The good news is that everyone expects entrepreneurs to make mistakes, since founders explore uncharted territory. In fact, investors recognize that founders usually learn more from mistakes than from success, so a well-explained startup failure can improve their odds of funding the next time around. However, investors do expect you know the common pitfalls—and not repeat them.
As an active angel investor and startup adviser, I’ve seen many of the same stumbling blocks repeated all too many times. As a result, repeating any of the following 10 mistakes outlined here won’t get you any credit for intelligence and learning and will cost you dearly in your funding credibility and real cash.
1. Assume you already know what your customers need and want.
2. Confidently believe that you have no real competitors.
3. Try to solve all the world’s problems with a first solution.
4. Forecast revenue growth that defies business principles.
5. Dismiss the need to register any intellectual property.
6. Count totally on friends and family to run the business.
7. Delegate cash-flow projections and transactions.
8. Hire helpers in lieu of people who are smarter than you.
9. Build the company at the expense of employees.
10. Try to build a business without specific milestones or a plan.
So, as you contemplate your next startup, it will be worth your effort to go the extra mile to avoid these 10 mistakes. Doing so may well save you the time and cost of a startup failure and also will save you from the embarrassing admission the next time around that you don’t pay attention to the advice and counsel of people who have been there before you. That doesn’t bode well for your ability to manage funding or your likelihood of success the second time around.
Raj Isaac Abraham
Entrepreneur
https://www.facebook.com/Raj-Isaac-Abraham-765159050257036/
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