5 Startup Mistakes to Avoid

3 min readOct 2, 2022

Having your own business is a beautiful experience. It is thrilling, challenging, and exhilarating at the same time. It is estimated that half of all new companies fail within their first year, with only one-third of them continuing to operate for more than ten years. What are the most common reasons why businesses fail? It is usually the failure of an entrepreneur who causes a business to fail, as opposed to the company itself, which is the cause of a business failure.
New entrepreneurs often make the following startup mistakes:

1. Having a fear of failure

Fear of failing is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in your life. If you want to succeed in your business, you must be willing to risk failing. This is a very positive thing for your future. The key to great success lies in how you bounce back after failure and how you learn from your mistakes.

2. Insufficient planning

The majority of businesses do not have a plan. You will have difficulty succeeding with a short-term and long-term business plan that includes dates and deadlines. Without a plan, businesses may neglect essential factors such as cash flow, growth, management, employees, inventory management, vendors, etc.; all of which are key to business success. Planned activities force you to think about all those issues. Also, it allows you to determine if the case for investing in the business is compelling enough for others to consider investing.

3. Unprepared for lifestyle changes

It may be necessary for you to give up some of the luxuries you took for granted before starting your business. Your personal time will also probably need to be sacrificed. Additionally, you need to be honest with your loved ones about what you plan to do when you start your entrepreneurial journey so they don’t feel hurt or disappointed.

4. Leaving marketing to chance

It is important to think about how the Internet can be used to harness the marketing potential of your business. Advertising on social media platforms, such as Facebook, is one of the most cost-effective and easy ways to reach specific segments of the market that you are targeting.

5. Lack of proper legal structure

Among the biggest mistakes startups make are not registering their business, choosing the wrong business entity, and failing to protect their intellectual property. If not done correctly, these three areas will be costly in the long run, as if they are not done correctly, problems will arise that will cost a lot of time and money to fix.

An organization can’t be built by one person alone, so if you are trying to create a successful startup, you should surround yourself with subject matter experts and mentors you can turn to for advice and guidance. Make sure that you don’t let fear of failure hold you back. Instead, take advantage of your mistakes and pivot your business model in order to succeed. Make sure you generate new ideas and get feedback about your product so that it can be tweaked to meet the customers’ needs better.

For more interesting conversations, head to my podcast Figuring Out.