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More Than a Third of Entrepreneurs Make These Four Mistakes When Starting a Business

Quick fact: More than 66 percent of new businesses fail within the first 8 years.

It’s quite common for new entrepreneurs to look at other successful companies and try to replicate their business models thinking that what works for others might work for them too. In fact, no two business plans can be the same, simply because businesses become successful when they are able to set themselves apart from the rest and build a unique identity in the consumer’s minds. But what you can learn from other entrepreneurs is how they set their businesses up for failure simply by making these internal mistakes.

Learning from others’ mistakes is a crucial part of running a business

Mistake #1: They Tried to Change the Universe

When Richard Branson first founded Virgin 40 years ago, he had no idea that it would one day turn into a mammoth of a company that employs more than 50,000 people worldwide – and he definitely didn’t plan that far into the future. In an interview with Entrepreneur, he said that he had no intentions of changing the world or building such a large company. Had he tried to come up with such a grand plan, he would probably have never gotten started.

Starting a business doesn’t have to be one giant leap – it can instead be a journey of several small steps. Start with whatever you have today and work towards getting better with time and slowly growing your business. Most of us never get started with a new venture because we wait for the perfect time, the perfect conditions or the perfect plan but the truth is that no matter how much you try, your business will never be perfect. The 33 percent of the businesses that survive after the first 8 years of starting are the ones that ACTUALLY start!

Mistake #2: They Cared About the Product… But Not About the Client

Don’t forget that your business is as much about your customers as it is about the product

Almost every entrepreneur starts their business with an idea or a product they are passionate about, and then spend countless hours trying to make it better than the others on the market. Even with the best product or service, some companies fail miserably because the fail to understand the needs of their potential customers and market their product properly. If you want your new business to excel, you need to be a great marketer and salesperson.

Understanding the market you’re trying to enter, and learning your customers’ behavior will help you develop a marketing plan that can get all the potential clients on board with your product and make your business a success.

Mistake #3: They Tried to be a One-Man Army

When your business is just starting out, it is understandable that you want to do everything yourself because it’s still small enough to be managed by one person or a small team, but more importantly, you’re on a limited budget and can’t afford to hire other people. But you need to understand that your business will eventually grow beyond your capacity and you will need more human resources to get things done.

Being a one-man-show will come at the cost of your own mental health and personal life. Successful entrepreneurs know how to be good team leaders and delegate tasks to other team members. Think of yourself as a head coach who drafts the perfect game plan, hires skillful players, coaches them for the big game, and then watches from the sidelines.

Mistake #4: They Thought They Were Smart Enough to Know Everything

There’s no shame in asking for help. Chances are that the someone else is already an expert in solving a problem that you’re struggling with

If you’re really smart, you need to accept that you don’t know everything – in fact, there is still a lot to learn and there is no shame in asking for help. All the great superstars and successful businessmen stumbled and made mistakes at first but they invested in their learning and growth to find greatness. They all had one thing in common, which was their never-ending quest to gain more knowledge.

If you want to grow, then you must work on improving yourself. After all, you can only achieve as much as you’re personally developed to. If you stumble across a problem in your business, chances are that someone else has already dedicated their life to gaining expertise in that area and all you need to do it take others’ experience and apply it to your situation instead of creating a new solution.

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