Tag: vision

Top 10 Biggest and Most Expensive Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in Startups
The road toward building and growing a startup is not a smooth one. One can always plan and prepare for every move in advance, but there will always be mistakes and hurdles along the way.

We might think that a person running a big successful business knows absolute perfection of everything. But even the biggest entrepreneurs commit mistakes now and then.

So, creating mistakes is always the part and parcel of any journey. However, sometimes, certain mistakes can be really expensive in startups and cause serious damage.

Many popular entrepreneurs agree that they have made mistakes in their startups that proved to be super expensive for them in the future.

Biggest and The Most Expensive Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in Startups
Entrepreneurial Lessons From The Most Successful Entrepreneurs

Biggest and The Most Expensive Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in Startups

Mistakes are not something that anyone makes on purpose, it just happens. It can be due to wrong decisions, judgment, or a move at the wrong time. Many entrepreneurs believe that the mistakes they made in their early startup stages turned out to be the biggest mistakes for them.

The most common and biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make in startups

Here are some of the most expensive mistakes entrepreneurs make in startups:

Not Hiring a Smart Team in the Early Stage

One of the biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs usually make in the early stages of their startups is not paying enough attention to great team building. Not hiring smarter people sooner in a startup hampers growth and progress of it.

It is not just the goal that is important but the team that makes it happen. Entrepreneurs often get absorbed in their purpose that they forget to keep their eyes open for the smart talent. This simple mistake turns out to be really expensive with the time.

Being Too Generous with Equity

Another big mistake that a lot of entrepreneurs commit in a startup is that they sometimes become too generous with their equity. Equity is not something that can be taken for granted, rather it is an asset to be preserved. Many entrepreneurs admit that it was the biggest mistake they made in their early stages.

So, instead of letting go of the equity in the employee equity pool, it is important to hold on to it for the right opportunities. Sam Parr, the founder of The Hustle, one of the most popular American media companies admitted that being generous with equity was the biggest mistake he made early on.

Samm Parr

Getting Comfortable After the Success

A quite common mistake and is sure to be the biggest is getting comfortable after getting the success. When entrepreneurs get to savor the new success, they either get motivated or comfortable with it.

Being comfortable might be good for a while but it turns out to be expensive in the long run. An entrepreneur might be able to generate a year’s money in a month and just get comfortable with it. But slowing down after that will only be an expensive mistake for the future of the startup.

Being Cheap

In the early stage of a startup, entrepreneurs tend to think that they can do everything on their own and save up money. Being cheap can be a huge mistake as it ultimately drops the quality of work and wastes the most precious thing that is time.

So, instead of always saving up money, it is important for entrepreneurs to spend the money wisely to get some real help from skilled developers, designers, and more. Distributing the work within a skilled team ensures great quality of work and better money-making capacity.

Trying to Force and Haste Things Up

This is quite a common mistake that everyone tends to make. There is no doubt that the competition in the market is massive and to keep up with it, entrepreneurs sometimes try to force and rush things up. It may work for a while but in a long run it turns true to the statement, “Haste makes Waste”.

This mistake’s result might not be visible immediately but it can lead to various hurdles along the way in the future. Doing the work quickly and forcefully can turn out to be one of the most expensive mistakes for any entrepreneur in a startup.

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Getting into Partnership

This is another mistake that entrepreneurs tend to make in startups. The road of entrepreneurship can be a lonely ride. So, to have a support system by their side, entrepreneurs bring in a new partner or co-founder without thinking much.

It is always better to partner with people who are already known and trustworthy. Having someone unknown leads to conflicts, and there is always a lack of trust, which ultimately hampers the success of a startup. Many entrepreneurs believe this to be an expensive mistake made by them in their startups.

Trying Too Many Things at Once

Entrepreneurs are known for their multi-tasking skills. But in many cases, they admit that this is a mistake that can be quite expensive for a startup. Entrepreneurs try to cover too many things all at once. This prevents them from fully focusing on one particular goal.

The most important thing is to always keep the main goal in mind and do things along the way. But when entrepreneurs start giving attention to too many things, they get distracted from the main goal, which makes for a really expensive mistake on their part.

Stressing Over Bad Outcomes

Another mistake that proves to be expensive for entrepreneurs in startups is when they stress too much over the bad outcomes. Many entrepreneurs believe this to be one of their biggest mistakes as it demoralizes them and ultimately leads to more negative outcomes.

