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The most important job description of a business leader is execution- moving the vision from idea to reality. Being able to separate the right actions from the wrong ones may be the difference between the success and failure of an executive. Some actions have a huge negative impact that small businesses are unable to recover from. A good business leader should take note of them and keenly avoid them. The following are 12 things you should never do as a startup founder:
1) Never see your business as too small. Big businesses are products of big attention paid to small ideas. How you see your business determines how far you are willing to go with it. A casual attitude toward business will birth a business with a casual outlook. If you don't magnify your business, no one else will.
2) Don't hire based on sentiments. Employment based on pity or personal interest and not requisite skills is like loading the ship with the wrong stuff. One wrong person on a ship may provide the little leak that will sink it.
3) Never mix up business money with your private money. The absence of financial boundaries is the foundation for most financial indiscretions that often wreck businesses. Determine a realistic and specific monthly salary for yourself. An amount that defines the limit of your financial access to business funds to satisfy personal needs.
4) Do not surround yourself with employees you are smarter than. When all that you know is not enough, there will be none to take the lead. When you don't have the answers, the business stagnates or slides into dangerous errors. Never forget that a business is as good as its people.
5) Never value profit over people. Good profit in itself doesn't make a great company. Profit brings nothing but extra cash, and profit alone doesn't define a healthy business. A great brand is a business that is improving the lives of the people who interact with its products. A business is judged as a healthy business if it has both happy customers and happy staff. The key to thriving in business is placing more value on people than profit.
6) Don't venture into a business you don't fully understand. Great decisions that lead to great success are informed by an in-depth awareness of market dynamics. Success depends on understanding. Any business that is built on ambiguity will fail.
7) Never make important business decisions unless you have all the important facts. In the absence of facts, assumptions become the only option. A decision made based on assumptions is at best guesswork. Assumptions are risky to run with. The premise may be heavily flawed, leading to negative outcomes that could severely hurt the business.
8) Do not displease your staff to please your customers. The customer, as valuable as he may be, cannot replace the staff. The customer brings the money, but the staff brings the value that brings and keeps the customer. They are both critical to the achievement of success. The staff is consistently deserving of the same level of respect accorded to the customer. An unhappy staff will eventually hurt and repel a happy customer.
9) Never let what is important be at the mercy of what is minor. Activities do not have the same impact on business success. Always place priority on activities that have the potential to fetch you the desired numbers over the ones that do not.
10) Do not employ someone who is not hungry for results. The journey will not be exciting for him so he will most likely not give his best. He will make excuses for failure and will lack the enthusiasm needed to surmount mountains to succeed.
11) Never make the competitor your priority. Focus on meeting the needs of customers, and you will not need to dissipate your energy on winning the competition war. Be rest assured that customers are not blind; they know who is out to make dollars and the one out to make a difference in their lives and will take their money there.
12) Do not give a minor budget to the marketing of your product or services. The best products are not automatic market winners. Some less impressive products or services often record far more success than the best ones. It is the amount of effort, creativity, and funds spent on promoting a product that drives market performance.
13) Never stop taking risks. Do not let past experiences quench your appetite for risk-taking. Entrepreneurship is about creating wealth and other economic opportunities by taking a chance on an idea whose outcome is not certain. It's alright if it fails, but if it doesn't, you learn your lessons and move on to the next big idea. Someday, one will pay off. No risk, no gain. Taking calculated risks is part of the entrepreneurial journey.
The above list is not comprehensive, but it is, however, a pointer to certain actions you must avoid for your business to escape stagnation or outright liquidation. Paying attention to them will not only keep your business safe but will also place it on solid ground to succeed.
