The Top 10 Ways to Fail in Any Startup Business

This content was originally posted on BitRebels.com.
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After having spent the last few years juggling online businesses, I’ve noticed a number of things that you should do/not do if you want to FAIL as quickly and effectively as possible!

This is a list of mistakes that not only I, but a plethora of similarly eager entrepreneurs have committed.

Even if you don’t take my advice, you’ll probably find out sooner or later that there’s some truth to this post.

PLEASE add your own input on these points. Obviously this list is not exhaustive. We’d like to hear what you feel is a way of surefire failure in any start-up business.

1. Do not target a specific niche

This is a lack of foresight before anything else. Offering your products/services to everyone is not only ensuring that competition is rife but also diluting your marketing efforts.

To push the right buttons within your audience you must focus on one or two segments at most.

2. Don’t bother creating a competitive advantage

Apple created their competitive advantage by branding their computers as faster, more stable, sexier and cooler than PC’s.

What can you say about your products/services that will set you apart from the rest?

3. Do not study the successful competitors in your niche

Emulation is a shortcut to success.

Copying people is not a sin, as long as it’s done ethically. We don’t reinvent the wheel – but we do make faster and smoother rides with it.

The idea is to improve on past successes and push new boundaries.

4. Make the business all about you and not the people you hope to serve

People very rarely get things right the first time around. Your business and its components will need constant revision and improvement – moulding your carefully thought-out products and services along the way.

The more arrogant and stubborn you are about keeping them in line with your original concepts, the harder this becomes and it can have huge repercussions for your bottom line.

5. Do not bother planning and carrying out a marketing strategy

“Failing to plan is planning to fail”~ Proverb

Think of your business as a ship that has set out on a journey. Without a map, businesses like yours get lost… and when they get lost you’re at risk of starvation, hitting rocks, capsizing and a whole host of other obstacles.

6. Be disorganized with poor time-management skills

Without time-management you’re letting your business run you rather than the other way around. This is impractical, frustrating and costly.

Remember, time is money.

7. Try to do everything yourself, don’t bother outsourcing

It takes the average business owner some time before they realize their goals can be met quicker, and with less blood, sweat and tears, by outsourcing a lot of their workload.

You need to work on your business rather than in your business.

8. Care Less about Your Brand and how people perceive you

Whenever a business launches a marketing campaign on television, radio, the internet – all should speak from the same script. That is to say, there is only one identity if branding is going to be effective. Consistency plays a huge part in consumer decisions.

Create a mission statement that incorporates your branding goals. Read this every day. Until you are living and breathing your brand identity, you will be less effective in your marketing campaigns.

9. Take all criticism as a personal attack

We’ve all been there. Someone makes a critical statement about something we hold close to us and we immediately wind up the bridge and send archers to the battlements.

In all honesty it doesn’t really matter how we feel about it. What matters is whether or not people will find what you have to offer worth their while.

10. Do not take action

Analysis paralysis happens to the best of us. It’s when we procrastinate behind the guise of research and planning.

Fear of failure can grip us all. The thing is… it’s through failure that we eventually succeed.

The results of perseverance and determination far outweigh the fears you have about any failure you will have to endure.

Related posts:

  1. Are You Making these Startup Business Mistakes?
  2. 5 Ways to Generate More Leads with Twitter

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