Everyone needs to understand, accept and learn from their mistakes rather than stressing over them for too long. Stressing too much creates distraction, and burnout, and can lead to some of the biggest mistakes in a startup. If Elon Musk had stressed the failure of his cyber truck, he would not have been able to stay at the top till now.

Elon Musk Cyber Truck

Having a Rigid Vision

One of the biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs make in startups is being too rigid with the vision. Entrepreneurship is a process of continuous learning. Having a vision is essential, but not being flexible about it along the way, makes for an expensive mistake in any startup.

Running a startup is about continuous discussions, focus on new market trends, understanding users, taking in the feedback, and more. So, not validating the transitions and being rigid only leads to a dead end.

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Getting Professional Branding in Early Stage

Another biggest and most expensive mistake that some entrepreneurs make is indulging in professional branding even before the startup is ready for it. Creating a mark in the market with branding is important but spending too much on it in the early stage robs the entrepreneurs of the funds that are otherwise essential for the future.

Getting into professional branding too soon can be a huge risk that might pay off well or just turn out to be a horrible and expensive mistake for an entrepreneur.

Conclusion

The journey of a startup is full of highs and lows. There are days full of celebration of success and there are days full of regrets too. No matter how perfect the team and systems are, there is always scope for some mistakes to happen along the way.

The above-mentioned are some of the biggest and most expensive mistakes that entrepreneurs make in startups. One can always learn from these mistakes and try to avoid them as great entrepreneurs are not the ones who do not make mistakes every now and then but the ones who also learn how to deal with them.

FAQ

What are the expensive mistakes entrepreneurs make in the early stage of a startup?
- Not building a smart team
- Being too generous with equity
- Trying to force things up
- Trying too many things at once
- Having a rigid vision
- Getting into a partnership without thinking
What are some biggest mistakes that startups make?
- Obsessing over funding
- Waiting too long to start
- Losing focus
- Forgetting the competition
What mistake should small businesses avoid?

Small businesses should avoid paying too much for the services.

Do successful entrepreneurs make mistakes?

Yes, even successful entrepreneurs make mistakes, sometimes out of too much excitement or simply out of the wrong ability to judge the outcome.
May 3, 2022
How Being Spiritual can Help You in Your Entrepreneurial Journey?

This article is contributed by Ms. Deepti Sehgal, Founder, Svarasya.

When you start the journey of entrepreneurship, apart from having all the knowledge related to business, one also needs some other things as well, mental peace is amongst one of them, through which difficult decision can be made. One needs to have that while embarking on this journey. To understand and achieve that one needs to learn about spirituality.

Steve Jobs, a visionary and the co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc. is seen as an ideal in the entrepreneurial world. However, more than Steve’s entrepreneurial journey, his love, and the quest for spirituality seek a bigger share of attention. The world knows how deeply he was inspired by the ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Paramahansa Yogananda, so much so, that his last message for the world stated ‘Actualize Yourself‘!’ Steve Jobs is a perfect example of bringing in the power of spirituality and intuition in the business for indomitable success. In this article, we will learn about how spirituality can help in your entrepreneurial journey. So, let’s get started.

Spirituality & Entrepreneurship

Most often behind a successful business, there is a vision so great and powerful, to manifest the non-existent and unseen in the physical world. The vision and courage of a visionary to build a successful business is often a journey of manifestation of one’s own beliefs and unshakable trust in something that has the power to manifest.

The subtle energy or that spiritual angle in a successful business is often overlooked in the midst of tangible parameters that define the success of a business. However, spirituality makes its presence felt in form of a fabric of intuition or a strong belief or a vision or a strong value system of the visionary knitted in a successful business model, which is an inherently deep-rooted aspect of one’s spiritual connection. Thus, spirituality and entrepreneurship often are two sides of the same coin with entrepreneurship leading the game and spirituality backing it with a subtle force to manifest.

On the material front, entrepreneurship can be a turbulent journey of success and failure, learnings and experiences and of personal growth, teaching bigger lessons of life. While sailing through the journey of entrepreneurship, the visionary must possess certain virtues to sustain the unpredictable and turbulent twists and turns of entrepreneurship. During critical times, taking mindful decisions while looking at the bigger picture need certain virtues that need to be developed. which reflects the inner strength of the visionary. Having a spiritual mindset and developing virtues like keeping calm, being patient, believing in self, going by intuition, listening to the heart, visualizing the outcomes of permutations and combinations of different scenarios, are a few traits that have, time and again proven true for many businesses during those times of critical decision making that may have the power to change the course of how a business manifests to its highest potential.

