Christopher Salis Explains Most Common Startup Mistakes to Avoid

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Christopher Salis Explains Most Common Startup
Mistakes to Avoid
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Starting your own business is exciting, exciting,
exhilarating, and challenging. Many new
businesses succeed, but approximately 50 fail,
and only about one-third survive for ten years or
more. What are the most common reasons for
business failure? Often, the entrepreneur fails
their business, not the business itself. Here are
the most common startup errors explained by
Christopher Salis that you should avoid
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• Insufficient PlanningMany businesses do not
  have a strategy. Your business will struggle to
  succeed unless you have a short and long-term
  plan with tangible goals and objectives,
  including dates and deadlines. Businesses without
  plans may fail to consider cash flow
  requirements, growth, management, employees,
  inventory management, vendors, and other critical
  factors in business success.
• It would help if you addressed all those areas
  during the planning process. It also enables you
  (and potentially others) to examine the business
  objectively and define whether the case is
  lucrative enough for someone to invest in it.

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Products/Services aren't Differentiated and Do
Not Deliver Real ValueBusinesses must provide
value and be better/different from their
competitors for customers to purchase or switch.
Being a little bit different isn't enough.
According to research, a product must be at least
10x better, faster, cheaper, lighter...to truly
differentiate itself from the competition and
give you a chance of success. So, if your
product/service is just a bit better or
different, or if it doesn't add value, you're not
giving your company a chance to succeed.
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• Lack of Focus on Customers
• The most successful businesses understand who
  their customers are. Some even give them names
  and have a mocked-up picture of their typical
  customer on display so the entire office can keep
  that image in mind when making decisions. If you
  know precisely who your customer is, you can also
  describe how large that target audience is.

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Most importantly, you can involve your customers
in product development so that your products are
created based on feedback from those who will pay
for it. Your business will struggle if you don't
know who your customer is and can't define that
person in one sentence.
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• Leadership Failure
• Poor leadership is a significant cause of many
  business downfalls. When people state, "the buck
  stops here," they mean that the leader makes the
  final decision and bears responsibility for it.
  Leadership failures affect every part of your
  business, from sales to employee culture, so if
  you don't have the necessary skills, figure out
  how to acquire them. Look for a mentor. Improve
  your business knowledge. Create an effective
  leadership team. Create an advisory board.

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• Customer Service is King
• The way you treat your customers is critical to
  your long-term success. It would help if you
  genuinely listened to your customer's needs
  rather than assuming you already know what they
  want.
• To be a successful entrepreneur, you must connect
  with your customers, and you can't build a
  trusting relationship through cold, impersonal
  transactions.
• So get out of the office, hit the streets, and
  meet with your clients. Whatever your size, be
  humble and honest with your customers so you can
  gather basic, helpful information on how to
  improve their experience.

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As explained by Christopher Salis, you're well on
your way to success now that you're aware of all
the pitfalls of starting a business. Don't be
afraid to give it a shot. Never forget you can
pivot at any time, and failure only increases
your chances of success the next time.