Career-Ending Mistakes Every Entrepreneur Should Avoid.

A Bloomberg research, the world leading Financial and Data Company, states that 8 out of 10 entrepreneurs who start businesses fail within the first 18 months. This implies that 80% of them are run into the ground after 18 months.

This statistics is enough for any aspiring entrepreneur to halt his booming ideas and focus on a more realistic career. But in the long run, risks have to be taken, businesses are still established.

While some succeed, others don’t. Here are a few reasons why the 80% fail to succeed.

Chasing what’s Popular

As an entrepreneur, you should strive to use your passion to make a positive contribution for the benefit of others. A popular mistake is doing what everyone else does. While you’re trying to give people what they want, you should also be concerned about what you can do better than anyone else. Stop chasing trends, invest in what you’re best at.

Avoiding Partnership

If you intend to do it alone, you’re setting yourself up for failure. You can’t possibly do everything yourself even if you’re the boss. Nothing great is built by oneself and you need to start treating others like valuable partners instead of commodities.

Underrating the Competition

It’s not right for you to be stuck on what your competitors are doing, at the same time, ignoring them totally will only make you lose the war. Every business has competition but one will always thrive than the other. If you fail to monitor your competitors at a reasonable range and identify what makes your product or service better, your chances of winning will be eaten up.

Failing to Improve Your Product

It’s quite normal to fall in love with a product you created or a service you offer, especially if it’s consistently scaling heights. However, an entrepreneur should never be blinded by the value of his product or service and then fail to improve it over time. Businesses are constantly springing up and they intend to do much better than you. You only stay winning if you keep getting better at every chance you get.

Choosing a Wrong Business Partner

There’s no better explanation for this. Just as doing everything yourself is detrimental to your business, choosing a wrong partner is worse. If you’re not strong-willed, a wrong business partner will be the end of your dream. It’s crucial to know what to look out for when choosing a business partner.

Constantly Spending Out Of Your Budget

Countless entrepreneurs make the mistake of renting the most stylish office, buying avoidable pieces of furniture, attending events, and seeking “paid approvals”. This is not the way to go. The most successful businesses in the world today didn’t hit it big at once. Before you think of spending too much on irrelevant things, remember that Google started in a garage.

Investing In a Second Business Too Early

There’s no guarantee that you get to succeed in every business. Jumping into a new industry too soon will only take you one step backward (or more). Take time to understand that industry and do not launch a startup until you’re fully ready.

Hiring the Wrong People

Whoever you choose to hire, no matter how small their role is, will affect your business. This could either be positively or negatively, depending on how much they value your business and how much they can give to its growth. Stop hiring based on sentiments!

Doing Everything At Once

This has a lot to do with multitasking. The sooner you learn to trust your employees/colleagues and delegate, the better for your business. Just because you can do all at once doesn’t make it a smart move, other people could be better at that task.

Disregarding Technology

You really don’t have to do everything the manual way anymore, except you hate quick progress though. There are several mind-mapping tools and productivity softwares that have been designed to improve your business.

Failure to Persist

The road to success is as bumpy as Ikorodu road, but then, a lot of Nigerians still choose to build mansions in this area and must get home every day. It’s very hard running a business and quitting is the easiest move any entrepreneur can make. However, if you must succeed, you have to darn persistent!

Missing Out On What Customers Want

Customers hold the ultimate key to your success. The carefully designed image on your roll-up banner is not enough to make people pay for your service, you need to do much more than that. You must learn to walk “1,000 miles in the shoes of your customers” if you have to accomplish your dreams.

Running From Mistakes

A mistake is the best thing that can happen to any entrepreneur. However, making the same mistakes over and over is the major problem. If you choose to avoid risks and always stay in your comfort zone, attaining milestones will become harder. Mistakes need to be made to become a better person and although you get to pay a price, you also get to learn valuable life-changing lessons.

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent – Ray Kroc.