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10 Business Startup Mistakes — Parallax Forums

10 Business Startup Mistakes

ercoerco Posts: 20,260
edited 2010-10-23 20:41 in General Discussion
Good info from Yahoo (a rarity these days) for those of us who still plan to make a million or two from our great inventions:

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/110551/mistakes-of-startup-entrepreneurs?mod=career-leadership

It's rumored that the world will beat a path to your better mousetrap, but don't count on it. Marketing, PR, research, sales and distribution are just as important as the product. Yes, it's a hard pill to swallow, but it's the truth!

BTW, I just started reading the book "Ginger" about Dean Kamen & Segway, and it's a very lively read and has some very interesting insights into Kamen's hits & misses along the way. He's truly a tech genius, but less so in the business world. He's also a control freak. At least he knew to surround himself with capable business people.

Comments

  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2010-10-21 14:29
    I'm probably 5 for 10 on that scale. So it's a wonder I'm still in business!

    -Phil
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2010-10-21 15:47
    I'd rate my little company a 5 on their scale too..
    (and I've been doing this here for 7 years.. :)

    Not sure how much stock I'd put on that article. ;)

    OBC
  • UnknownUnknown
    edited 2010-10-21 16:16
    Erco,

    I've seen people fail because they didn't put the money they made back into their business. They think reinvestment is too expensive so they grab what they make now and they don't have the money later to be in business. Even small business owners don't know the value of $1,000 dollars.

    Some companies don't grow because they continually have a small company mentality. They don't want to stock up on items to sell because they end up with a lot of product they can't sell. Suppose Parallax bought 20,000 of an item and the market doesn't go in that direction anymore. That would be a loss unless they could write it off their taxes or find some other use for the product.

    People who rent have a disadvantage over landlords. If you are dependent on an elevator in the building and the Landlord doesn't fix it, there is nothing you can do if you pay rent on the short term. If you pay rent on the long term, you can tell the Landlord you are putting the rent in Escrow and the Landlord is forced to fix the elevator or whatever else you depend on unless they don't want to collect rent.

    I've seen Landlords chase people out of their facilities because their main goal is to go up on the rent every time the contract is out and they lose renters because renters don't always pay their bills on time and the Landlords don't always know how to speak nice to their tenants.

    I've seen mechanics stop fixing stuff. We have a vehicle at work that was getting stuck in reverse. The mechanics could have reset the transmission but now a lot of the gears are messed up. So you pay a lot of money and nothing gets fixed right and you keep going back and they keep doing stuff to your company until you learn your lesson.

    People lie to you in business and that is when you terminate the relationship because it is no longer beneficial.

    Chuck
  • iDaveiDave Posts: 252
    edited 2010-10-21 20:11
    Nice bit of info, thanks! I guess when it rains..it pours cause I found this one on Make: earlier today. Has some good tidbits about developing ones IDEA....

    http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/10/on_the_care_and_feeding_of_ideas.html
  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2010-10-21 22:10
    Yikes, I only scored 3 out of 10 and my business is going fine.

    Here's a new philosophy to add to the mix - when left-leaning governments are in power, be an employee. When right-leaning governments are in power, be an employer. Stay flexible so you can easily switch between the two.
  • Erik FriesenErik Friesen Posts: 1,071
    edited 2010-10-22 04:56
    What the article doesn't say is that there are two basic business models in this world. My mainstay has been drywall for 10 years, and there are two types of drywallers. There are big companies, and little ones, I am the little one. The big companies keep the little ones in business, because they cannot keep everyone happy. The 20 percent of customers that can pay and do not feel like dealing with average workmanship hire the little guy because they can get it done right. This is not to say that there are not qualified individuals working and doing a great job in the big companies, its just that they can't count on it always. I always have a bit of skepticism about "Modern" thinking in regard to getting your hands dirty.
  • StarManStarMan Posts: 306
    edited 2010-10-22 12:16
    I've made every mistake listed and then some. I'm still in business. However, from 2002 to 2008 our growth rate was 50% - 100% per year. 2009 and 2010 have seen 50% reduction per year. Ouch!

    I have a simple philosophy on business success and I may write a book on it some day. It's basically 3 steps.

    1. Envision, Plan (not necessarily in writing), Prepare.
    2. Launch
    3. Don't quit! (No matter what! [But you may need to go back to Step 1])
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2010-10-23 20:41
    They forgot the most important mistake....
    Item #0. Thinking that being unemployed is going to make you a great businessman.

    Simply put, there are a lot of people that make great employees that are too starry eyed, generous, and idealistic to make it as business owners.

    The world is not simply divided into predators and prey; there are a tremendous number of opportunistic feeders that survive quite nicely.
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