Marketing
  • Human resources
  • Legal
  • eCommerce
  • Procurement
  • Leadership
ENTREPRENEUR HANDBOOK
  • Start a business
  • Buyer guides
    • Finance & insurance
    • Software & services
  • Topics
    • Finance
    • Insurance
    • Technology
    • Marketing
    • Human resources
    • Legal
    • eCommerce
    • Leadership
    • Procurement
    • Investing
    • News
  • More
    • Advertise with us
    • Subscribe
    • Privacy policy
    • Terms of use
    • Contact us
Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
ENTREPRENEUR HANDBOOK
Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
Start a business

Business blunders to avoid when starting a new business

Learn how you can navigate the early stages of starting a business and avoid the key mistakes many entrepreneurs commit early on

Published by Editorial team, last update Sep 8, 2019
A house sinking into sand exampling how if you build bad foundations for a business it will fail

Starting a business can be described as one of the most perilous, exciting and unpredictable journeys you could begin. It would stand to reason that because every entrepreneur and business is unique, every journey to starting a business would be unique. However, with 99% of companies (excluding intergalactic travel companies), this is not the case many businesses go through the same common stages and issues when starting.

The majority of entrepreneurs fail to understand this and fail to seek out knowledge on how to start a business or listen to advice from those who have been there before. Don’t think your situation is unique and learn from the mistakes of others if you want to start and build a successful business, so here are five business blunders you should avoid if you’re going to do just that.

Related posts

  • Top 10 checklist for new entrepreneurs starting a business
  • Business banking: Best banks and accounts for UK businesses
  • How to value a business: A guide to business valuations & calculations

Not building a stable foundation

Often the rhetoric around starting a business revolves around growth being the key to everything, in fact, the broader entrepreneurial community is continually pushing growth as the solution to all startup problems.

Growth is extremely important to sustain and expand any new business but often pursuing growth or too much growth at an early stage with a less than stable foundation has the been the cause of many small businesses and startups to fail.

This generally happens because businesses without a stable business model, management team, financial situation or many other factors are unable to grow and operate at scale, thus buckling under the pressure of growth. So when starting and trying to grow, bear in mind your foundation in all critical areas of your business and make sure its stable.

Hubris and arrogance

Confidence is critical to entrepreneurs when starting, whether its needed to gain your first customers, convince an investor or attract key team members or co-founders to your venture.

However, the opposite is true for hubris or arrogance (too much confidence without a basis), often this overconfidence in an entrepreneur’s abilities or business model early on is what leads a newly formed company or business to fail by making mistakes that could have been avoided.

It’s important to remember that knowing the difference between hubris and confidence when making a decision can often be the difference between making a good decision or a bad one, that can change the fate of your business.

Lack of clear focus

There is an overabundance of things to do and be done when starting a new business; your to-do-do list will quite literally become infinite, many entrepreneurs early get lost in this list trying to get everything done, while sacrificing fundamental progress.

Remember that you have to focus in on what will make the difference in your business to get to that crucial next stage. Its also key to know that you will never complete your to-do-do list, thus with infinite work to be done you need to learn where to focus your time, attention and resources at any given time.

Trying to do too much or achieve perfection early on or ever is unrealistic, instead, spend your time working on the things that matter most to the success of your business.

Preconceived notions of your customer base

It’s very simple to say my product is x and my customer base is x. Often this notion of what a product is early on is wrong and much more often the presumption of what the target customer base/s is for a specific product is wrong. These notions are generally wrong because they’re based more often than not on human intuition and not on data.

Intuition and instinct are critical skills for an entrepreneur in many areas but when it comes to defining your market, customer base and overall demographic details you should be basing your understanding of data. Remember if you’re very early on and don’t have customers, there are many ways for free to carry out market research to get some data to base your ideas on.

Out of date technologies

Many startups fail to take advantage of the latest technologies available to them, technologies that corporate competitors cannot easily or quickly adapt in the way that new businesses can.

These technologies can often present a massive advantage for accelerated sales or marketing power over more conventional and larger competitors

Related posts

  • Top 10 checklist for new entrepreneurs starting a business
  • Business banking: Best banks and accounts for UK businesses
  • How to value a business: A guide to business valuations & calculations

Whether you’re an ecommerce entrepreneur who can deploy an advanced ecommerce platform to increase sales or a digital marketing company looking to gain an edge by adopting the next generation of marketing automation technologies, there are plenty of cutting-edge technologies you should explore adopting when starting up your business.

Related topics

Tags: EntrepreneurStartup advice

Related Posts

A sports person running against a black background
Start a business

Will 2021 be a good time to set up a business in the sports and fitness sector?

As the pandemic swept the world, medics and the government emphasized staying fit to fight the virus. A healthy diet, ...

Published by Editorial team
20th January 2021
A person cleaning a table
Start a business

8 great start-up businesses you can venture into in the UK after the crisis

While it may seem counterintuitive, starting a business after a crisis has its benefits. Many world-renowned companies today are clear ...

Published by Editorial team
18th January 2021
An entrepreneur in his home-based construction storage unit
Start a business

Profitable small businesses that generally have not been hit hard during the pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has crippled many businesses around the world. It forced many companies to close down. However, some survived ...

Published by Editorial team
18th January 2021
A series of work from home professionals performing an array of digital tasks to make money online
Start a business

The 5 key skills you need to make money in 2021

This year didn’t quite live up to expectations: a global pandemic, the deepest global recession since the Second World War, ...

Published by Anna McConachie
3rd January 2021
Camera lenses as an example of professional photography equipment
Start a business

5 Essential equipment for your commercial photography business

So you have decided to take your photography skills and branch out to create a commercial photography business. This is ...

Published by Editorial team
29th November 2020
Remote working person starting a business from a couch
Start a business

Starting a business remotely during lockdown

Lockdown has undoubtedly been tough for people in the UK, with jobs being lost and businesses going into bankruptcy. However, ...

Published by David Soffer
18th October 2020

About

  • Advertise with us
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms of use
  • Contact us

Sections

  • Finance
  • Insurance
  • Technology
  • Marketing
  • Human resources
  • Legal
  • eCommerce
  • Leadership
  • Procurement
  • Investing
  • News
  • Start a business
  • Buyer guides

  • Advertise with us
  • Buyer guides
  • Contact us
  • Cookie list
  • Datastorm notice
  • Finance & insurance
  • Home Alpha
  • Join the Entrepreneur Handbook community
  • Notifications error
  • Popular
  • Privacy & cookie policy
  • Products
  • Software & services
  • Start a business
  • Terms and conditions of use
  • Test page: superscript
  • Thanks for subscribing!

Copyright © 2013 - 2021 Entrepreneur Handbook Ltd. All rights reserved. Registered offices at 20-22 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7GU, United Kingdom.

  • Finance
  • Insurance
  • Technology
  • Marketing
  • Human resources
  • Legal
  • eCommerce
  • Leadership
  • Procurement
  • Investing
  • Start a business
  • Buyer guides
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise with us
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms of use
  • Contact us

Copyright © 2013 - 2021 Entrepreneur Handbook Ltd. All rights reserved. Registered offices at 20-22 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7GU, United Kingdom.