Novice Entrepreneur: Mistakes and Tips. Useful Tips for New Entrepreneurs 4 Tips for New Entrepreneurs

11 Commandments for a New Entrepreneur

readiness

Readiness for business... This is such a state... When you understand that you want it or when you decide that you want to work for yourself and only for yourself. When you will not plow days and nights for some uncle .. When you are ready to devote yourself to this business ... When you are ready to face problems. When you live an idea, when you breathe it, then you are ready...

Confidence

Idea confidence. in your future business. What you want to open must be successful. It cannot be otherwise. When you definitely say to all concerned, all employees, friends - YES, I will do it. YES, I will definitely do it. And only then take the idea. If you're not ready to talk, if you're not sure, don't even try. If in your brain there is a fixed idea, accompanied by the words - I want or it seems to me that I will do it - this is not the case. When you burn with an idea, when you are confident in it, then take it.

Enterprise

You must be "not an employee". You must be a businessman. You have to organize the business. You have to lead people. You must be seen as an entrepreneur. Feel it in conversation and in deeds. You must see the ideas, you must take everything you need... You must be ideological. You must be enterprising. Remember this.

A responsibility

Business needs money. You must realize that this is a huge risk. You should not take money without realizing that this is a huge responsibility! Many people around me committed suicide because of debt. This breaks up marriages. From this, friends are lost, loved ones turn away. If you take money, you must give it back. Please understand that this is a huge responsibility and that these are huge risks! Do not borrow if you are not 100% sure of repayment. This is dangerous.

Awareness

You must know your area. Must understand what it is and how it works. It's great if the company's field of activity is your favorite. You understand this. You know the loopholes ... Imagine a grandmother who wants to do not garment production but web design. Not so simple.

Business plan

No matter how it seems to you that everything is so simple, understandable and wonderful - you must write a business plan or something like it... Brief strategy. If you do not have a business plan, open a business - you will make a big mistake. If you don't have a plan of action, don't do it. You must know your clients. Must see the big picture. How stupid it would not look - write. That's better.

Friends

Do not take friends to your state. You will realize your mistake as soon as you do this. Friends will not fit into jobs the way hired workers do. Friends won't make it. Friends will want more than the rest. Friends can pressure you. Friends will drag your firm down. You can't fire them out of a sense of duty. If you hire a friend, you will make a big mistake. The old true saying: "if you want to lose a friend, give him a loan." So here. Don't take friends. You can cooperate with them, but do not take them on the staff.

Honesty

If you are a good partner, you can rely on. You do everything on time, you don't let anyone down, you don't leave anyone. Partners will stay with you. They will pay back, rather, the same. Don't throw! You said - you did. Keep your words! And people will be attracted to you. But all the same, do not forget that in business everyone is “thrown” and “bred” ... Caution never interferes.

Thrift

Don't spend all your money. If a company brings in amazing income, don't get used to it. It can be just some kind of luck, temporary success, or just a goofy client. If you have a firm, you need better clothes. Entertainment is more expensive. The car is tougher. You will be chasing after it. In this pursuit, you will forget about business. And if it brings even less, you will consider that life is over. And remember - "it's easier to earn than to save."

Saving

This is not what they teach you in universities! representation sosem not that! They impose on us the opinion that a company is when there is a corporate culture, when euro-style renovations are everywhere, white walls, new furniture and cool equipment! All wrong! Save! No fancy equipment needed! Everything is minimal! Why offices for workers? Cellars, Pentium1, ordinary students working for pennies. Here are the realities of business. There will be no cool company. Everywhere you need to save! Everything is minimal!

Distance

You can't be friends with your own employees. Keep your distance. Don't let them get close to you. You are in charge. You are the boss, you are the director. For example, you can not switch to "you". In my opinion, this will elevate you, and employees will feel more and more responsible.

I hope you read these tips and see the picture of the business world more fully. If you have only one desire, it is not a business. Take advice. Take it seriously.

Profitability calculator for this business

Franchise and Vendor Offers

The profit of the barbecue depends on the mode of operation and assortment. The profitability of such a business is estimated at 20%, and the payback period is from one year.