Thus, the journey of entrepreneurship is also a journey of getting to know oneself, one’s own strength, to be able to lean back on inner resources and to make the most of that subtle energy that each one of us possesses. For a mindful entrepreneur, most of such virtues are developed along the entrepreneurial journey, yet having some tools for inner transformation may completely redefine the entrepreneurial experience of a visionary.

Spiritual Traits to Apply in a Business

As already mentioned above, both spiritualism and business are two sides of the same coin. It is needed to build up the business of your dream. So, some of the spiritual traits one can apply are:

Trusting Intuition

The courage to build an empire may be driven at the back by the inherent power of intuition and belief in something that has the power to manifest. Those who have the potential, but lack the courage to manifest may have a dormant intuition and may fear taking chances. However, to progress, it is important to get out of the comfort zone, and trust in one’s own abilities and some confidence. Success, be it personal or on the business front, is always a phenomenon driven from a space of inner vision, thus trusting intuition can be a strong guiding force behind the growth of a successful business.

Having an Intention

The power of intuition can be mapped with a practical approach to manifestation by setting a clear intention. The intention could be synonymous with goal-setting in most cases. Small steps lead to greater results, small intentions, and achieving the goal-oriented milestones are a sure-shot way to keep progressing in any business. When an intention is fuelled with an un-doubtful trust factor, mystically things fall in place when the efforts put in are just right to manifest an intention into a tangible result.

Having Compassion and Empathy

A successful business is nothing more than the collective energy of a group of people coming together and having a role in manifesting the unseen. Thus, at the back of any business is tremendous human power that grows with a sense of compassion and empathy towards each other. Like the undisrupted and one-directional flow of droplets of water in a flowing river, the collective positive energies flowing in one direction do manifest into something phenomenal, that’s the universal law. Virtues of compassion and empathy knitted as value systems of any business model, create a web of positive energy that shows in the success of a business.

Observing One’s Thoughts

The mind can create a hell out of heaven, or a heaven out of hell. Observing the flow of thoughts and incorporating certain mind-managing tools that provide an outlet of unwanted thoughts can keep the mind free of unwanted fluctuations. Everyone knows how critical those times of decision-making can be, and the right frame of mind is all that one may need in the spur of the moment to change the course of how a business operates. It is now being proven in research, how spiritual tools such as journaling, meditation, sense of gratitude have the power to bring a shift in, how the neuroscience of an individual operates. Thoughts are energy, and wherever the attention goes the energy flows. Thus, working on letting the energy flow in the right direction may demand mindfully using mind tools to manage thoughts.

Observing the Clues

Most conscious and aware entrepreneurs are driven by the clues that the universe may be projecting in its own small ways in a particular situation. This subtle trait of trusting and believing in universal messages can sometimes be just the right thing one needs to do. Believing in the bigger power operating to make things work is still an unexplained yet much-existing mystic phenomenon that many entrepreneurs abide by, and this connection is only felt when one is deeply connected with one’s inner potential.

Conclusion

All these spiritual values and ethics will help in increasing your interest, profit, and even productivity of your business. It is not just about wanting to follow it, because it brings out profit for the business but it also provides mental peace at the end of the day.

FAQ

Is Spirituality in Workplace Appropriate for Business?

It is one of the most effective tools to handle any kind of stress-related issues and any problems faced by the business.

What is A Spiritual Entrepreneur?

Spiritual entrepreneurs are those who want to serve and uplift others while doing their own job.

How can Spirituality Help an Entrepreneur Succeed?

Spirituality helps the entrepreneur to achieve great leadership qualities and become a better leader.

January 24, 2022
Relevance of Writing Vision and Mission Statements – A Guide

Every business is an attempt to thrive and grow amidst all the odds that life throws at it. For a passionate entrepreneur, money is only a byproduct that accompanies its value. In the journey of setting up an established business, it is likely that your mind gets distracted by other things like profit margins and competitors. If not you, your employees might feel that way. Hence it is always important and beneficial to have a mission statement for your endeavours. It reflects your firm’s purpose and why did you start it in the first place. It is the mission that unites and inspires people to work and contribute.

