Category: Tips & Advice

Conserve The Possibility To Try Again

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“Research has shown, in fact, that the vast majority of successful new business ventures abandoned their original business strategies when they began implementing their initial plans and learned what would work and what would not work in their market. The dominant difference between successful ventures and failed ones, generally, is not the astuteness of their original strategy. Guessing the right strategy at the outset isn’t nearly as important to success as conserving enough resources so that new business initiatives get a second or third stab at getting it right. Those that run out of resources or credibility before they can iterate toward a viable strategy are the ones that fail.

— Clayton M. Christensen ; ‘Innovator’s Dilemma‘

John Osher: 17 Mistakes Start-ups Make

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John OsherJohn Osher is a “serial entrepreneur” who has developed literally hundreds of consumer products, from energy saving devices to baby products, toys and candy, and household appliances. He has built and sold several successful businesses to major companies and is most popularly known as the guy who brought the “five dollar electric toothbrush” to the world. Launched as the SpinBrush, in only fifteen months, it became the top selling toothbrush in the U.S. He started Dr John’s toothbrush company in 1999 and sold the venture to Procter and Gamble only two years later for $475 million.

Here are the “17 mistakes start-ups make” according to him:

  • Failing to spend enough time researching the business idea to see if it’s viable.
  • Miscalculating market size. Entrepreneurs say, ‘The market size is 50 million people. If I only sell to 2 percent, I’d be selling a million.’ But most products sell less than 1 percent.
  • Making a commitment on sales projections that were wrong. Created costs that require those projections to be met. Run out of money.
  • Overprojecting sales prospects.
  • Making cost projections that are too low.
  • Hiring too many people and spending too much.
  • Lacking a contingency plans.
  • Bringing in unnecessary partners.
  • Hiring for convenience rather than skill requirements.
  • Spending half their time doing something that represents 5 percent of their business.
  • Accepting that it’s “not possible” too easily.
  • Focusing too much on volume and company size rather than profit.
  • Looking for somebody to tell you you’re right.
  • Lacking simplicity.
  • Lacking clarity of your long-term aim and business purpose.
  • Going after too many targets at once.
  • Lacking an exit strategy.

# Source: 17 Mistakes Start-ups Make
# Via: ValleyWag

Seven Golden Rules For Startups & Entrepreneurs

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I thought I’d try a fun little experiment and throw out the following question on Twitter:
“If you were to choose one golden rule for startups and entrepreneurs, what would it be?”
and then see what everyone’s feedback would be and share it over here with you all.

Here are the first seven replies I got:

  • Always have fun #
  • Read Guy Kawasaki’s the Art of the Start, and his upcoming book Reality Check #
  • A startup’s job isn’t to save money, it’s to invest as much in the business intelligently as you can so that the gamble will pay off #
  • Creating customer personas to narrow down your target market which would also help your business plan #
  • Be different #
  • Business is not about ideas, it’s about initiatives #
  • Do not reinvent the wheel #

Thanks to everyone who replied, sending in their golden rules, and helping create this post.

Please do add to the list and enrich it by sharing your golden rules in the comments section.

On Going The Extra Mile

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“When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. You have the choice. You can overcome and be a winner, or you can allow it to overcome you and be a loser. The choice is yours and yours alone. Refuse to throw in the towel. Go that extra mile that failures refuse to travel. It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from failure.

— Mary Kay Ash; founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

Why Startups Fail

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David Feinleib from venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures recently published a great post about why some startups fail. He answers that they fail because they run out of money.

But then he develops it a bit further, listing a number of points that get them there. In this post, I’ll be quickly listing them here with my thoughts on each one, and then let you read the details over on his blog.

The main reasons he mentions are the following:

  • They spend too much on sales and marketing before they’re ready: I couldn’t agree more with this point, many people launch with a half-baked product, mainly in an attempt to be the first-to-market with the idea, and they start promoting the product heavily and sending out people to sell, when the product wasn’t ready enough to be sold.
  • The startup doesn’t move fast enough and is outpaced by the market: This is very true too, it’s somehow the opposite of the first point, where the startup takes too long to launch their product, or they fail to keep up with the market developments; it’s a very thin line and big balancing act.
  • The entrepreneur behind is unable to take the idea and transform it into a well defined product: Whether we like it or not, not everyone who launches a startup is an entrepeneur and has the necessary energy and commitment to make it work.
  • The market takes too long to develop: This is a risk every entrepreneur who launches a new idea faces; the idea might be perfectly awesome, but still it might take just a bit more to develop than the startup is able to hold on; leaving the big win for someone else who launches later on or for someone who can manage to hold on that bit longer.
  • Risky Business: Well every business has a percentage of risk built in to it, some more than others, and depending on how much research and planning went into it; In the end it’s really up to the investor to decide how much risk he is willing to take.

Read the full post here: Why Startups Fail

Momentum In Continued Improvement & Delivery Of Results

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“Tremendous power exists in the fact of continued improvement and the delivery of results. Point to tangible accomplishments—however incremental at first—and show how these steps fit into the context of an overall concept that will work. When you do this in such a way that people see and feel the buildup of momentum, they will line up with enthusiasm.

— Jim Collins ; ‘Good To Great‘