Minimum amount to open electronic library- about 200 thousand rubles, and taking into account the wage fund - at least 250 thousand rubles, however, many companies invest millions of rubles for ...

The total required investment in the children's cardboard furniture business is 1.1 million rubles. Simple and discounted payback period - 7 months.

To open a small club, including the purchase of books, it will take from 500 thousand rubles. In a month, a store of this format can bring from 150 thousand rubles and more. The founders of such clubs prefer ...

Due to the accelerating pace of life, there is less and less time for ordinary household chores, including even essential ones such as cooking. And this is where cookery comes to the rescue.

Every entrepreneur sleeps and sees how to improve the work of his enterprise. But not everyone can clearly formulate exactly what indicators can be used to judge that the enterprise has become successful.

Very often, active and self-confident people are visited by ideas to open their own business. And not in vain - energy for action, experience and a desire to change lives for the better do not allow such people to be content with little. But not all ideas turn into achieved goals.

Various factors stop: a person realizes what responsibility he will have to take on, or he is faced with strong competitors, adverse market conditions and other difficulties. Over time, the ideas to start your own business remain just ideas.

We have prepared a selection practical advice aspiring entrepreneurs who will help you succeed and see the most positive sides this type of activity. On the positive side, we mean the unlimited opportunity to create: in your own company, you can build a unique corporate culture, set the pace of work, help develop your employees, make valuable contacts, and so on.

1. At first, think of money as a holistic flow, without focusing on profitability issues.
By providing a good gross income, you will receive a decent net profit. Setting up the system is the first challenge for a person opening his own business, and you can already make adjustments and improve processes along the way.

2. Don't expect a dramatic, miraculous profit jump.
There are no jackpots in business, here you need to move forward in small steps every day, investing time and effort in future profits.

3. Do not pause in the movement towards your goal.
No breaks! Yes, there will be failures, but they are not a reason for a timeout, but rather the opposite. More movement, activity, continuous search for clients and partners. Such activity will "shoot" sooner or later.

4. In matters of business, listen to people who have done it in practice, not in words.
As an adviser, only experts who know this cuisine from the inside will suit you. Only a person who has personal experience in entrepreneurship, can give valuable advice to a novice businessman.

5. Be persistent in business.
You have chosen a course - move along it, because excessive variability in decisions will only harm the result. In addition, by not sticking to your own stated ideas, you will create embarrassment and misunderstanding among your employees. And if you have already had to change plans due to objective reasons, be sure to inform your colleagues about it. You should have one main goal (known to your employees) that you need to focus on.

6. From now on, optimism is your life partner.
Maintain a positive attitude and belief in success in any situation. Only with positive person the team is ready to perform real feats! infect good mood others. A healthy atmosphere in the team is very important for the profitability and success of the company.

7. Make friends with innovation.
In any field of business, they are the key to prosperity. Understand technologies and innovations from your field, be on friendly terms with the developers or manufacturers of your product. So information about future trends will come to you firsthand. By offering your customers only the services and products that are in demand, you will be one step ahead of your competitors. And this is a direct road to leading positions in the market.

8. Communication is at the forefront.
Communicate with clients as much as possible. Let them communicate their desires to you about what your product/service should be like. Hear them. In addition, by communicating directly with your target audience, you form a positive attitude towards your person and your brand. Feedback is provided to you, and you can look at this from a practical point of view. Who would turn down free marketing research?

9. Before implementation, test any idea.
Research, collect data, study facts and figures, hold presentations in front of the team - create a powerful information field around a new product or service. This way you can identify and fix potential problems at an early stage.

10. Arm yourself with the legal framework.
Knowledge of the law is a powerful privilege that will save you from many difficulties and help you defend your rights. Faced with various state authorities, you will not allow them to dictate their terms. If there is no desire to personally delve into all the intricacies of jurisprudence, then buy this knowledge - hire a lawyer.

Yes, the path of aspiring entrepreneurs is not easy. But owning a business gives you freedom of choice: how to live, how much to earn, when to rest, how much to work. Trust your instincts, don't give up halfway - and achieving any goal will only be a matter of time.

