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7 Mistakes to be Avoided When Starting Up Being all starry-eyed towards your dream can make you blind towards certain things that must be kept in mind to ensure that your business is able to sustain long-term.

By Richa Borkar Koli

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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Entrepreneurs are optimistic people. It is their optimism that makes them put their heart, soul, and energy into turning their dream into reality.

When you are an entrepreneur, the passion, enthusiasm and related obstacles that give wings to a business idea have the potential to drive you up the wall in a short span of time due to various reasons. It can lead you and your founding team to commit some irreparable mistakes in the process of building a startup.

Being all starry-eyed towards your dream can make you blind towards certain things that must be kept in mind to ensure that your business is able to sustain long-term.

1. Poor and Inadequate Research

The first and foremost step to set up a venture is to conduct in-depth research about the business plan, in terms of the demand of the product/service being offered, the financial viability, market feasibility, etc.

When one enters the market without adequate research there is a high risk of the company stumbling in the very first phase of its inception. Even after the business has crossed its initial phases of development, the team still needs to constantly research to come up with innovative offerings to keep up with the dynamic economy of the nation.

2. Weak financial planning

Monetary support and planning are extremely crucial to keep a business running. Keeping aside the brilliant business plan the founder may have, if the financial aspect 0f the business is not well-planned, the business is surely set to see doomsday eventually.

Another mistake startup founders tend to make is marking their offering too high or too low and not preempting tax-related calculations correctly.

3. Setting sights too high

While it is great to be optimistic about one's business, it is always a good idea to keep expectations regarding potential and success practical. Entrepreneurs should start with one long-term goal and a set of short-term goals that can act as milestones in achieving the larger goal.

4. Taking your eyes off competition

Unless your company exists in a monopoly-driven market, you are bound to have a whole bunch of competitors, providing the same or similar products/services. Competitor analysis will ensure that you never lose focus on two things – one is your organizational USP, and the other are your company's weaknesses or areas of development in comparison to the other market players.

5. Poor supplier and customer controls

Along with the internal team, your external stakeholders play an integral part in helping your venture grow. Your customer satisfaction rates will decide your fate in the big race. Organizations must strive hard to keep their customers extremely happy, even if it means going the extra mile. While your clients are important, your suppliers or vendors too support your journey uphill. Remember that they too are essential for positive or negative publicity, depending on your relationships with them.

6. Hiring the wrong people

Research suggests that recruiting the right set of employees ranks first on the list of priorities for entrepreneurs. Successful entrepreneurs suggest that it is of utmost importance for the first 15 employees of your startup to be in alignment with the company values, mission and goals. This will ensure that the next lot of people joining the bandwagon will have a certain mind-set to look up to. Hiring errors can have very high cost and time investment implications for the company, which is something that startups should definitely avoid.

7. Poor stock and asset management

All other operational issues can be sorted easily, but if the stock and assets essential for fulfilling client requirements are not taken care of, it can lead to severe delay in product or service delivery. The company management needs to be in complete control of this to ensure that all their efforts do not go down the drain.

Richa Borkar Koli

Senior Manager - Business Alliances & Talent Acquisition, Work Better

Richa is one of the founding members of Work Better Training & Development and has efficiently assisted the senior management in building the organization from scratch. Work Better Training is one of India’s fastest growing Executive Education and Training firm.
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