What NOT to do as an Entrepreneur

We often hear people talking about what to do if you are an entrepreneur or want to become one. Thousands of articles, blogs, and books have been published. Many great entrepreneurs have delivered talks about it. But we rarely come across anything on ‘What NOT to do as an Entrepreneur’.

We all know that 9 of 10 startups fail. But why? The single most important reason I can think of is that their original idea simply isn’t viable. Before starting up, a very intense research is quintessential. One should do a thorough examination of the competition, target consumers, market size, financial requirements, and all such nitty-gritties of a business. Lack of such research would be just like sailing in a boat with holes.

Financial estimations and planning is another crucial aspect. Novice entrepreneurs often inflate the sales volumes and deflate the costs. They often spend too much money unnecessarily on their offices, facilities, etc. They often put a lot of money only on a part of the company, rather than the entire company.

Another important aspect is to identify the long term goal. It may change over the years, but when fire a bullet, you fire with an aim. What’s going to be future of the company like? How will it business model sustain without VC funding? Without crystal clear goals, no one can survive for long.

With a good team every task becomes simple. But often people hire according to convenience rather than skills. They bring in relatives who don’t work according to the expectations and its then difficult to let them go. So a lot of efforts should be put in into hiring a good and enthusiastic team.

On making mistakes, rather than accepting the truth and mending the mistakes, people make excuses. Changes are an inevitable part of our lives, but a few people are very reluctant to change and eventually lose (Take Nokia for example, if it had chosen Android, it still would have been the king of mobile phones). And the most important one, failure. Great entrepreneurs don’t stop after failing. They keep on failing and keep improving themselves, learning from their mistakes.

This article is just a tip of the iceberg. There is a lot more to know about the mistakes entrepreneurs make. So what’s better than an entrepreneur himself telling the mistakes entrepreneurs make? And when the man is Rahul Yadav, you simply can’t miss the opportunity to hear him out. Clear your schedule for the afternoon of 30th August!