While the mission statement reflects the foundation and fuel that drives your company forward, the vision statement explicates the goal that you have set for yourself, the company, and the consumers. Vision statement in fact becomes demonstrative of the future of the company and also a yardstick for others to measure the value that your company will impart.

The vision and mission statement of a company is also a reminder for all the stakeholders working for the development of the firm. All successful entrepreneurs have unanimously said that a simple goal of making more money won’t work in a business. These statements will always help you look back on your own intention even when you cannot see it. It helps the company to remain focused on the important thing and to ensure that it does the right thing always.

Defining Vision and Mission Statements
How to Write a Mission Statement
How to Write A Vision Statement
FAQ

Defining Vision and Mission Statements

Vision and Mission statements have their own nuances considering the fact that both of them serve distinct purposes. An organisation needs to have both of them to be rooted in their goals and to take decisions along its lines.

Mission statements are usually written in the present tense to briefly put across the purpose of the organisation and the objectives it focuses on. This short statement reflects on why you function as a business firm.

It is supposed to give an insight into the organisation’s purpose both to the people within the organisation and also to the people outside it. The shorter the mission statement, the more clear and powerful it becomes.

Vision statements on the other hand focus more on the future of the organisation. It conveys the goals and aspirations that the company seeks to achieve in the future. The major intention of vision statements is to uplift and inspire the people in the organisation. In most cases, the vision of the organisation remains the same even if they change their strategies.

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How to Write a Mission Statement

The first thing that you need to do before starting to write your mission statement is to have a clear idea about that one Unique Selling Proposition that enables your organisation to stand out among the rest of your competitors. It should express the unique identity of your firm which makes the customers choose you over your competitors.

Finding your USP or Unique Selling Proposition is one of the most important parts of developing a business strategy. Hence even if it takes a lot of time and effort to put it into shape, make sure that you come out with a quality USP. Mostly the USP of the companies is the goal that they set for themselves and the purpose of their existence.

After deciding on the unique characteristic of your business, implore further on how you aim to execute it.

For example, Tesla’s mission statement goes like this

“To create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles”.

The first half of the sentence clearly reflects what they intend to do or what their purpose is. And the second half denotes how they plan to execute their purpose.

Another example, the mission statement of Google,

“To organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”.

Here the purpose and goal of the organisation are intertwined with the ways in which it aims to execute its goals.

The structure of mission statements may vary but the components mentioned above should be clearly conveyed to the reader through the effective use of wordplay.

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How to Write A Vision Statement

Vision statements should reflect the future aspirations and goals of the organisation. It is different from a mission statement although there is an overlap with regard to the mentioning of goals of the organisation.

As far as a vision statement is concerned the goal of the organisation occupies the primary position unlike in the case of a mission statement where the purpose is given more importance over the goals. One of the most important things that you should keep in mind while devising your vision statement is that it should be timeless.

The first step is to identify the mission statement and determine the human value in it or try to understand the impact your organisation has on people. A vision statement will be more inspiring when it enumerates the positive impact it has on people or places.

After that, narrow down on the most important value that you see your organisation is imparting. These values can be that of service, excellence, honesty et cetera.

After that combine the mission of your organisation with the values that it imparts so as to inspire the people in a positive manner. The statement should also clearly set the goals and ambitions that the company strives to achieve.

Take the example from the vision statement of Tesla,

“to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy”

They have very cleverly used the word accelerate that creates an impact on the readers. It also shows their passion and their future goal of creating a world that is completely fuelled by sustainable energy.

They have done an excellent job in uniting the mission of the organisation along with the value that it imparts and also the future it envisages.

The vision statement of Amazon is also a very good example of a careful amalgamation of apt words that means exactly what it says. It goes like this

“to be earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online”

Any person who is reading their vision statement will clearly understand what their goals and aspirations are.

Conclusion

One of the most important things that you need to remember while making a mission or vision statement is to be precise and clear. It is not the use of complex words or jargon that determine the value of the statements. It is the crystal clear clarity that these statements give to the people in and out of the organisation that serves the purpose.

FAQ

What is the importance of vision statement?

A vision statement is important as it describes the company’s purpose, what the company is striving for, and what it wants to achieve.

What is a good vision statement example?

McDonald’s is a great example of a good vision statement, its vision statement is “To be the best quick service restaurant experience.

Which companies has the best mission statement?

Tesla. “To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”, TED. “Spread ideas.”, and LinkedIn. “To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.” are few companies which have the best mission statement.

August 1, 2021