To question four of advice to a novice entrepreneur opening his own business, a question of life and death asked by the author Anonymous the best answer is Five tips for aspiring entrepreneurs to help build a successful business.
Council the first.
Availability of competent financial plan is the key to success in building a profitable small business. The more detailed your financial plan is, the easier it will be for you to start and run your business. Of course, a good, strong financial plan is not born in a vacuum. He is aided by meticulous preparation. Special attention when developing a financial plan, it is worth paying attention to the need for funds needed to start your business, try to take into account as much as possible how much and when you need funds to start a business. And also clearly know and be sure of their sources. If this own funds, then it's easier here, you already have them. It will be more difficult with the attracted funds. Here it is important that there be a competent coordination in time. Otherwise, there may be a gap in funding, which can lead to a disruption in the process of organizing and starting a business.
Tip two.
It would be a good idea to have the help of a so-called mentor, someone who is an expert in the business you are part of. It can also be your friend or acquaintance who is already in business, and can tell you the nuances that you may encounter during the development of your business. The benefit here, of course, is that you can avoid any of the mistakes that these people have already experienced. Naturally, this will save you both time and money.
Tip three.
Don't skimp on staff. At the stage of starting a business, an entrepreneur faces many different nuances. This and professional knowledge, features of legislation, technological features business, etc. Moreover, the stage of starting a business is very stressful in terms of physical and moral, there are a lot of works that are single or one-time, but require exceptional performance, and if they are performed poorly immediately, then in the future they will make themselves felt and very expensive to let you know. And as a rule, when starting a business, an entrepreneur tries to reduce initial costs, naturally saving on staff and specialists. Sometimes he decides that he himself will be able to do this or that work because he himself is a highly qualified specialist. However, during the launch of a business, he is faced with such a physical and moral burden, because he needs to keep everything under control, so he simply does not physically have time to do some secondary work intended for execution by an outside specialist. Naturally, this will lead to failure or will cause an increase in the start-up time of the business.
Council the fourth.
Take care of yourself. When starting a new business, you have a huge burden, both physical and moral. It is necessary to remember this. Start own business can really change your life. It is good that your loved ones know and understand this, and you could find support in them. It often happens that relatives do not understand this, and it seems that a person created his own business, became successful and became more prosperous, but on the family front, on the contrary, he failed. Therefore, remember that when starting your own business, you must take care of your strengths and, first of all, moral ones.
Tip five.
Well last tip, he is the most important - organize a business in the area that you like the most, in which you really understand and you like to do it. This will allow you to start your business faster. This will contribute to your greater motivation during the formation of the business. This will keep you on the right track.
Of course, doing business is fraught with many pitfalls. There are many failures at the initial stage of development. I hope the tips here will help you on your way to building your successful business.

New entrepreneurs often run into problems. Due to their inexperience, fear of problems and difficult situations, they make banal, one might even say that standard, mistakes. After talking to dozens of different entrepreneurs who started, or still work, in the field of Internet commerce, we have tried to highlight 9 main recommendations that can help any aspiring online entrepreneur.
They say that you need to learn from mistakes, but let them not be your mistakes. Believe me, even the most successful, most famous businessmen in their lives got into very difficult situations, and did not always find the right solution to get out of them. But, they all learned a good lesson, received knowledge, which we will share with you today.
So, tips from practitioners and 9 recommendations for aspiring online entrepreneurs.

Those of you who have read our article "Tips for Beginning Businessmen" may have noticed that there was a similar paragraph in it. The start of any business, whether online or offline, is preceded by a good, clear and detailed business plan.
Many startups believe that a business plan is a waste of time, that if the project is excellent, promising, then it will “shoot” without any planning. A large number of startups never start to work normally precisely because the founders neglected planning, and at some point I don’t know at all how to behave, what to do, where to go.

A business should be profitable, and if for a long time the profit does not cover the costs, then you need to think about the fact that something is not going right. And it is best when drawing up a business plan to calculate all the pros, cons and risks that may appear in the process of project development.
Also, don't forget about yourself. Of course, you can sit on a starvation ration for some time, deny yourself a salary for the benefit of the company's development, but you won't last long. Over time, motivation will begin to fall and you will abandon the business.

