Starting a business 101
In my work at Confidential Counselor, as well as my role in strategy for the Hatchery, I regularly have the opportunity to work with new and would-be entrepreneurs. With the economy still stalled and hiring frozen, increasingly, people are seeking to start their own businesses. I wanted to share with you some of the most common mistakes that I see.
- Too much focus on seeking outside investors and capital
- Spending more money than is necessary on a website
- Devoting too much time on the minutia of the business instead of actually running the business
While working capital and a good website are important, the truth is that if you have a killer application/product, or offer an unbelievable service, you need to primarily focus on marketing. For some reason, startups are reluctant to concentrate on business development, and this is a mistake.
Being organized and efficient are important, but getting bogged down in theoretical or meaningless discussions and debates takes valuable time away from biz dev and marketing.
At the end of the day the bottom-line is the bottom-line. In other words, what did you produce for your efforts and did it generate income, and hopefully profit.
In good times or bad, investors will always look for great opportunities. Give them a solid reason to look at you based on your successful accomplishments and track record of success.
