5 Mistakes every new
entrepreneur makes
by John Sortino
1.
Don’t organize. If you have an idea for a company you want to
start, you will then need to do many different jobs to make the idea work. Sometimes you need to be a boss, sometimes
you need to be a bookkeeper, sometimes you need to produce a service or product
for your customers and sometimes you will need to do marketing and sales. No
one person is good at all four parts (most of the time they might be good at
two of the parts). This is what I call the 4 point business triangle.
2.
Don’t
evaluate. When you evaluate the company, you can use the
value of the company as an asset, which is really like cash. Most new entrepreneurs think the value is
equal to sales. Not true at all. My teddy bear company had sales of 20
million, but the value was 100 million because investors were willing to pay 20
dollars a share for the stock. The
company had 5.5 million shares of stock.
3.
Ignore
market size, need and completion. My
idea for the teddy bear company was to sell toys. The toy market and need in
Burlington, Vermont is very small.
Everyone shopped at stores like toys are us to buy their toys. I changed my idea from making and selling a
toy in Vermont to making and selling a gift for Valentine’s Day using
radio. The market was very large, the
need is large and I had little competition using the radio.
4.
Don’t
Incorporate. If you incorporate and
think like a corporation you will become a more successful entrepreneur. When you incorporate, you can use your stock
as cash when you organize. Giving stock
to people who are interested in making your company successful. This is good for many reasons but the
biggest is that they now have a piece of the company and will be willing to
take risks like not receiving a paycheck until sales come in.
5.
Don’t
have a trusted advisor. Most new
entrepreneurs think they can learn everything themselves using a few clicks. For example, new entrepreneurs when looking
for help to increase their sales or income, ask their google search engine for
answers. They get page after page of
some company trying to sell some kind of do all tool. This is a big mistake and will end up costing
new entrepreneurs wasted time and money.
Every entrepreneur should have a trusted advisor. Someone they can pick up the phone or email
and ask a question to. A trusted advisor
will help you get you to your goals faster, because they are your goals not
some other company’s goals.
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