Don't take on more than you can handle in a short time. Do not come up with a brilliant plan to force Apple out of the market, while filling their multi-billion dollar niche. Believe me, even the most interesting and ingenious idea, in your opinion, cannot always be embodied in good startup. What you and your team like is not necessarily what everyone else likes.
Before entering the market, you need to do a serious job of studying the demand, the competitiveness of the niche, the forecasts and prospects of the industry, study the activities of competitors and understand what problems they face, and prepare yourself for possible difficulties.

Whatever the prospective and interesting idea, but it's worthless if you don't understand how to implement it. If you can't make sharp, firm, balanced decisions about the course of action and the future of the company, then no amount of money will help.

In the last article “How to Attract an Investor”, we already talked about the fact that you should not be afraid of competition. If it exists, then the niche is interesting, someone works and earns in it. Thus, you have the opportunity to earn your money. Much worse if there is no competition. Here it is worth alerting and analyzing why this is happening.
But back to the advice itself - evaluate the competition. See if the market is overflowing with supply (as it is now with plastic windows and doors), see how your competitors work, what methods they use, how they attract customers. Be sure to pay attention to their sites, attendance, traffic sources. You need to study competitors in detail and present your products much better.

To implement a promising and large project, you need a good, motivated, purposeful, and most importantly, an experienced team. Involve only those who already have work experience. Understand, there is no time to teach someone, to try something, to test, to make mistakes on trifles. It is necessary to take and work today, and tomorrow to receive the first profit. This is possible only if there are good and professional personnel.
If you are all amateurs, or key features performed by those who have never encountered this, then in 95% of cases there will be a failure.

Good startups, as a rule, receive certain sums for development. It can be money from investors, or it can be collected by the founders of the project themselves. But it doesn’t matter who, how and under what conditions agrees to invest in a startup. What is more important is how to manage this money. You must calculate all the costs, all the risks, understand what, how and when you will do with the money. Very often, young entrepreneurs spend start-up capital on completely unnecessary things - expensive advertising, the work of PR people, some specialists, etc., while not understanding at all what they want to see as a result of such work.
Try not to invest large amounts until the project starts to bring at least a small, but profit.

Not a single startup will reach the proper level without good advertising. And if we're talking about online business, then advertising is simply necessary. Be sure to think of different ways, use search engines and , use all possibilities social networks, affiliate and banner advertising on other sites. But do everything wisely, study each advertising platform in detail and calculate the potential benefits from cooperation with them.

Know how to wait for your finest hour. There is one wonderful Chinese proverb that captures the essence of most modern startups:
"The temptation to give up is especially great when there is a step to victory"
And in fact, the reason for the closure of most startups is not bankruptcy, not the departure of a key person from the team, but apathy. People stop believing in themselves, their strengths, their abilities, and give up. Perhaps they had one more step to take and everyone would start talking about their project. But no, they give up and leave sadly hanging their noses.

I will give you one piece of advice, always remember. He was 30 years old when the board of directors kicked Steve out of the company he created. He himself admitted that he did not want to do anything, that he did not believe in himself, but gathered his thoughts, and ... and then you know what happened. About Apple and Pixar - the companies that he created - are known all over the world. Of course, the example is not perfect, but it shows that even in the most difficult situation, a way out can be found.
In general, we advise you to read our section in which you will find the best thoughts about money, business, success, aspiration from the most famous and successful people in the world. Pay special attention to the thoughts of Steve Jobs and other successful businessmen who made their billions on high technologies.

In this post, I want to review the most common beginner entrepreneurs mistakes and give some advice on how to avoid them and not repeat the bitter experience of others. I think that this topic is quite important, because, as the statistics say, not everyone who decides to do their own thing succeeds.

Many of them leave entrepreneurship and return to, having received not only negative experience, but also financial losses. Often the fault is just those errors, which will be discussed later.

So, I will describe the main mistakes and allow myself to give some useful ones. tips for budding entrepreneurs on how to avoid them.

