Here are 5 mistakes that are common to many startups:
1.  Believing that your product has to be perfect.Â
You can’t know what the perfect product or service is until customers are paying for it it in large numbers. Get something good out there and when you get customer-response (i.e. they are paying for it not just talking about it), you can fine-tune it.
2.  Focusing all your time and energy on the product or service and not getting to grips with your route to market.
Start thinking about your route to market when you develop your product.  Who is going to buy it and how are you going to bring it to their attention?
3.  Waiting for funding. Â
Sometimes you do need a lot of money to get going. But other times you only think you do.  Sometimes you just have to get started with the money you have already got.
4.  Planning for all contingencies.
It’s impossible to plan for all contingeneices and even if you could, they are only contingencies. The important thing is simply to get started and solve your problems as they arise. Â
5.  Failure to test ideas on the market.
Start small and test, test, test. Test your designs, your price, your customers, everything.  It doesn’t cost as much to test as to roll out a big production and get it wrong.
Good luck.
Categories: Entrepreneurs | No Comments »