Revealing The Most Common Mistakes Made By Startups

Launching a startup? Discover key strategies to avoid common pitfalls for startups, and set your business on the path to success with our essential tips.

You may think that keeping a look out is all you need to avoid any major pitfalls, but the truth of the matter is that mistakes happen to everyone, even startups. 

Even the most successful entrepreneurs around make mistakes. Take, for example, Contently co-founder Shane Snow, who tried to do all the work himself until he realized his business could only succeed if he hired people whose skills complemented his own; or Moz co-founder Rand Fishkin, whose earlier consultancy firm lost over $500,000 when he hired only “yes men” who didn’t offer opposing viewpoints.

If you make a mistake, you learn from it so you won’t make it again. After all, doing the same thing over and over expecting different results is one of the definitions of insanity. This is what separates successful entrepreneurs from unsuccessful ones: it’s not that successful ones don’t make mistakes, it’s that they learn from them.

Below are 4 of the most common mistakes startups make and tips on how to learn from them.

The Most Common Mistakes Startups Make

Not Having A Solid Business Plan

If you don’t devise a plan for your business, you’re going to get lost. You’re also going to waste a lot of valuable time. It would be like driving from New York to California without a map. A plan is necessary to help grow your startup. Specifically, you will need financial projections, descriptions of your products and services and how they help people, a comprehensive marketing analysis, and a complete overview of your organizational structure.

If you launch a startup without a plan, you still have the chance to fix your mistake. All you need to do is sit down and come up with a plan. You can do this with either a consultant or a colleague who can craft one.

Not Setting Reasonable Goals

Success isn’t just about how much money you make – it’s about your ability to achieve the goals you set. While people interpret success differently, all of them involve goal-setting. A realistic goal is more than projecting annual revenues a decade from now. It requires asking yourself what you want your life to look like down the road. In fact, a recent study suggests that 90% of Americans believed success was more about achieving happiness than becoming rich and famous.

Setting business goals should be a part of setting general life goals. If you reach your business’s goals but you yourself are unhappy, this will hurt your business in the future. If your goals are too narrow, consider what is necessary to ensure your happiness. Integrating this into your goals will help you not only grow your business but achieve personal fulfillment as well.

Not Having A Good Staff To Cut Costs

You know it’s better to go to a doctor than to diagnose yourself if you’re sick because you know that doctors know more about medicine than you do. The same applies to business. Most business owners aren’t going to know everything there is to know about their company. Thinking you can run a business on your own will cost you.

If you want your startup to succeed, hire good people. Trying to manage everything that goes into your business, like understanding tax laws, IT infrastructure, and inbound marketing, will cause it to be far less efficient. It will suffer as a result.

This is one area where you should contact NuvoDesk. We strive to help business owners like you succeed. If you work with us, you’ll have access to our coworking, office and meeting spaces. You can collaborate with like-minded people and meet your business’ needs. NuvoDesk is the top name in coworking that Arlington has to offer.

Not Committing Yourself To Your Startup

If you leave your day job to create your own business, you can’t just expect to just fall back on it if problems occur. If you get a call at 3 in the morning saying that critical supplies will arrive a week late or that your computers have all crashed, don’t put it off or delegate it to someone else. You can’t run your business on a whim. If you make this mistake, reassess the assumptions you had in running your startup and commit yourself to doing everything you can to ensure that your business is a success. If you can’t do this, then running a startup isn’t for you.

Nurture Your Startup

If you want to learn more about our office and coworking spaces and how they can help your startup business succeed, contact us. We are the top minds in coworking that Arlington has to offer.

Mobile Apps to Help Startups Thrive

By Bryan Acosta

**Updated February 2024

Leslie Radford

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