Error 1. Focusing on the success of others without regard to details. Very often, a novice entrepreneur makes a decision under the impression of the results of the work of someone else. These can be some success stories read on the Internet or books, or personal observations of the development of a business project in your city or on the Internet.

Of course, the positive experience of other people can serve as a good help and motivation for a novice entrepreneur. But the problem is that in most cases he sees only the “tip of the iceberg” and does not know how things are in reality: what difficulties the now successful businessman had to face and how he overcame them. Very often it may turn out that success in business depended on some subjective factors that were inherent in successful businessman and which a novice entrepreneur does not have.

A banal example: a novice entrepreneur sees how a certain store is successfully developing, opens his own similar one, but immediately “falls” under a bunch of inspections by regulatory authorities, which find a lot of violations and literally do not let them work, and even issue huge fines. In fact, it turns out that the owner of the store, taken as an example, is the son of a high-ranking official, so they don’t “touch” him, and he himself sent all these checks to eliminate a competitor.

Advice: if you decide to build a business on someone else's example, you need to carefully study all of its “underground”, not only visible, but also hidden, and even then draw a conclusion whether you can repeat such success.

Error 2. Desire to make money by selling a business idea. Another common mistake entrepreneurs make is believing they've come up with some super-profitable business idea that the world's richest investors have to literally fight over. A novice entrepreneur tries, but it turns out that those who are able to invest in his idea do not even take him seriously.

In fact, selling a business idea to an investor is one of the myths that aspiring entrepreneurs believe. In fact, there are many resources on the Internet filled with business ideas and even ready-made business plans access to which is absolutely free. Question: why should an investor buy something that can be easily found for free, and quite possibly even in the best possible way?

Tip: If you want to make money selling a business idea, you need to start putting it into practice, even in small volumes, so that the actual, not the predicted result from its implementation is already visible. This is one of the most important conditions for (you can read about the rest at the link). Yes, at the same time you will have to risk your money - there is no other way. Even if you yourself are not ready for this, then the investor is even more so.

Error 3. Perfectionism. Very often, a novice entrepreneur strives to create an ideal business, which is basically impossible. Now literally every business will necessarily have its shortcomings and vulnerabilities. Therefore, waiting for the perfect opportunity to open a business, a novice businessman, at a minimum, will lose a huge amount of time and money. potential profit and most likely will never open it at all. Meanwhile, non-perfect competitors will take over the market and make money.

Tip: Aspiring entrepreneurs do not need to strive for perfection, perfectionism is their worst enemy. If you want to develop the perfect business idea, find the perfect environment, the perfect time to start a business, chances are you will never start your own business. Therefore, open not an ideal, but a profitable business.

Error 4. The desire to snatch as much as possible. Of course, in most cases, a novice entrepreneur opens a business primarily to make money. This is normal, and there is nothing wrong with it, the main goal of a business is to make a profit. But the mistake here is when a novice businessman does not think about anything else but money, money literally overshadows his eyes and turns off his brain.

The thing is, what happens when a business, as they say, “gets into the flow” and brings good income that once could only be dreamed of. A novice entrepreneur rejoices in this and "baths in money." However, such a phenomenon is almost always of a short-term nature, the trend may soon change, and the business will turn from super-profitable into super-unprofitable. And all because a novice entrepreneur, making mistakes, did not think about developing his business, did not invest money in it, but used all the profits for personal needs.

Tip: A business whose main goal is to “squeeze” as much profit out of it as possible will never last. If you want your business not to be focused on a one-time profit, but to become a source of constant cash flow- you also need to constantly take care of its development, investing labor, time and, of course, capital.

Error 5. Mixing business and friendship. It often happens that a novice entrepreneur, not knowing how to say “no”, takes on a job (or even worse - as a partner) some friend, relative, relative of a friend, etc., who, in fact, is completely unsuitable for this role. In the future, he is forced to constantly face the problems that he creates, to suffer losses from this, because he feels obliged to this person and cannot say goodbye to him, so as not to lose a friend.

Tip: There is a saying: "Friendship based on business is better than business based on friendship." A novice entrepreneur must understand this, and share the business with friendship, so as not to lose both in the end.

