Five Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make

            Dictionary.com defines an entrepreneur as “a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.” What about this definition makes people think that it is simple to start a successful business? Even entrepreneurs with degrees from some of the most prestigious business schools in the country fail. Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone; it takes a special kind of person to truly turn a simple idea into a successful one. This article focuses on five common mistakes that entrepreneurs make:

 They don’t create a business plan.

As someone who attends a school that largely focuses on entrepreneurship, it is unheard of to even consider launching a business without having a detailed business plan in place beforehand. Creating a business plan is similar to creating a google map directional layout of your business and how you plan to arrive at your desired destination. Having a plan in place from the start helps you to always know what to do next rather than leaving everything up to a frantic scramble when you find yourself working on seven different projects simultaneously.

They don’t bring people on.

A lot of entrepreneurs, for whatever reason, think that they can do everything themselves. The company is their baby; they don’t want to trust it in the hands of anyone else. It is important to remember that however good you may be, there is always someone who is better. Bringing one or more people on and having them work on specific segments of the business not only allows for excellence within each respective decision, but it also helps to eliminate bottlenecks that were holding back business growth.

They don’t allocate their resources effectively.

This point goes hand in hand with point number one. A lot of new entrepreneurs struggle with delegating work among a team; they have the overarching vision of exactly how every specific detail should be and they want to do it all themselves. Although you may have a bigger picture in mind, it is important to distribute work among a team and utilize the resources you have. If you brought team members on, you brought them on for a reason; they are intelligent and capable individuals. Allow them to be those things!

They rush things.

Starting your own company is an incredibly exhilarating experience and some people let all the excitement get to their head. They make sloppy mistakes because they’re so excited to get what they’re working on out to the public, they launch campaigns that they don’t have the resources to fulfill, and they jump the gun on decisions that deserve in depth evaluations and considerations. A smart entrepreneur makes sure that everything he or she puts out is of a quality that would be a fair and successful representation of their brand, even if it takes a little longer for it to go public.

They give away too much of their company.

Imagine this SharkTank scenario: you launch a company and within your first couple years you pitch to a number of investors and somebody makes you a ten million dollar investment offer. Do you accept it? Although the dollar bills in your eyes make it incredibly difficult to turn down an offer like that, sometimes it’s the right decision. You need to make sure that the terms of the investment are terms that benefit the company in the long run, not just in the present moment. Yes, it would be nice to have ten million dollars sitting in the bank to help your company grow, but is it worth giving away half ownership or more of your company?