Starting a business from scratch is hard. There’s hardly any first-time founder in the market who has not made mistakes while starting a business. Often, these mistakes can prove costly and result in the company shutting down as 20 percent of new businesses fail during the first two years of operation.
As business consultants, we deal with a fair number of first-time founders. Based on our experiences,
Here are seven common mistakes most founders make when starting a business:
Lack of market research
Plunging into the market without understanding how it works is a death sentence for your business. Market research is a crucial part of starting a business as it helps you carve out appropriate strategies. It also enables you to understand the product-market fit, without which even the best product ideas can fail to take off.
Starting with unrealistic expectations
Overnight success stories seldom happen in real life. If you are starting your business with the expectation of raising an astronomical sum in the first few months of operations and getting awarded the startup of the year, you are doing it wrong. In fact, you may be setting yourself up for failure even before you take off.
Set realistic and achievable goals so that you stay motivated and keep working towards your dream.
Trying to do it all by yourself
One-person armies don’t create successful businesses. If you try to operate completely independently, you may crash and burn out sooner than you think. Moreover, when pressed for time, you may even find yourself brushing the issues under the carpet, which can prove to be a major mistake for the company’s fate.
Instead, consider getting on board a team of employees or consultants you can rely on and achieve your goals. A team can act as your sounding board, especially when you are faced with difficult choices.
Ignoring the users
The audience is at the heart of every business. But only successful businesses place the interests of the audience above all. Remember that the users of your product or service will ultimately determine the fate of your business. So take their feedback into account and work on improving your offering.
Failing to take constructive feedback into account can prevent you from monetizing your product fully. Besides, there’s no litmus test to determine whether your product is working for the intended users unless you start paying attention to their feedback.
Failing to prioritize
As a first-time founder, you will have a lot on your plate to deal with. However, since your resources are limited, you need to prioritize how you will be handling everything that comes your way.
This is what a majority of first-time founders get wrong. They try to firefight everything at once, which results in chaos. As a business advisory consultant, we recommend drawing up a priority list to make optimal use of your time. Know what demands your attention and what can be outsourced. A practice like this ensures that you spend your bandwidth only on those decisions that really deserve your attention.
Hiring the wrong team
Some first-time entrepreneurs are wise enough to hire. Unfortunately, they often end up hiring the wrong people, which adds to their stress. A few of the founders also take long or too short to hire key executives. For instance, some hire the marketing head too soon without getting a product manager on board. Some also hire entry-level talent for senior positions to save on costs.
Hiring is a time-intensive process. It is crucial to hire the core team in an organized manner to avoid any last-minute surprises. As good practice, you should look beyond the resume while hiring, as the focus should be on finding someone who’s the right fit for your company and its culture.
Working in silos
Entrepreneurship is lonely. But that doesn’t mean that founders stay cocooned in their bubble and don’t engage with others.
Running a startup is a nerve-wracking process. Having the benefit of interacting with fellow founders who are on the same path can be useful. The lessons from others can be useful when you are struggling to take a decision for your business.
No founder has the silver bullet to become successful. With the help of their colleagues, team members, and even external stakeholders such as a business advisory firm, first-time founders may find it easier to tread the path towards entrepreneurship.
Need a business consultant in the UAE to tide over the challenges as a first-time founder? Let’s speak
Business consultancy services can hand hold first-time founders in a number of ways. In particular, relying on the expertise of business consultants can help founders tide over these teething issues in a hassle-free manner. But choosing the right consultant is equally important as you don’t want someone who will take your business off track.
That’s precisely where Centurion Consulting can step in. Our experienced team of business setup consultants offer end-to-end business consulting services in the UAE. Whether you need help finding out the correct entry strategy for UAE markets, incorporating the company, monitoring regulatory compliances, looking after the company’s finances, or even marketing your startup — we are here to help you.
The strategic approach of VCs in the MENA region holds a lot of promise for the future of startups in the UAE. In fact, 2021 could be the year when more startups from UAE join the unicorn club. In other words, right now is the best time to work on your startup and team up with a business consultant so that you can avoid making such mistakes. If you are interested to know more about us, schedule a 45 min free online or offline consultation with our experts right away!