Error 6 . Opening a business without prior market analysis. Another important and common mistake of novice entrepreneurs is that they introduce their business idea to the market without conducting preliminary research and not knowing if the market needs it? That is, they are confident in what is needed, but this is only their self-confidence and nothing more.

It also often happens that one business idea can be very much in demand in one place, but absolutely not in demand in another. All this, of course, leads the novice businessman to losses.

Some believe that market research is a waste of money, which is not enough to start a business, and here, in fact, they go nowhere at all. This is the deepest delusion. Look at the world's most successful companies - they regularly spend on marketing research simply colossal sums, millions and billions of dollars, and therefore they always know exactly what their consumer needs, and strive to satisfy his needs as much as possible. Don't you think that this is most of the secret to their success?

Tip: before you open your business, be sure to research the market to find out how much it is in demand, and whether it is in demand at all. Moreover, with a small scale business, it is easy to do it yourself and even at virtually no cost. For example, by conducting surveys on social networks.

Error 7. Overconfidence. A novice entrepreneur is sometimes too self-confident, believing that his business idea has no equal, and its implementation will be successful. A positive attitude is one thing, but excessive self-confidence and, as a result, a loss of vigilance on this basis, is already another.

Something absolutely new, in demand, can only be created by a few out of millions. If what you have in mind is not yet on the market - maybe it's not because no one else had guessed it before, but because it is not in demand, and previous attempts to introduce a similar product to the market ended in failure?

Tip: Never, under any circumstances, in business, you should not be overly self-confident and lose your vigilance. Perhaps your competitors are just waiting for this to force you out of the market - do not give them such an opportunity. If you are not able to objectively evaluate your actions and opportunities on your own (sometimes it is really difficult), ask other people to do this. If their opinion differs from yours, perhaps there is reason to think.

Error 8. Don't take on multiple tasks at the same time. The well-known saying “If you chase two hares, you won’t catch one” can be fully applied to starting a business. Very often, a novice entrepreneur tries himself in different areas at once, as a result, he fails to develop any of them well.

On the one hand, this is always a plus. But, on the other hand, business is a business that requires, in addition to investing capital, large investments of labor and time. And one person simply physically cannot simultaneously use his labor and time in several business areas at once.

If you want to open a business in several directions at once, then do not start all these directions at the same time. It is better to first bring at least one thing to a level that will allow you to devote less time and work to it, and only after that switch part of your attention to the second thing, and so on. This will be much more efficient.

Error 9. Forget about clients. I have already written more than once, and I will repeat again that one of the main success factors in business, without which it is unlikely that it will be possible to open a business at all, is a client-oriented approach. That is, first of all, a novice businessman should think about the interests of his clients and how he can satisfy them.

However, it often happens that at some stage in the development of a business, when profits are already starting to come in, the entrepreneur forgets about customers, stops paying special attention to them, thinking that they already exist, and then “and so it will go.” This is a huge mistake that can easily lead to ruin.

Tip: Under no circumstances should you forget about the interests of customers and stop focusing your business on them, even if you already have a million of these customers. As soon as the consumers of your products and services feel that your product no longer satisfies their interests in at least one important criterion, you will begin a downward trend, which can be very difficult to stop.

Error 10. No specific target audience. Very often, a novice entrepreneur opens a business without a clear idea of ​​who he is focused on. He can reason something like “the more customers there are, the better.” This is very serious mistake, because in this case there will be, on the contrary, not more customers, but fewer, perhaps - in general, critically few.

Tip: Any business should be focused on a specific target audience otherwise, who is it for? No audience, no business.

Here they are - typical mistakes aspiring entrepreneurs and advice on how to eliminate them. You must understand that all of the above is the result of the negative experience of a huge number of novice businessmen, which cost them huge financial losses. In business, as in any business, it is better to learn from the mistakes of others than from your own. So take this information seriously and take note.

The site is a lot of useful and up-to-date information about different ways of earning and investing, competent management of personal finances and family budget. Join the number of our regular readers and improve your financial literacy. See you soon!