THE ENTRECODE BLOG
The five common mistakes that entrepreneurs make that you should avoid
Working with entrepreneurs over 35 years I have noticed a familiar pattern in the mistakes they make that affects the success of their business.
- No strategy. Entrepreneurs often have a short attention span dealing with the immediate challenges they face. They confuse strategy with long term financial planning which they usually avoid. Strategy is the DNA of the business, deciding the mission, vision and values gives the business an identity and adds real value.
- Find it difficult to let go. Entrepreneurs often want to try to do everything themselves. They need to learn to pick the right people and to delegate. This mistake limits the growth potential of many businesses. Ironically, the more they delegate the more they control.
- Too busy working IN the business to work ON it to make it better. Once entrepreneurs learn to let go to grow they can stand back and work on the business to improve it. Without this input the business stays the same.
- Not building a competitive advantage and competing on price. Entrepreneurs often make the mistake of trying to be different but they actually need to be better than the competition. Their product or service must be better than the competition in order to enjoy competitive advantage and higher margins.
- The net result of the above is often low or poor margins. The mistake then is to cut costs in marketing, service or quality in order to boost margins. Actually what they need to do is address 1 – 4 above then 5 will happen!
So, learn from those who have gone before and enjoy high sustainable margins.
