7 mistakes that kill new businesses and startups

Entrepreneurship is one big deal. Almost everyone wants to start up one business or the other, however without being mindful of the seven mistakes that will be detailed in this article, such business is almost as good as dead.

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According to Small Business Administration research, only half of new businesses survive for the first five years and only one-third of new businesses are able to survive for 10 years. The inverse is compelling as we can conclude that if only 50% of new businesses survive for the first five years, then the other 50% fail in the first five years. We can also conclude that about 65% of new businesses don’t make it to the ten-year mark.

These 7 mistakes will kill your business even before it stands a chance of being a success.

Bad Location

You’ve probably heard the classic advice, “Location, Location, Location.” The importance of the location of your business cannot be stressed enough, despite the rise of technology, virtual communication and cloud businesses. A business’s address is an important factor in the way that business is perceived.

Alltopstartups stressed that if your business address is far away from your target audience, especially if you sell offline, prospects may find it difficult to locate you. Conversely, if you had a city-centre location or one which is well-regarded as a business centre, prospects be may be more inclined to convert.

Poor Implementation of Ideas

People jump into businesses, into making decisions as regard the growth of the business. This is why one of the qualities of a leader is effective management skills. Your business can fail if you exhibit poor management skills, which can be evident in many forms. You will struggle as a leader if you don’t have enough experience making management decisions, supervising a staff, or the vision to lead your organization.

Without having a clear vision about implementation, business sustainability, profit making, and risk bearing aspects of the business, it will most likely fail. This in the same vein affects businesses lacking right labour and manpower.

Hiring wrong people

If you’re in a startup, you’re probably desperate to free yourself from the 12-hour workdays. But rushing to hire can put your business at risk. The decision to put someone on your payroll is always a major leap, and a mistake in this regard can cost you the entire business.

Insufficient Planning

Especially for companies just starting out, not planning enough can be one of an entrepreneur’s biggest problems. However good your idea or service is, if you haven’t thoroughly planned out in advance aspects like who your ideal customer is, how much money you plan to spend month to month and what your short and long-term goals are, you’ll struggle more and more as your company grows.

Wrong Platform

If you are into tech or online business, the wrong platform can completely destroy the purpose of your products or services. Much like the lack of knowledge to hire the right programmers, choosing the right platform for your service can be nerve wrecking.

Think of your platform as the foundation of your house. Would you want to build your house with mediocre talent? I didn’t think so. There are some places where you just DON’T cut corners, and hiring the right programmers and choosing the right platform is one of them.

Poor Management

Every decision has consequences. A string of consistently poor choices can culminate in the collapse of a company. It’s not just about consequences, however. Slow decision making can result in valuable opportunities slipping away. Ideally, decisions should be made promptly near the point of action and only by qualified personnel.

Below are some of the qualities of a good leader as regard good management:

  • Consistent, constructive feedback
  • Investment in the success and growth of subordinates
  • Strong leadership by example
  • Efficient utilization of resources
  • Delegating tasks to the proper employees
  • A purposeful vision for the future
  • Openness to delegation of tasks and trust of team members
  • An authentic care for team morale

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