4 Start-Up Mistakes That Any founder Needs to Avoid

If you keep tabs on the news, you’ll know all about start-ups and their perils. Of course, without trying to be too negative, you’ll also know about all of the success stories – and this is why we assume you are here today.

Chances are, if you are running a start-up, you have little experience anyway. Sure, some business owners will flirt from company to company, but on the whole, you do things once.

Bearing this in mind, your experience in this field is somewhat limited. By the conclusion of today’s article, hopefully you will have armed yourself with sufficient information to not make the key mistakes that a lot of founders make during the early days of their business.

 

Mistake #1 – You Undervalue Your Products and Services

You are new in the game, and for that reason it can be difficult to attract those elusive new customers. However, don’t under any circumstances try and attract them by lowering your prices.

Sure, discounting can be part and parcel of business – but only if you are still reaping sufficient value from your company. If you are undervaluing yourself, you are on a hiding to nothing. You might attract some clients in the early days, but when you decide to return to your normal pricing structure there’s every chance that these clients will just look for the next company that is attempting to sell as low as possible.

In other words, you need a more unique USP than just cheap prices.

 

Mistake #2 – You Don’t Pick the Right Time to Recruit

During the early days of your business, you’ll probably have to do everything alone. However, as time progresses you will need a helping hand – and determining when this time is could make or break your company. Choose too early, and you’ll overstretch yourself with the additional salary, but choose too late and you won’t have expanded anywhere near as fast as you should have done.

Let’s not forget that nowadays you don’t even need to recruit on a full-time basis. One only has to look at all of the temp jobs in London to realize that there is a huge market for short-term contracts, and this means that you don’t have huge financial commitments.

 

Mistake #3 – You Have Tunnel Vision With Your Products

Just because you love your product, doesn’t mean to say that everyone else is going to. Similarly, if you have asked family members for feedback, this isn’t going to be completely accurate either.

Before you invest in your business, make sure there is a genuine demand. Conduct market research and find out from genuine, potential customers. It’s very easy to develop tunnel vision and think that just because you might use a product, everyone else would too.

 

Mistake #4 – You Are Scared of Marketing

We won’t lie, marketing can be scary. It can be costly, but at the same time it’s an essential element of business. Without it you won’t attract any new customers, so you will need to take the plunge pretty quickly.

Don’t be afraid to try multiple forms and test the results. For example, you might try a combination of traditional and online marketing, before just opting for one when you have found the best performing.